Third in a series
Re “Candidate Robins Has a Handy Specialty: Figuring Out”
[img]2049|right|Suzanne Robins||no_popup[/img]Sue Robins, one of the intriguing candidates for School Board in November, seems like such a natural for her chosen field – consulting, training, designing curriculums for businesses and schools – was she planning this direction during the six years she taught here at the Middle School?
“When I was teaching, my goal was keeping the kids interested in science,” she said. “I want there to be more scientists. That would be one of my agendas.”
Why aren’t they?
“A number of reasons, no single reason. Part of it is because of our culture. Our culture does not really treat… the kids’ culture does not treat kids who are interested in science all that well. It’s not cool to be interested in science.
“That,” Ms. Robins said, “is a cultural effect. It has a lot to do with pop culture. It is just cool to do many other things, not science. Less serious. Not substantive. This has been true for many years.
“To do well at science, you have to be pretty serious and work pretty hard.”
How could Ms. Robins or any classroom teacher encourage following a scientific path?
“First, relevance becomes important for kids,” she said. “They have to understand why they are learning things. They have to understand why it matters now and why it will
matter to them in the big, bad world when they leave school.
“It is particularly important for girls, believe it or not. Girls actually need that reason more than boys do.”
(To be continued)
