I Could Use the Help
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I Could Use the Help Paul K. Bryant in a separate world from those "learning Do we hafta know this? When am Igonna use this, anyway? This is sooooo BOR1NG! science." We are used to seeing the end products of research while not underSound familiar? If not, close your eyes standing the processes used to develop and take a trip down memory lanc.the them. In doing so we hâve turned the high school class you thought would never learning of science into the learning of sciend...a time when summer was ail that ence facts. Technology has advanced but mattered even if it was an eternity away. left society behind. Many of us hâve lost Those utterances probably came from your the sensé of what science is, and researchlips ail too often, opening shots in the daily ers hâve become more and more distant skirmish of school. For those of us in the from the society supporting them. teaching profession, this is a daily battle. But perhaps I'm writing to the wrong Science is not a set of data, or a list of audience. Readers of this article are probafundamental laws. Science is a conceptual bly successful professionals. But ask your- construction. It is a way of perceiving the self, "Did I make it because of school - or in world and trying to make sensé of it. Kids spiteofit?" are one place true science is found. They are al way s asking "Why?" and "How Well, a few moments of reflection might corne?" But we as a society hâve allowed a be enough to convince you that some rift to develop which puts off that natural things never change. School is taught curiosiry and even turns it into distaste. much as it was when you and I were plowing through the geometry proofs (rememSo why am I railing about this in the ber your postulâtes?). MRS Bulletin, you ask. Because I suspect the answer to thèse problems lies in the But if you return from the past and look hearts of the very ones who hâve sucat the world today you realize many things ceeded, despite the odds against them. I do change. The kids you see today are not also sensé from my friends and contacts in the same as you and I were. Their expériresearch situations that the struggle ences are différent and the fundamental doesn't end once you're out of school. concepts they assimilate are not the same. Hâve you ever found yourself questioning Their exposure to the world, it seems, is your choice of career or field of study? somehow much more intense. .Could it be that schools aren't keeping Our schools are set up on the same up? Or is industry leaving schools behind? model as many factory Unes. A child's day is broken into set periods of time, and he or Few people today are willing to say she moves from task to task in a set order schools are doing a great job. Récent national studies paint a grim picture, and in- every day. After a certain amount of material is "covered," it is set aside and the next deed the idea of school reform, particularly set of tasks is brought in. But a wealth of in the sciences, has corne to the polirical research tells us that people don't learn forefront. Witness
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