The teaching of science

I'm listening to an interview with Raymond Kessel on Wisconsin Public Radio. This is a program in which they are discussing the "problem" with science teaching in public education. Basically, his thesis is that the problem with science education is that students are taught to get the "right" answer, rather than exploring with a sense of wonder. Rather than saying, "I wonder why the sky is blue," they ask "What is the answer to #4?" In this manner, students tend to retain terminology, but have no way of applying it actual scientific practice. He suggests that traditional testing, such as standardized testing, is problematic, because it encourages teachers to teach to the test rather than teaching children how to think and follow the scientific method.

Curiosity, creativity, ingenuity.

Actually, this is applicable to just about any field. In my case, as a foreign language teacher, it's difficult to teach students German, because most of them don't see it at as something useful to them. They memorize the forms (sometimes), but they don't put them together into the big picture. The question is, how do you get the students excited about it? How do you get them to make it their own?

It's something to think about.