Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

No Such Thing as a Dumb Question
would be in better shape if every citizen went through a comparable
experience.
We need more money for teachers' training and salaries, and
for laboratories. But all across America, school-bond issues are
regularly voted down. No one suggests that property taxes be used
to provide for the military budget, or for agriculture subsidies, or
for cleaning up toxic wastes. Why just education? Why not
support it from general taxes on the local and state levels? What
about a special education tax for those industries with special
needs for technically trained workers?
American schoolchildren don't do enough schoolwork. There
are 180 days in the standard school year in the United States, as
compared with 220 in South Korea, about 230 in Germany, and
243 in Japan. Children in some of these countries go to school on
Saturday. The average American high school student spends 3.5
hours a week on homework. The total time devoted to studies, in
and out of the classroom, is about 20 hours a week. Japanese
fifth-graders average 33 hours a week. Japan, with half the
population of the United States, produces twice as many scientists
and engineers with advanced degrees every year.
During four years of high school, American students spend less
than 1,500 hours on such subjects as mathematics, science and
history. Japanese, French and German students spend more than
twice as much time. A 1994 report commissioned by the US
Department of Education notes:
The traditional school day must now fit in a whole set of
requirements for what has been called the 'new work of the
schools' - education about personal safety, consumer affairs,
AIDS, conservation and energy, family life and driver's
training.
So, because of the deficiencies of society and the inadequacies of
education in the home, only about three hours a day are spent in
high school on the core academic subjects.
There's a widely held perception that science is 'too hard' for
ordinary people. We can see this reflected in the statistic that only
around 10 per cent of American high school students ever opt for
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