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One could argue, I suppose, that the "deplorably low level of science education" in the United States is a natural concomitant of the deplorably low level of general literacy that afflicts the young. Yet I believe that this can be only part of the explanation. Today's youth are perfectly capable of amassing large quantities of detailed information about whatever engages their imagination. High school students are not at all illiterate about things that "matter" — the latest rock singers, the baseball standings, the newest sports cars, the current style in jeans and leg warmers. College students, a notch more sophisticated, soon know a great deal not only about unisex hair styles and the latest contraceptives, but also how to obtain a degree likely to lead to a lucrative job while avoiding the more tedious "breadth" requirements mandated for graduation. The problem, then, is not so much a failure of "literacy" per se, but of the conventional forms of literacy that the educational system still vainly offers. Let's face it — today's generation is just not very interested in the way most knowledge is defined, parceled up, and delivered to them.

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-21003-9_15

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