How the Rot Spreads(Issue 10 · posted June 13, 1997; archived June 27, 1997)
Here is a biology quiz. Please mark each statement as true (T), false (F) or absurd (A). An absurd statement is one that, in any biological context, has no meaning at all.
The right answers, of course, are F, F, F, F, F, F, F, F, A, A – unless you happen to be learning biology out of schoolbooks. In that case, all ten answers are T.
All ten statements in my quiz are 'facts' presented in texbooks that publishers are selling to US public schools right now, for use in teaching biology (a high-school subject) or life science (a sort of simplified biology, usually taught in middle schools). I have found hundreds of such false or absurd claims in schoolbooks during my work with the Textbook League, an organization that provides educators with expert reviews of instructional materials.
Although survey after survey shows that Americans are abysmally ignorant of science, and politicians continually hatch inane schemes to confer 'science literacy' on all students, very little attention is given to a fundamental, crippling defect in our system of science education. Many students are forced to use outrageously incompetent textbooks created by people who know little or nothing of science – textbooks which claim that charcoal is a form of coal, that aspirin is a synthetic polymer, and that the regeneration of an organ is a type of reproduction!
It is bad enough to offer students fake facts, but much worse to mislead them about basic biological principles. Do you remember the 'natural theology' that William Paley popularized during the early 1800s? It is still alive in some 'science' textbooks; students learn, for example, that predators and prey are allies, helping each other to prosper and to preserve nature's mystical, beneficent order. Do you remember nature's ladder – the scala naturae? This is the old notion that organisms form a continuous series from 'low' to 'high', culminating in man (the highest, most admirable creature of all). Nature's ladder still serves as an organizing theme in most biology and life-science texts. Writers sustain it by using distortions, half-truths, falsehoods, and the selective omission of inconvenient facts.
Such cases show us that the writers of these schoolbooks are ignorant and incompetent. But US schoolbooks also contain some misinformation that has been deliberately added. For example, many schoolbooks nowadays are influenced by 'multiculturalism', a misnamed ideological system that has found favor with some educators.
One might guess, or even hope, that 'multiculturalism' would have to do with teaching and learning about various cultures. But alas, what the US education community calls 'multiculturalism' is a political ideology that includes anti-intellectualism, a hostility towards Western institutions, and an especially keen hostility towards science.
One effect of 'multiculturalism' on science textbooks is the inclusion of fake science and fake history. For example, schoolbook writers endorse Oriental medicine, saying that it works by balancing the body's 'vital energy' – a claim founded on the long-discredited theory of vitalism. They imply that Amerindian witchcraft is equivalent to scientific medicine on the grounds that witch doctors, like physicians, must undergo years of training. One biology textbook even leads students to believe that Amerindians were the sole inventors of irrigation (presumably the ancient peoples of the Middle East built their great irrigation systems after visiting the New World).
Why are our textbooks so bad? Like other commercial publishers, schoolbook publishers produce what they can sell. And they know that they can sell fatuous 'science' books, loaded with misinformation and ideological nonsense, because many US school districts are unable to assess what the books say; in other words, the districts have no knowledgeable evaluators who can determine whether the material in the books is true or false, valid or absurd, modern or moldy. This will not change until scientists take an interest in schoolbooks, help local schools and school districts to evaluate them, and help teachers to avoid spreading the anachronistic rubbish, fake 'facts' and imaginary 'history' that schoolbook publishers are disseminating with such vigor.
William J. Bennetta is a professional editor, an elected fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and the president of The Textbook League. He has worked as a writer and editor for some 30 years, specializing in publications covering science, technology, and medicine.
Endlinks
The Textbook
League Website - publishes a bimonthly newsletter evaluating new
school textbooks for readers concerned about the quality of science textbooks.
National Science Education Standards - maintains information on the development of U.S. national standards for science education.
CCSSO Works in Progress - contains numerous links to studies on the development of U.S. national standards such as: "Elements for Mapping State Frameworks and Standards: A Cross-State Comparison of Mathematics and Science Documents. 1997."
Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) - offers readers the opportunity to learn about one well-developed program for teaching biology in grade school, middle school, and high school.
Education or Indoctrination? - presents a detailed review of science education by Norris Anderson, Member Alabama Textbook Committee, December 17, 1995. The essay: "Analysis of Textbooks in Alabama."
