Science Learning Ought to Enlighten and Liberate

Somehow we've made learning difficult for kids, when it ought to be the most natural, spontaneous, and enjoyable activity they engage in. Science, in particular, ought to enlighten and liberate, not obscure and burden. Students should leave school with a warm feeling about science because it has opened their eyes. Instead, many (most?) students leave school cool toward science because we teach it in a way that veils simple and beautiful truths behind opaque jargon. The refreshment students could be taking in a few key and abiding scientific truths enjoyed deeply is instead drowned in a shallow, overwhelming torrent of the entire body of scientific facts. We turn the excitement of personal discovery and connection into the drudgery of rote and disconnected "learning."

I believe that somehow we can have high student achievement with low stress and high enjoyment. And I believe a key component of this "somehow" is to select from our wealth of content, and use our selections to cultivate student breadth and depth.The focus needs to be on using content selectively to enlarge students rather than using students as receivers for massive content. We should teach the student, not the subject.