Simon Jenkins had an interesting article in the Guardian yesterday, which came very, very close to being write. Essentially, his point – made in response to the recent fuss about the new science syllabus – was that we should stop pretending that science should be a compulsory subject much past the age of 14. (Obviously, I’m paraphrasing).
What might surprise you is that I agree; almost. Knowledge of Newton’s laws, beautiful though I think them and essential as they are to understanding how the physical world works, is probably completely pointless for well over 90% of the people who learn them by rote for GCSE physics. The new syllabus attempts to recognise this by concentrating instead on ‘modern’, ‘relevant’ topics such as GM foods or nuclear power. However, to my intense frustration, we are still teaching science FACTS (and then testing them through watered-down exams involving mini-essays) instead of teaching the scientific METHOD. If we are to continue with the age-old researcher’s defence, which boils down to ‘I can research what I like but the responsibility for how it is used belongs with the population as a whole’, we need a population that understands how science makes decisions. A population that understands that not all scienctists will agree on any subject, but that this does not mean that science has nothing to say is the first step towards a reasoned debate on almost any issue with scientific input, whether it’s the importance of manned spaceflight or the MMR jab. We need to show everyone – whether before or after 14 – how science works in practice, and neither the new nor the old syllabus, nor Simon Jenkins, is proposing to do that.
