Today I caved to the pleas of my students and let them work on their mandatory biology projects during free reading time. I see that they are - once again - reviewing the organelles of a cell. As they did in 5th grade. And then again in 6th grade. And as they will do again in their high school biology class. 

Which makes me pause to consider: is anyone out there thinking about what our students are actually going to need to know about science to be informed, thoughtful adults & citizens in the 21st century? It alarms me that though the world has experienced HUGE changes in science & technology over the past 30 years, we appear to be teaching science the same way we did back in the 1970s when I was in school.

Why, for instance, this odd obsession with memorizing the organelles of a cell? I suspect that back in the 70s this was breaking news, but now ... not so much. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that beyond a basic understanding of the functions of a cell, your average adult does not need to be intimately familiar with the operation of the endoplasmic reticulum.  However, our students WILL need a good, solid grounding in issues such as  DNA, RNA, genetic mapping, genetic engineering, and cloning if they are to thoughtfully and responsibly consider the issues that will face them as adults.

For that matter, why do we continue to obsess over teaching formulas in physics? Back in the 70s - the era of space travel - this was probably considering character-building and vaguely patriotic. While I grant that it is important for students to understand basic physical properties & relationships, I am again going to suggest that few of us as adults will be called upon to calculate the forward momentum of a object travelling at 40mph.  However, our students WILL need a good, solid grounding in electronics, wireless communications, and engineering if they are to understand how their cellphones, HDTVs, satellite radios and GPS devices work.

When we split up  the sciences into 4 separate categories with 4 separate names - biology, physics, chemistry, earth science - do we have any right to be surprised that our students don't understand that biology is chemistry, that earth science is physics, that catastrophies like Global Warming have impacts that are geologic, biologic, chemical, AND physical?

And since I'm ranting anyway ... who decided to leave out social sciences like psychiatry and anthropology? I wonder how we expect our students to be socially functional adults when we give them almost no useful information about how people and groups of people think and behave.

Is someone out there actually thinking about making sure that our students are prepared for the science of the future, rather than blindly, thoughtlessly continuing to deliver instruction that will prepare them for science we have left behind? Because right now I am looking at a classroom full of kids who can tell you what a golgi body is but who have no idea why antibiotics don't work against viruses. Is this preparing them to be informed, thoughtful adults? I have my doubts.