The Demon-Haunted World_ Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan [164]
There, in this burning house, they play, sport, and amuse themselves with all sorts of games. They do not know that this dwelling is afire, they do not understand it, do not perceive it, pay no attention to it, and so they feel no agitation. Though threatened by this great [fire], though in such close contact with so much ill, they pay no attention to their danger, and make no efforts to get out.” ‘
from The Saddharmapundarika,
in Buddhist Scriptures, Edward Conze, ed.
(Penguin Books, 1959)
One of the reasons it’s so interesting to write for Parade magazine is feedback. With eighty million readers you can really sample the opinion of the citizens of the United States. You can understand how people think, what their anxieties and hopes are, and even perhaps where we have lost our way.
An abbreviated version of the preceding chapter, emphasizing the performance of students and teachers, was published in Parade. I was flooded with mail. Some people denied there was a problem; others said that Americans were losing cutting-edge intelligence and know-how. Some thought there were easy solutions; others, that the problems were too deeply ingrained to fix. Many opinions were a surprise to me.
A tenth-grade teacher in Minnesota handed out copies of the article and asked his students to tell me what they thought. Here’s what some American high school students wrote (spelling, grammar and punctuation as in the original letters):
• Not a Americans are stupid We just rank lower in school big deal.
• Maybe that’s good that we are not as smart as the other countries. So then we can just import all of our products and then we don’t have to spend all of our money on the parts for the goods.
• And if other countries are doing better, what does it matter, their most likely going to come over the U.S. anyway?
• Our society is doing just fine with what discoveries we are making. It’s going slowly, but the cure for cancer is coming right along.
• The U.S. has its own learning system and it may not be as advanced as theirs, but it is just as good. Otherwise I think your article is a very educating one.
• Not one kid in this school likes science. I really didn’t understand the point of the article. I thought that it was very boring. I’m just not into anything like that.
• I am studying to be a lawyer and frankly I do agree with my parents when they say I have an attitude problem toward science.
• It’s true that some American kids don’t try, but we could be smarter than any other country if we wanted to.
• Instead of homework, kids will watch TV. I have to agree that I do it. I have cut it down from about 4 hrs. a day.
• I don’t believe it is the school systems fault, I think the whole country is brought up with not enough emphasis on school. I know my mom would rather be watching me play basketball or soccer, instead of helping me with an assignment. Most of the kids I know could care less about making sure there doing there work right.
• I don’t think American kids are stupid. It just they don’t study hard enough because most of kids work... Lots of people said that Asian people are smarter than American and they are good at everything, but that’s not true. They are not good at sports. They don’t have time to play sports.
• I’m in sports myself, and I feel that the other kids on my team push to you to excel more in that sport than in school.
• If we want to rank first, we could go to school all day and not have any social life.
• I can see why a lot of science teachers would get mad at you for insulting there job.
• Maybe if the teachers could be more exciting, the children will want to learn ... If science is made to be fun, kids will want to learn. To accomplish this, it needs to be started early on, not just taught as facts and figures.
• I really find it hard to believe those facts about the U.S. in science.
• If we are so far behind, how come Michael Gorbachev came to Minnesota and Montana to Control Data to see how