Americans Are Missing a Key Stratum of Modern Knowledge

Updated at 4:50 p.m. on May 4, 2022

There are three things that I remember from my high-school Earth-science class: the swirling pink cover of the study book designed to help us pass New York State’s year-end test, the football player who seemed more intent on torturing me than on learning, and a nagging sense that what I was taking wasn’t “really” science.

The idea that Earth science barely counts as science is so woven into the educational landscape that it can feel like a truism instead of a choice. My high school, for example, offered Advanced Placement courses in biology, chemistry, and two flavors of physics, but at the time, none existed for Earth science. And, notes Mika McKinnon, a field researcher and geophysicist, this derision for the subject shows up all over popular culture—on The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons, and even college campuses, where introductory geology courses are often given the dismissive nickname “Rocks for Jocks.”  

I first became interested in how we’re educated in Earth science because, as a, and the ways that temperature changes in the ocean can lead to changes in the atmosphere (see: hurricanes). And this experience of needing to not only understand the science but also explain it to other people made me feel as though the education system has failed so many of us. Personal experiences and anecdotes are no substitute for data, but when I looked deeper at this problem, what I found was, frankly, bleak.