Aid to Science Education: An Editorial

Abstract

PERSPECTIVES IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Volume I · Number 3 * Spring 1938 AID TO SCIENCE EDUCATION AN EDITORIAL The mobilization of our educative resources now demanded by the public and our national leaders could be accelerated almost immediately by retired able scientists and teachers. Some scientists in universities, government , and industry at and beyond a fixed retirement age are great teachers who can offer much to young men and woman, especially in schools that are now sterile. Our government and private foundations could aid science education by establishing well-paying fellowships for those who would like to teach in secondary schools and colleges of their choice. The school administrators and scientists would arrangethe details ofagreement among themselves. Some scientists find new careers when they retire from tenure positions, but only rarely do these moves bring them into the company ofstudents. The opportunity to work with gifted young minds should be linked with adequate financial rewards. Science education will be far more efficient if we concentrate upon the quality of the teacher, the quality of the student, and the natural appeal of science itself. Most science courses in preparatory schools and colleges are depressingly dull. Poor ability and poor preparation of the average teacher are factors, but they are seldom the sole ones. His aim ofobjectivity makes the average scientist and teacher exclude the exciting qualities of science and equate science with quantitative measurement and data. What scientists now communicate to one another is more and more the kind of symbolism that can be coded into an IBM machine or electronic computer . No doubt, information that is subject to precise formulation will 235 be relegated to machines. But the teaching of science to young men and women and the communication ofideas among scientists should keep all the beauty and excitement of inquiry. The advantage of letting a senior statesman in science choose his teaching methods should be recognized by school administrators. The greatest teachers the world has known spoke simply and directly to and with their students about ideas. This and other aids should be applied in all fields ofscience toward support ofa strong, balanced educational program. Our public and state concern over the needs ofeducation is closely linked with the technology of weaponry. The drives and pressures to deal with this critical problem are likely to be effective if sufficient time remains. But what about those natural and social sciences which hope to serve humanity? Ifthere is a way to avoid war, it is a positive approach to peace, and this will require the best that can be had from the physical sciences, the life-sciences, the social and political sciences, and the humanities as well. Those ofus in the fife-sciences know about the serious shortage ofbiological and medical scientists, especially the creative sort. The social and political sciences are no better off. We need a balanced educational program and should invite to support it all gifted teachers who are retired but able. D.J.I. ACKNOWLEDGMENT In the first issue ofPerspectives in Biology and Medicine we acknowledged grants from twenty-one companies toward the initial support ofthis Journal. We wish to thank the following additional firms now for their grants to help launch Perspectives: The Armour Laboratories; Baxter Laboratories, Inc.; Johnson & Johnson; Parke, Davis & Company; Chas. Pfizer & Co., Inc.; and A. H. Robins Company, Inc. 236 Aid to Science Education ¦ An Editorial Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring 1958 ...