> Everyone doesn't need to be a scientist but
> everyone has practical applications for science.
> It should get more emphasis and more students
> should be pointed toward it. Even the car
> mechanic could exceed his training if he
> understood more. He might be more likely to invent
> a new tool or device if he had more background.

You'd be surprized at how much science is taught to kids. Somehow it's become important to turn every kid into an engineer or scientist, and forget the practical world. The end result is that we have just as few kids in science as ever, because no matter how hard you try you can't make a kid whose skill lies in carpentry into an engineer. A kid with an IQ of 78 isn't going to be an astrophysicist, no matter how simplistic you make things. Some kids are smarter than others, and some like the sciences, and some don't, and there's no way to change that. (My parents sure tried.)

In many places it's been so dumbed down the kids are too bored to care, in others it's been so politicized it's laughable. In California much of the science curriculum has been taken over by the locavore movement, with predictable results. My nieces, who graduated just 4 years ago, took agriculture classes to fulfill the science requirement. What did they do? Plant a garden. Important? Sure. Agribusiness is critical. Identical to chemistry or physics or biology? No. And this school is in the very top of high schools statewide.