From Arthur Caplan: Some of our leaders [in the U.S.] know that the continuing drop in scientific skills...

From Arthur Caplan: Some of our leaders [in the U.S.] know that the continuing drop in scientific skills spells disaster for our economic future. The U.S. performance on the 2012 PISA [Program for International Student Assessment] is “a picture of educational stagnation,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “This is a reality at odds with our aspiration to have the best-educated, most competitive work force in the world.” No doubt our education system carries some of the blame for our continued slippage relative to the rest of the world in science. But if we continue to think that poor schools and bad teaching are the only causes, we are surely missing the forest for the trees. A key reason for the poor performance of our children with respect to science is that American culture is both ignorant of and disrespectful to science....[After some choice examples:] The point ought to be clear. Children are not going to flourish at science in a society that treats science either as something you can believe in selectively, something that is simply one point of view, or something about which anyone can have a credible opinion no matter how ill-qualified, dumb, or misinformed. If we want to have a brighter economic future, then we need to start thinking about science education outside of our schools. We need editors who refuse to put fringe points of view on the air. We need scientists who see it as their duty to engage broader audiences —not just their peers— about their work. We need the training of scholars in the public understanding of science so that more voices are heard respecting science and the scientific method.... http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/01/07/distinguishing-science-from-nonsense/ Comment: Hear, hear. Three quick additions: (1) don't underestimate the role of ignorant and anti-intellectual elected officials, (2) don't underestimate the role of deliberate deception in political lobbying and mass-media advertising, and (3) don't think that "our economic future" is the only value at stake. PS. I wrote about some of these issues in Discovery, Rediscovery, and Open Access, Part 2 (September 2010). Part 2 contains a link to Part 1 for those who may be interested. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4738924 #ignorance, #deception , #fud , #agnotology , #decline

As Americans enter 2014, there is grave concern among our political leaders that we are lagging behind other nations in terms of our children's scientific literacy. An international survey confirmed in December that many American kids don't understand science, and that they continue to fall ...