AN EDITORIAL:
Humankind: Separate from or a Part of Nature?
Vice President Gore, in his 1992 book, Earth in the Balance (reviewed in our Spring 1993 issue), lamented what he saw as a separation of humankind from nature. He attributed this separation to the Cartesian mind-body dualism and saw it was a source of pain, which is denied and avoided by an increasing addiction for material goods at the expense of our environment. "I believe that our civilization is, in effect, addicted to the consumption of the earth itself," he wrote on page 220. "This addictive relationship distracts us from the pain of what we have lost: a direct experience of our connection to the vividness, vibrancy, and aliveness of the rest of the natural world."
As addiction becomes more demanding, he went on, denial gives way to resignation; but healing can result only from facing the pain: ". . . our relationship to the earth may never be healed until we are willing to stop denying the destructive nature of the current pattern." (p. 225)
Five years after Gore published his book, Harvey Cox of the Harvard Divinity School, spoke on "The Technological City" at the Twelfth National STS Meeting in Worcester, MA, on 7 March 1997. Cox suggested that the relationship between religion and technology is assuming a new form, with the realization that the line between nature and technology is being erased as cyberspace has transformed the limitations of physical space and the possible connections of human nervous systems to computers hold forth the possibility of greater "fulfillment."
Later that afternoon Jerry Schubel, President of the New England Aquarium, observed that our tendency to live in cities further disassociates us from nature. And a rock musician in the Active Physics video, Can't Hear You Knockin', comments that audiences clamoring for loud rock music are so obsessed with technology that they don't recognize the limitations of their own bodies (the maximum number of decibels their ears can safely accommodate).
The trend cited by Cox may indeed blur the line between nature and technology, but it also suggests an increased human reliance on technology which would further disassociate us from nature. Does this trend suggest that being human is more than being a part of nature? Indeed, these are some of the questions Cox raised at the end of his talk: Has virtual reality eliminated the effect of death? What will be the role of the body in a global cybercommunity? What will it mean to be human?
- John L. Roeder
Assessment: Impediment to Science Education Reform?
It has often been remarked, "Assessment drives the curriculum." "If you want to make sure people learn it, put it on the test." Mindful of this, developers of the National Science Education Standards wisely included standards for assessment. In his talk to the Scientific Literacy Seminar (page xx, this issue), Rodger Bybee correctly stated that those assessment standards were driving the implementation of all the Standards. But according to National Academy of Sciences President Bruce Alberts (page 1, this issue), those assessment standards have driven into a rut -- a rut of continued reliance on SAT IIs that test students for facts they have learned, not for their ability to use those facts to solve problems. In a similar vein, Project 2061 Director James Rutherford reported (also page 1, this issue) that parents in MacFarlane, WI, had become leery about their children's chances for college admission with Project 2061 courses instead of traditional courses on their transcripts.
In contrast to continuing the status quo in education, the Bayer Study (Resource #25, Fall 1996 issue) pointed up that the scientific literacy championed by employers was the problem solving ability emphasized by Alberts, not high scores on standardized tests (Editorial, Fall 1996 issue). If, indeed, industry is supportive of problem solving abilities fostered by science education reform, why are the assessment standards mired in a rut?
- John L. Roeder
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