Whenever creationism is brought up in conversation in college, I hear it being used either to make fun of some people’s ignorance, or as the epitome of crazy ideas. Yet, two in every five Americans continue to believe that the Earth is only thousands of years old, that dinosaurs lived alongside humans (or never existed – the fossils are dummies planted by God), and that the theory of evolution is built on shaky ground, ready to crumble at the slightest nudge by their absolute, inerrant holy book.
A recent study from Penn State paints a bleaker picture of what the future holds for Americans’ understanding of our origins. Thirteen percent, the study found, was the percentage of high school teachers who put forward creationism or intelligent design (a version of creationism that avoids using the word ‘God’, meant to sidestep the separation of church and state) in their classes as an alternative to evolution. More worryingly, though, were the 60 percent who equivocate and take no stand in the classroom to avoid controversy. Instead of explicitly stating the truth – that evolution happened, and creationism is completely, utterly wrong – they dodge the obvious and instead present evolution as a set of details and words to memorize, without ever telling students it is representative of life’s actual, natural history.
Such statistics show the sorry state of the American high school science education. As students continue to go through their school years being exposed to science as a collection of facts, instead of what it truly is – a method, an enterprise and a way of knowing – America is generating citizens who are educated, yet ignorant. It is churning out citizens who are ready to vacillate between sides of issues at the slightest media allusions to “controversy”. Americans love their controversial debates like they love their football games; with two sides, trying to outperform each other to gain victory.
The problem is that science does not work that way – and the poor state of education means that most Americans do not know this. They see scientific issues as no different from political ones, and in a uniquely American way, the two are often as intertwined as ever. Take the issue of climate change. As a science, it is as settled that human activity can impact the climate as that the moon causes the tides. Yet, think-tanks and politicians continue to babble and debate whether climate change is a ‘scam’ or an ‘environmentalist plot’, as if facts about the natural world can be decided through words (as I am sure will happen again in the comment section online).
What should be done, then, is fairly obvious. Americans need to know science – not through the lens of the media, nor through the conception of science-fiction producers. The key lies in the hands of universities and other institutes of higher education. Within their borders is where leaders and teachers are made. We need politicians and teachers who can take a stand and citizens who do not refuse to understand. To do this, science needs to be taught to everyone, not just science or engineering majors.
Science needs to be taught, not as a list of important facts, but as a
method and world view instead. Science education should convey the
hallmarks of science: its rigor, emphasis on evidence, and
the fact that it is impervious to opinion. Of course, this should be illustrated through scientific topics that the media often portray as controversial – such as evolution. Only then might we stop hearing about teachers who tell students not to worry about conserving energy since climate change is a lie, or a speaker of the House who thinks teaching creationism in schools is a fine idea.
America leads other developed nations in many things, including the rejection of scientific consensus on evolution and climate change. As far as evidence is concerned, though, most ‘controversial theories’ in science, such as evolution, climate change or the Big Bang model are matters of fact. Yet, this simple fact eludes the minds of most Americans, and a stronger science education in colleges may be able to fix this problem. If there is something in which the United States should not want to be ahead of other nations, it should be their citizens’ scientific ignorance. This must change if it is to keep its pride in what it has been: the world leader of discovery and a nation at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of knowledge and human imagination.
Albert Budhipramono ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in biology.
