I’m not a science teacher, but even so, two successive articles from the NY Times make me feel embarassed and depressed. Are we doing that bad a job in educating people in this country?

Yesterday we read that one in five Americans believes that the sun revolves around the Earth. Today’s Times tells us that almost half (42%) of Americans believe that humans and other living things have existed in their present form only–that there has been no evolution at all.

I’m not even going to go into the number who think that creationism deserves “equal time” with evolution.

What’s wrong with our schools, and our culture, that so very many people can be so totally ignorant of basic science? Is it really the schools? Were these people never taught? Did they never learn? Or are they just clinging, willfully, stubbornly, dangerously (for all of us) to ignorance? And why?

My only post for August. Too bad it’s such a bitter one! Maybe some good news will come in September.