One of the problems is that, like the article claims, many people do not have basic scientific literacy, yet they try to argue science with scientists. It's like bringing a knife to a gun fight. The scientists are faced with arguements that are below a freshman level in a lot of areas and the non-scientists lack sufficent versing to comprehend the arguements made by scientists. Frustration boils up on both sides and you get a situation where PatrickHenry has to remind everyone to be civil.
If adults are scientifically illiterate....what level are elementary, middle school, and high schoolers on? How can evolution be presented to them that doesn't sound magical ( religious)?
K-12 students are incapable of studying science. They don't have the basics to do it. What they are learning is merely general information about the natural world. Calling this general knowledge "science" teaches them a profoundly erroneous concept about the true work of scientists.
Children are by nature very accepting and lack critical thinking. They do indeed have a magical outlook on life. There is NO possible way for government to educate children in a manner that does not PROFOUNDLY influence their political, cultural, and religious worldview. Government must get out of the education business if we are to ever end these curriculum wars.
What "basics" do they lack, and how do they acquire them by simply growing older? I am struggling to understand your point here.
There is NO possible way for government to educate children in a manner that does not PROFOUNDLY influence their political, cultural, and religious worldview.
Hmmm. If this is true (and I am very far from persuaded that it is), is it not true of all educators, or true about the nature of education? In other words, do not Church schools (and my own daughters attend one, btw) also influence the 'political, cultural, and religious worldview' of their pupils?
Your point really isn't clear to me.