Science education

Little kids are fascinated by science. And most people who graduate from secondary education are science haters. We've obviously done something wrong.

So says Philip Kitcher, here.  He continues:

Instead of lumbering throughout years and years of school of memorisation of all sorts of amino acids, we should let the people who know by the age of 14 that they are not going to go into science to have a completely different kind of scientific education. 

One that brings home to them things about how scientific breakthroughs have occurred, the fascination of scientific discovery, we should get them to understand how evidence is assembled, how scientific creativity works, and make them literate, to read scientific articles written for the public in ways that they can carry forward throughout their lives.

As Mulan and Miya get older, I am beginning to wonder more and more about how to approach their science education.  I think it makes sense to focus more on the general scientific literacy aspect of it -- the history of science, scientific methodology, science culture, etc.  A bit more storytelling, and a bit more open problem solving, perhaps.

Kitcher says he is writing a book on this issue at the moment.  It should be interesting.  I'll look for it when it comes out.

(I also agree with a lot of what Kitcher says elsewhere in the above-linked interview.  In particular, I think he is spot on in his assessment of Richard Dawkins.  Also, I have just ordered from the library Kitcher's book on climate change, which is mentioned in the interview.)