A Challenge to NABT

Abstract

Biology teachers need helplots of help-and they need it now. Whether they are high school teachers or college teachers, they seem fated never to catch up. While they are engaged in ministering to the needs of a whole range of students, the very subject they teach is exploding under them. Old yellow notes and lesson plans will not do when one of the greatest revolutions in human history is in progress. Teachers must be abreast of these changes or fail in their professional responsibilities. It is a heavy assignment. Teachers must convey the excitement of science to their students, but to do so they must experience it first. They must convey an appreciation of science as a human activity, what it can do and what it can not. Their students must understand how science is pursued by real flesh-andblood human beings. The students, as citizens, must understand the complex synergism between science as an enterprise and society in general. To meet this challenge, teachers must participate intellectually, even if vicariously, in the explosion of discovery in biology. Teachers must see the scientific discoveries of today and tomorrow in perspective, and in order to do this they must form their opinions and assessments on a solid basis of fact. They must keep abreast of the changing events and synthesize them into a whole. They can not in good conscience leave the synthesis to special interest, oneissue zealots, polemicists, and sensationalists who are delighted to take over. It is not easy. The teachers who began their study of genetics when human beings had 48 chromosomes, when genes were proteins, and bacteria never engaged in sexual intercourse had to learn virtually all the genetics they teach after their formal degree programs ended. Many have done this well and have experienced the thrill of discovery in the doing, but it is an unending responsibility made more difficult by the increasing demands placed upon teachers and the proliferation of discovery with all its attendant social implications. NABT has a special mission to help the conscientious teacher keep up. This may well be NABT's finest reason for being, an endeavor that can make it indispensible to teachers of biology and worthy of the respect of the scientific community. For one thing, the association can enlist the support of active researchers and thinkers at the forefront of our scientific endeavor. The special insights and perspectives of these people are especially needed. It is asking a lot to ask people in hot pursuit of a scientific breakthrough to take time to communicate what they are doing to others, but a healthy scientific enterprise and a healthy educational endeavor require it. Fortunately, some of the busiest and wisest and most prescient are willing to give generously of their energies as a civic responsibility. These people make costly sacrifices of time and effort to help the teachers of today educate the scientists and citizens of tomorrow and we are grateful for their handsome contribution. A special feature of the NABT convention at Purdue this year will be a program of Instant Updates in which leaders in various field of biology will provide what the name impliesinstant update. A special issue of ABT is now being prepared for the fall, bringing word of the discoveries in progress in the fastbreaking field of Genetic Engineering. That issue and others like it signal the intent of NABT and its voice, The American Biology Teacher, to do more than view with alarm what is called the crisis in science education. NABT must accept its role as leader in the effort to make teachers part of the biology at the forefront of discovery. It would be hard to imagine a more important role for the society or one more likely to guarantee the association continued existence in good health.