MY EARLIER POST ON SCIENCE EDUCATION produced this email from reader Jenn Oates:

Glenn, I teach science at a middle-class high school in Elk Grove, CA—it’s a suburb of Sacramento. Many of my students—entirely too many—come into my 9th grade classroom woefully unprepared for even the most basic rigors of high school science. They do not study. They do not do homework. They do not get the direct connection between how much effort you put into something and the quality of the results. They do not know the difference between an inch and a centimeter. They have trouble with the simplest algebraic calculations (like f=ma). They pay no attention whatsoever (beyond the Al Gore school of bad science) to what is going on in the universe, so much of what I teach has no brain Velcro to stick to. Worst of all? They are embarrassingly incurious. They really don’t care, and if what I do isn’t magically fun, they’re not interested. I work very hard to make what I do interesting and relevant, but they can’t be bothered. My graduate work in science and my efforts thereof mean nothing to them. Not all of them, of course, but enough.

Still, I am expected to turn every student into a science genius-in-the-making. Right. I can do that. Give me better prepared students and perhaps I could.. But it isn’t a Science or Math problem, it’s an attitude problem on the part of the students—their education is excellent, as our district has very high standards. What they make of it is, sadly, too often…not.

It’s quite discouraging. What is the answer? Let me totally revamp the educational system in California and I might be able to begin to address the problem. J

Thanks for keeping things like this in the forefront…

Kids used to be more excited by science. But back then science was doing more visibly exciting things — moon flights, etc. — and got more favorable, and modestly more substantive, mass-media coverage. There’s still good science coverage now, but it’s more of a niche item, I think.