Saturday, December 6, 2008

A National Standard for Science Education

Here's a suggestion I ran across ar Change.Org:

"National standards on the teaching of Evolution and the origins of life, decided on and created by top scientists from significant scientific organizations, should direct curricula of all schools nationwide, overriding any state laws on the subjects."

This is especially important to me: I live in Alabama, I was homeschooled for most of my life (recieving a very poor education in evolution from the Christian textbooks my mother bought) and then going to a public high school where evolution was simply not taught. Kids need to learn about evolution because it simplifies and unites so many facts, because they will use it if they decide to take up a career in life science, and because it is true.

Here is a comment from the site I thought was worth preserving:

"... decided on and created by top scientists from significant scientific organizations" is the paramount statement in this idea. Far too often I hear of state education boards being composed of people unqualified to direct actual information. It becomes a farcical circus of ideologies while the future of this nation suffers by not learning facts. Some states are doing okay, but others are actively seeking a return to the Dark Ages. A Federal board of *qualified* members setting a National Curriculum is, at the moment, the only way to reset American standards and return to a competitive stance with the rest of the world.
-User Evan Kelley

1 comment:

Raytheist said...

Thank you! I've long wanted to see a national curriculum in science education.