Math and science education in America

Why we’re falling behind and why it matters

By Jessica Mintz
From the May 2006 Print Edition

Ever since the turn of the 20th century, the United States has led the way in scientific and technological innovation, boasting, for example, the most Nobel Prize winners of any country by far and pioneering monumental technologies from integrated circuits to the Internet. As technology becomes more complex and the job market is forced to adapt to new and frequently changing products, more focused education is sorely needed, most importantly in math and science. The technologies based on these skills are the foundation of the American economy and our high standard of living, and are unsustainable without a steady influx of competent young people.

Unfortunately, the number of American students who do go to college and master key technical skills today is alarmingly low. The trend of importing foreign talent while rapidly exporting factories is a clear indicator of the chronic shortage of new engineers and scientists in the United States., but what is to blame for this deficiency in both quality and quantity of science and engineering students?

Put another way, how has the vast, entrenched and politically powerful “Education Establishment” responded to this obvious and increasingly critical national need? The answer, unfortunately, is that they have reacted badly, racing headlong in the opposite direction toward less technical encouragement of the young. Why this is the case must be understood before it can be reversed.

This problem begins early, in elementary school or even before. Instead of learning the apolitical facts associated with basic math, general science, algebra, trigonometry, chemistry, physics, and English grammar, students discover that these subjects are increasingly subverted by so-called “progressive” education practices. For some teachers, the classroom is a soapbox routinely used to preach politics to their captive audience instead of a place for learning the skills necessary to make fundamental scientific advances or compete in today’s job market. For others bent on social engineering or exploring the latest fad, like the disastrous “whole language” experiment of the mid-1990s or the “interactive math” trend also begun in the mid-1990s, students are merely faceless guinea pigs.

Of course, not all teachers substitute leftist ideology for technical education, but far too many do, often with smug, self-righteous zeal, knowing that the Education Establishment will protect them no matter how flagrant the abuse. Recent examples, such as Colorado high school geography “teacher” Jay Bennish’s anti-Bush diatribes, are plentiful.

In any case, the results have been predictable. For example, United States 12th graders outperformed their counterparts in only two underdeveloped countries out of the 41 that participated in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study in 1995.

That radical leftist ideologues dominate American education at all levels had come to pass in part because hard-working, self-reliant, individuals in the private sector have largely not participated and thus handed public education to the political left on a silver platter. Why?

For many pursuing careers in math or science, the much higher pay scale in industry is enough to discourage them from teaching. It’s also true that industry-experienced, would-be teachers of technical subjects face a needlessly long and difficult path to obtaining a teaching credential. This is a barrier erected by self-serving teacher unions designed in part to discourage people with technical backgrounds from entering the teaching field. Low salaries that cannot be improved by good performance (i.e. not merit-based) also contribute to making teaching as a career unattractive at best, especially to technically competent individuals.

There is at least a glimmer of sanity recently appearing in the public education system that manifests itself in the form of mandatory standardized testing. But the standards, especially when compared with curricula and results out of Japan and Singapore, are extremely low and particularly insulting to our generation, as it is implied that we are not capable of doing better. Ever since “soft” math has been institutionalized in many districts across the country, textbooks and coursework have been dumbed down because building false self-esteem has become trendier than rigor.

It is extremely important to provide challenges for students that allow them to struggle with problems in order to build real confidence and develop the ability to tackle other problems in the future. Right now, there is too much emphasis placed on “effort” and not nearly enough on getting the correct answers. For doctors, airline pilots, civil engineers, and many others, the right answer can mean the difference between life and death.

More indications of this decay are everywhere around us. On Sproul Plaza we see scores of elementary, middle, and high school students from Berkeley and Oakland, whose teachers would sooner take them to a BAMN (By Any Means Necessary, a radical affirmative action group) rally than teach them math. All over the country, people and organizations are exposing unfair liberal bias and indoctrination in every level of education, and the American people are starting to notice the effect it can have on their children.

Just at a time when a new generation of well-trained scientists and engineers is desperately needed, America’s public education system is proving manifestly incapable of producing them. The problems have much to do with the control of that system by leftist ideologues and the solution with replacing them with real educators. Although the work needed to accomplish this may take years, even decades, it is imperative that those of us who want this nation to remain among the best begin to effect this change immediately.

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