Why is Our Education System not Preparing Us For the Ultimate Success in Science?

The U.S. Department of Education has allocated a total of $340 million in the budget of its new STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education program to “identify and implement effective approaches for improving STEM teaching and learning; facilitate the dissemination and adoption of effective STEM instructional practices nationwide; and promote STEM education experiences that prioritize hands-on learning to increase student engagement, interest, and achievement in the STEM fields.” Schools wanting to participate in the STEM education program had to make the recommended changes to their curriculum and are expected to hire and retain 200,000 new teachers. Colleges and universities were challenged to graduate an additional 1 million students in science. This program was inspired by a desire to maintain the nation’s position of global leadership. With the United States ranked at 25th in Mathematics and 17th in science among industrialized nations, the goal was to “move from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math” within the next decade.

It is obvious that the education of students was placed secondary to the needs of the nation. More importantly, however, this approach represents a new twist on the role for the educational curriculum, referring not to a particular curriculum but to the very idea of having a curriculum to guide the education system. In addition to being a statement of what is to be taught the curriculum will now be used as the basis for making comparisons between the United States and other nations on earth.

The curriculum has always been used as the basis for comparison, but those comparisons have been between students in a classroom or between school districts or other administrative units. These comparisons are generally based on test scores, and for a test to be fair it ought to cover what has been taught in the classroom. Using the curriculum as a basis for comparison between nations is a novel idea but there is no inherent flaw in it even though it is of no practical value. In the traditional use of the curriculum for comparisons there has always been a next step. At the first level of comparison between students the students can use that information to improve their own performance and mastery of the subject. At the second level of comparison between groups the goal is to improve the national educational process. The districts or administrative units that obtain higher average scores from their students can serve as examples to other districts on how to better utilize the curriculum and better serve the nation. At this stage of our development, bragging rights are the only possible advantage from the third level of comparing the performance of nations. The next logical step is to consider how humans, as a species, would fare if our species had to compete against intelligent species from other parts of the universe. It is a question that is not as farfetched as it may seem.

It is hardly arguable that some of the most enterprising and amazing work associated with achievement in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics has been done outside of the earth’s atmosphere. Long before a STEM program was thought to be needed, we had an active space race in which the US was pitted against the USSR, the old Soviet Union. Beginning with the launch of the USSR’s Sputnik I in 1957, humans first sent satellites, then animals and finally humans into earth orbit. A lot of great science was done during those missions but the capstone of space exploration was when we landed a man on the moon in 1969. Currently, we have scientists from a variety of nations working together on the International Space Station at the same time that two of our spacecraft - Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 - are traveling through interstellar space. Then in November of 2014 we we able to land one of our space probe on the core of a comet. The only area in which we have not had any success is in our search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Since 1960 some of our best scientists have been involved in this quest. None of us knows why we have not made contact with others like us out there. We have identified many earthlike planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone that may support life but, so far, no one with whom we can communicate.

What if we did make contact with an alien intelligent civilization? What if we did make that breakthrough? What next? Are we ready for such an encounter? Would we be able to compete against them? How do humans rank in terms of intergalactic leadership in the Universe? How would our best academicians and scientists stack up against theirs? How would our level of development stack up against theirs? There are many ways in which we can ask the same question but they are all valid and deserve to be addressed.

There is no clear evidence that any of our education systems are doing anything to answer those questions. I serious doubt that any of our leaders in education or in politics have given it any serious thought. We cannot with any degree of certainty say that any part of our educational system is preparing us for that moment when we may have to compete against other civilizations. As far as the curriculum is concerned we are alone in the universe. But our science shows that we do not believe we are alone in the universe. Most humans do not believe that we are alone in the universe.

If this sounds like the stuff of science fiction then there is no need to continue searching for signs of extraterrestrial life. We are searching because we sincerely anticipate that such an encounter may occur. If it is science fiction to communicate with alien life it is also science fiction to search for alien life. We have spent millions of dollars over half a century in a search for extraterrestrial intelligence and not one cent in preparing ourselves for success in this effort. It is true that we will never know our standing in the universe until we make contact with an alien civilization, but we cannot wait until we make contact to get ready for contact. We need to make fundamental changes to our global education curriculum now if we are serious about STEM education. Good science is not enough. Only best science will suffice at this level.

We do not need to have any details about any alien civilizations that may be out there to know that when contact is made they will be their best selves. Each of us knows that from our personal educational experiences. As a species we are not ready for contact because we are not yet our best selves. As a species we are emotionally immature. We could not stand up to any of the species that share our planet if they had the same capacity to reason, plan and strategise that we do. We will never be ready for intergalactic contact until we teach ourselves how to cooperate together as they do by allowing nature to teach us as it desires. The failing in the curriculum is not in what is taught locally but in what is not being taught globally.

Our students are being trained to master the practices and procedures of science. This is an education that will help in the battle for scientific supremacy among the nations of the world because it enables us to compete against each other.. But our curriculum does not address the purposes and perspectives of science, both of which are required to optimize our mastery of science. If we are serious about science we must change our curriculum to broaden our perspectives on science. We are confused regarding the purpose so of science and we have no sensitivity towards the different perspectives on science.

Our current curriculum assumes a reality that is not true. It assumes we are an optimally developed species that only needs to use science to make our enjoyment of our lives better. But we have failed to note from our discoveries that the purpose of science is not to make our lives better but to complete our development as a species. We boast that science is a human enterprise without pausing to consider why that is so, or why it is that humans are the only species that benefits from our scientific achievements. We have only learned from nature. We have not taught nature anything. We have learned a great deal about the nature and identity of a few of the trillions of species and entities that share the earth with us but we do not understand our true nature as humans.

Consider a few of the ways in which our education is lacking in a universal context. Our scientific education does not emphasize the fact that we are the only species that needs to learn about the world around us. It does not emphasize that we are the only developmental species on the entire planet, nor does it address the implications of that fact. It does not help us understand why we think there is something amiss with us when science has shown that we are part of an environment that is lawful, nor does it tell us how we can correct what is wrong with our species. It assumes that our only need is to develop within the known parameters of our species without taking into consideration that the development of our species is an on going process that we do not control. It does not tell us that we are a organic whole rather than a loose conglomeration of individuals. The health and well-being of the species are as important as the health and well-being of each individual, and that both perspectives of science are important.

We do not know whether other civilizations exist in the cosmos or whether their perspective on science is better than ours. But what if they do exist and what if they have used science in their development as a species rather than for their individual selfish benefit? How will we fare in such an encounter with them? We cannot leave it all to chance. We must prepare for that possibility.

Science can teach us how to live together as members of the same species because all other species already know how to do so. But it can only do so if we adopt a perspective on science that views us the way the universe views us - as an organic whole that came into being thousands of years ago. The rewards will be immediate. An ideologically united world will no longer need standing armies and large military and law-enforcement budgets. With those savings we will have sufficient resources to eradicate poverty and illiteracy. To achieve this we do not need to change our current education system. It has served us well and healthy competition is always useful. But we do need to supplement it with a system that embraces a global perspective and considers what it means to be human in addition to what it means to be humans. If we are serious about being global leaders our students must be educated to prepare for the needs of the species as well as for the needs of the nation. We are humans first. Our responsibility is to the health and well-being of our species. We cannot be content with “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”