Science Miseducation in A Private Universe

Roy replies: Richard Henry’s letter is so incredibly ambivalent that I find that his own last paragraph, which comments on Michael Riordan, could form my rejoinder to his first section. “We [meaning physicists] know from quantum mechanics that nothing is real except for the observations themselves.”

I urge every reader to “observe” the Annenberg film for themselves via the Web site provided in Henry’s letter. My observations of high-school and college students (including 50-plus years of hundreds of graduate students) from all disciplines are that direct observation using as many of the human senses as possible is the only way by which learning sticks for the vast majority of Americans. Professionals in the more abstract sciences should accept the fact that their fellow citizens haven’t a clue what all those weird equations mean, will never use them, and basically couldn’t care less.

Pity the poor abstract theologians, who have had the same problem for millennia. Religious leaders were a different breed. They never used abstractions; they just told real life stories (for example, Jesus’ rabbinical parables on the good Samaritan or the prodigal son, or the battle stage in the Hindu epic Mahabharata).

If physicists want citizens to learn science, they should start with things the average citizen can observe repeatedly with as many senses as possible—especially touch.