If We Had a Hammer

In response to a commenter on his blog, Chad Orzel outlines what he would do to improve science education. The solution, he says, is to have the best possible teachers, though that comes with difficulties of its own. The best and brightest students are squirreled away into university and often don't think teaching is a respected career path to follow -- plus, teaching jobs are not competitive financially. He suggests encouraging science students to be teachers, increasing teacher pay, finding ways to better handle disruptive students, and having uniform standards. " We ought to have uniform science standards on a national level, set by scientists and based on the latest understanding of science, and get rid of the absurd patchwork of state and local curricula that we have now, which cripples the effective teaching of science," Orzel writes.