Evolution via natural selection remains the singular foundation for the biological sciences and, presumably, the medical sciences by extension. Without an appropriate education in these matters and full comprehension and complete acceptance of its implications, a pupil or an aspiring biology or medical sciences student will be left worse off than educational peers.
With an NCSE/Penn State national survey, they have been looking into the “pedagogically appropriate treatment of evolution in state science standards,” according to the National Center for Science Education’s (NCSE) Glenn Branch, deputy director.
With the want of improvement in the standards of education across the United States of America, as we speak, three states are beginning to revise the state science standards: Texas, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.
Branch stated, “More than half a million students take a biology course in the public schools of Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas every year, to say nothing of the millions of students across the country whose textbooks might be affected by the content of the Texas standards.”
In “Teaching evolution in U.S. public schools: A continuing challenge,” by Eric Plutzer, Glenn Branch, and Ann Reid, one can find further details on the particular survey in question. With the low rates of adherence to the foundations of the life sciences, the United States will continue to punch below its weight and remain a powerful while less than possible nation in terms of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
With files from the National Center for Science Education.
Photo by Eugene Zhyvchik on Unsplash