Britain has at last escaped the illusion that salvation lies in mass
science
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1921123,00.html
Making the subject compulsory has been a failure - it is right that it
should be a specialism for the interested few
Simon Jenkins
Friday October 13, 2006
The Guardian
In David Hare's National Theatre play Galileo the actor Simon Russell
Beale rants and shouts for three hours at an exasperated pope about the
importance of science. I do not normally cheer the papacy, but by the
end of the play I was on its side. The pope had been happy to debate
his ideas, but the man simply would not shut up.
Last week a new GCSE syllabus, titled Twenty First Century Science,
came into use in a third of schools and was greeted with a similar rant
from self-serving scientists. It moves away from test tubes and bunsen
burners, towards an understanding of such topics as global warming, GM
foods, vaccination, pollution, health and diet. It starts with the
science of everyday life and delves into the technicalities only for
pupils who are interested. It is "right way round" education.
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