OgreMkV
Posts: 3668
Joined: Oct. 2009
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Speaking as a teacher, I have noticed a definite trend within the schools I taught at.
There is a (for lack of a better word) divide forming. On one side you've got a small group of students with some real knowledge, skills, and potentional in regards to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). On the other side, there is a large number of students for whom STEM is out of reach.
By "out of reach" I mean, the students don't have the knowledge and skills that they should have for the course or grade they are in.* They also don't have any interest in STEM because of a variety of factors, but many come from previous instruction by poor quality teachers.
Of course, socio-economic issues are a big part of this as well (though they can afford $250 Nike shoes and 3 X-boxes, but they are still on the school lunch program).
Unfortunately, because everything in our future revolves around science, these kids (who will grow up to be a large block of voters) will not understand the issues or how to deal with them.
In that regard, I think that, yes, we are losing the battle for science.
* My favorite example was a student who had been placed in Chemistry I who was in his third year of developmental math (i.e. not yet up to 8th grade math level).
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