Show up for science
It’s showtime, or in this case, the moment for the muchanticipated public hearing on proposed new science standards for New Mexico public school students. Rather than adopt the entire forward-thinking Next Generation Science Standards put together to improve the teaching of science across the nation, New Mexico has chosen to go its own way — unlike at least 18 other states and the District of Columbia.
We can only hope that the overwhelming backlash the proposed standards have received will make the Public Education Department think twice before adopting them. Senators, school boards, scientists and just plain folks have written letters, sent emails and told bureaucrats that these standards are shameful.
The problem? The so-called “science” standards omit such essentials as the age of the Earth, the reality of climate change and fail to mention the accepted theory of evolution. Perhaps an aspiring writer will take the shenanigans over science and put together a 21st-century Inherit the Wind to capture this bizarre moment in New Mexico education. That play, if you remember, was based on a 1925 case in which a science teacher was accused of the crime of teaching the theory of evolution. With these standards, teaching evolution could be outlawed, if not by statute but in practice.
Most troubling about the updating of the standards is that input from science teachers and others was sought, taken and then ignored. This should not be how the Public Education Department does business. What’s more, department Secretary designate Christopher Ruszkowski has been vague about exactly why the standards were altered. We would love to know the backstory. The Legislature approved Next Generation Science Standards, but Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed them. How embarrassing. Ruszkowki told The New Mexican that he received input from several groups about the new science standards but would not name them.
On radio station KKOB last week, he was somewhat more forthcoming, saying the curriculum would balance competing viewpoints — as if all were equally valid. That’s not how science works.
“We have 89 districts. We have 100 charter schools. All of them have different values. I’m doing my best in my role, as you talked about, Bob, to be respectful and reflective of all those values while still moving to higher standards,” Ruszkowski told KKOB host Bob Clark.
The standards, he said, are designed to reflect values from regions all across the state: “We need to allow for districts and charter schools to have the flexibility they need and the local control they need to do what they need to do for their own communities.”
With New Mexico’s take on science, Ruszkowski told the radio audience that kids can make up their own minds: “If we’re going to build critical thinkers, we want to make sure we’re not imposing our values on our kids, that our kids are actually getting the chance to make up their minds for themselves.”
Unfortunately, science is not a subject like history or government, where students do research, gather facts and then argue one side or the other, depending on how they view the world.
Yes, science is a place where debate is welcome, but that argument needs to be about facts, not opinion or “values.” A student doesn’t get to decide whether he or she believes in evolution. A student’s job is to learn the accepted theory, and if she doesn’t agree, to do research and search out evidence to overturn it. Allowing students “to make up their minds for themselves” misses the point of a scientific education and would leave New Mexico students at a disadvantage. It is the opposite of a curriculum supposedly designed to prepare students for careers in the sciences.
Some 61 scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory feel so strongly about the proposal’s deficiencies that they wrote to the department and also bought a full-page advertisement in The New Mexican. They want students to receive the best, most up-to-date scientific training, not be held back. All who care about education should thank them. We do.
The hearing on the proposed New Mexico STEM-Ready Science Standards takes place Monday, Oct. 16, starting at 9 a.m. in Mabry Hall, located at the Jerry Apodaca Education Building, 300 Don Gaspar Ave. It is important that people show up to stand up for science. Remember, too, that Ruszkowski has not been confirmed. He was appointed to replace Hanna Skandera, and legislators need to investigate why the standards were changed and at whose instigation. The softening of science is not to be taken lightly. It leads to bad outcomes.
Here’s how Henry Drummond from Inherit the Wind, puts it: “… fanaticism and ignorance [are] forever busy, and [need] feeding. And soon, your honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we’ll be marching backward, backward, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!”