Post Apocalypse Blogging...

Image Credit: Eric Weinstein

I'm watching the CNN special "Don't Fail Me." It would appear the demise of the earth was greatly exaggerated!

The statistics about our educational prowess in math and science are abysmal, but strangely none of what I've heard agree:

CNN: 17^th in math; 25^th in science
Connect a Million Minds: 25^th in math; 39^th in science

This comes at a poignant time as I finish The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, by Dr. Diane Ravitch.

I had an interesting exchange (that I did not expect) with someone that read my post in April: "Well...it explains a lot on the classroom..." From a comment, to which I reply (and, I hope the poster answers): what is the "true purpose" of education?

I've been molded by words I've read, heard or performed in spoken word recitals: from Dr. Suess's "Green Eggs and Ham," recognizing the word "and" at the age of three -- before that, words were "bugs" that crawled over the pages my mother flipped as she read them to me.

I don't think we should ignore the power of literature, history, social studies for PURELY science and math. I think all subjects provide a balance and produce well-rounded people. I remember passing a test on Norse Mythology on what I'd read in the Marvel comic book Thor. My take is kids don't read as much for pleasure with the advent of technological distractions: cell phones/IPODs/IPADs, etc.

George Jetson's job description was "digital index operator": he pushed a button for one hour a week, a job he complained mightily about. An incredulous quote I remember: "boy, these three-hour weeks are killing me!" Yet, in his fantasy world he seemed to make a lot of money, or at least enough to support a nuclear family. But that's just it: George is fantasy, and so is his 1-or-3 hour work week. No job that requires dedication to master will be easy, but the work will be rewarding. Because of the ease of information access, we're becoming "digital index operators" without a Spacely's Sprockets to work one to three hours for.

The "Real Apocalype"

100% of US children are to be proficient in reading and math by 2014 in accordance with No Child Left Behind. That is beyond utopian, since "proficiency" is being measured by 50 yardsticks! Campbell's Law, sometimes referred to as "Heisenburg," speaks of corruption to any high stakes testing process: if a school and its teachers are being assessed by a high stakes test, said school will spend a lot of time in "test prep" activities and little in "true education." Since proficient is up to the individual states, what is proficient for a particular state may not measure up to national or international measurements. Caveat emptor.

Like Dr. Tyson (plan to visit him while I'm up here), I think as a nation we need an APPRECIATION for science, a general understanding of research and the Scientific Method.

Any information today is politicized such that we chaff at anything labled "theory" as invalid, and question it in comparison to areas that claim to be "factual" beyond rigor or question.

Science and math, once problem-solving skills are developed and mastered, foster a way of thinking that leads to the ability to make wise decisions about one's life in and out of science. For that benefit, I think it's worth the investment.