I don't want to be a party pooper (or maybe I do I don't know)
but it makes me a bit uneasy that there is so much emphasis on children
when it comes to science education and issues of public science literacy.
Every social interest group at some point sees their future as embodied
in the "proper" education of children.
To some extent that is logical but there's an element of power politics
there, because children are always a captive audience to whatever eduucation
the adult world decides they need.
It feels weird to me that whenever adults in science get to talking about
improving public science literacy, the efforts wind up concentrating
on the captive qaudience rather than the adult audience that is capable of
saying no.
I would like to see more money and more effort expended on adult science
education, on convincing people who can say "no" to say "yes".
That's been my focus. I think that will continue to be my focus after
I graduate and that is one reason why I want to start a science magazine
targeted for adult women.
Adult women in America have so much buying power and so much political
power now, and they tend to have had a spotty science education on the
average, most of the powerful women in this country are from an era
when girls were just plain excluded, period.
I think they should become the most treasured target market for science.
-patricia