science phobia

One of B's students opined the other day that he hates science and finds it difficult. I find this weird: is not the entire structure of modernity - our worldview - based on the paradigm of scientific inquiry and rational explanation? Are we not completely saturated in every aspect of our lives with a belief in rationality and human progress in knowledge?

I assume that the scientific method is taught in grade school, and I know that students in the primary grades are also taught to justify claims with evidence. However, while modernity may operate on a "verify the facts" basis, students don't always internalize this.

Are people in general LESS convinced of the scientific method? One sees the new agey stuff, polls that suggest people believe in miracles and UFOs and Elvis sightings and the power of crystals. But in fewer or in greater proportions than in previous decades?

Plus our media-saturated culture encourages us to accept "truth" as frequency of message rather than evidence supporting it: "If you say it often enough people will believe it."

I can't help thinking that science phobia at its most elemental equals lack of curiosity about how things work, and THAT is really scary, but lack of curiosity is what I observe in many of my students. Many of them accept the world as it is and have no interest in WHY things are the way they are.

My Marxist colleagues make this a class issue, something along the lines of "our working class students are too oppressed to imagine a world in which they have the power to change." But for me, college is exactly the first step: the knowledge of WHY the world is as it is is the beginnings of power to imagine and effect change.