When you are trying to figure out who is leading the world in technological and scientific innovation, you look to the Nobel Prize. As the most prestigious award on the planet, it acts as a sort of gauge for who is generating the most groundbreaking science.
By far and away, the U.S. has been the clear frontrunner since the late '50s. Our dominance in the global science talent market has been the fuel that has put us on the top of the modern global economy. There is another tale lurking, however, behind the simple statistics. Of the 314 Nobel Laureates who won their prize while working in the US, 102, or a third, were foreign born.
But who really cares? Sure, many of our leaders in science are not from here, but what difference does it make? We're still the best in the world.
Not so fast.
A report from the Thomas B. Forham institute shows a dark image of the state science standards around the nation. These standards are the base on which teachers build lessons, write textbooks, and determine what skills a student must master at each grade.
The report determined, in so many words, that the majority of states have piss-poor standards. On an A through F scale, only California and the District of Columbia scored an A. Eleven scored an F, and another dozen or so scored a D.
So everyone wants to know: who is responsible for this? Of course in this modern age of no accountability, most everyone is looking for a scapegoat to point the finger at.
The problem is us. Over the years, science has changed in the public view from being an impressive generator of new ideas that unravel the mysteries of the universe to a big joke. Last year, eight different anti-evolution bills were introduced by six legislatures. In Maryland, according to the report, state tests intentionally exclude major points about evolution.
Evolution is entirely fundamental to our understanding of biology, yet politicians without a lick of knowledge on the subject want to legislate complete garbage into the schools based on nothing but a need to protect an archaic view of the world.
Science is, at its core, the rejection of dogmatic thought. It is the ability to accept that what you hold as fact now might be overturned by evidence and testing, and that's what scares so many people. They feel their way of thinking is being threatened so they resist.
Mathematics has also fallen by the wayside, partly as a casualty of the war on science. The link between math and science is not viewed as important, and left out of many classes. According to the report, states "seem to go to great lengths to avoid mathematical formulae and equations altogether."
We need to do more than just leave the fate of our nation's future to each individual state. There absolutely needs to be much more strict federal standards for education.
Some might find it objectionable, seeing as the constitution doesn't specifically give the powers of regulating education to the federal government, but the fact is that the modern economy is going to be almost entirely based in science, technology, and math. Without a doubt, that falls under interstate commerce.
Our reality is constantly shrinking. We can see more clearly now than ever before the two paths laid before us. One, which we are still on, lies in ignorance and darkness. We can continue to fall behind until the world passes us by, or we can get on the new path, one of imagination and knowledge.
As Carl Sagan wrote in his classic book, Cosmos, "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."
