Check out this out.
ScienceInsider recently interviewed Presidential science adviser John Holdren. In the interview, Holdren put forth clear positions on several issues facing the Obama Administration, including the teaching of REAL science in US public schools.
The first relevant question was about whether the skeptical view of evolution found in the Texas science standards will weaken efforts to improve science education in the United States.
ScienceInsider: Staying with education, do you think that the Texas state school board's recent decision to add a skeptical view of the study of evolution and the fossil record weaken the state's science standards and weaken national efforts to improve science education?
Holdren: Well, I have not reviewed that decision carefully. But my impression from reading about it is that it was not a step forward but rather a step backward. Of course, all science needs to be skeptical. It's hard to be against skepticism. But when you get into the domain of promoting particular views about the basis for skepticism of evolution, and those views are not really valid, then I think we have a problem. I think we need to be giving our kids a modern education in biology, and the underpinning of modern biology is evolution. And countervailing views that are not really science, if they are taught at all, should be taught in some other part of the curriculum.
Holdren: Well, I have not reviewed that decision carefully. But my impression from reading about it is that it was not a step forward but rather a step backward. Of course, all science needs to be skeptical. It's hard to be against skepticism. But when you get into the domain of promoting particular views about the basis for skepticism of evolution, and those views are not really valid, then I think we have a problem. I think we need to be giving our kids a modern education in biology, and the underpinning of modern biology is evolution. And countervailing views that are not really science, if they are taught at all, should be taught in some other part of the curriculum.
"The underpinning of modern biology is evolution"
Wow! When I first read that, I honestly had to read it again to make sure I got it right. It's great to hear this kind of straightforward talk about science education from someone with influence in Washington.
Holdren's answer to the follow-up question was also quite interesting.
ScienceInsider: Is there anything you can do?
Holdren: I'm not aware of any leverage we have, at OSTP or within the federal government, over the science curriculum in Texas, other than exhortation. We can argue and we can beg and we can try to educate. But we have no authority to act.
Holdren: I'm not aware of any leverage we have, at OSTP or within the federal government, over the science curriculum in Texas, other than exhortation. We can argue and we can beg and we can try to educate. But we have no authority to act.
"We can argue and we can beg and we can try to educate."
Those are all reasonable courses of action to take in this situation. I have an additional idea:
We can vocally demand that textbook publishers refuse to water-down their coverage of REAL science, regardless of the pressure they are likely to receive from the Young Earth Creationists on the Texas State Board of Education. We must implore them to put the interests of future science students across the country ahead of their own profit margins.
Ultimately, it's going to be the publishers who will make that decision, not the textbook authors. Something tells me that people like Ken Miller and Joe Levine are not going to be giving any ground on this one.
A tip of the hat goes to the NCSE for linking to the interview.
posted by Jeremy Mohn
