A High-School Science Teacher Views Industry-Education Cooperation

Teachers actively engaged in the classroom do not agree that today's science education is a failure. Schools are expressions of our culture, and their deficiencies have much deeper roots than most current analyses recognize. Fundamental rather than superficial remedies are indicated. Industry, in its approach to education must recognize the central importance of the teacher himself as an expert in the job to be done, and try to adjust its efforts to the special conditions of the classroom. Certain of the steps now being taken by industry in the field of secondary education are noted, and suggestions for their improvement are offered. It is necessary to put intellectual interests in a favorable competitive position with respect to more glamorous teen-age activities, and a possible action in this direction is suggested. Improvement of the economic and social status of the teaching profession would be the single most powerful development in bringing about better secondary education.