One of the things I’d most like to happen in finance is for a science mindset to take hold.

Perhaps this would happen more if society as a whole were more scientifically oriented.  Perhaps society would be more scientifically oriented if schools taught science better.

Science in schools

The possibility of learning science in school is very similar to learning to cook haute cuisine by eating at a fast food restaurant.  You see some results — often not very good results.  You see none of the process.  And the experience is likely to turn off those most naturally interested.

Great news

There are places where science class really is about science.

An elementary school class in Devon got a paper published by the Royal Society: bumblebee foraging. A quote from the pupils is:

We also discovered that science is cool and fun because you get to do stuff that no one has ever done before.

Precisely.  It would be hard to find a better description of why I do what I do.

In addition to highlighting the possibility that education really can happen, this highlights the excessive need for education.  How profound must our ignorance be for  a group of 8, 9 and 10 year-olds to discover something new about a common species?

Epilogue

The school is Blackawton Primary School.

The journal is Biology Letters.

The species was bombus terrestris. (Photo via Wikipedia.)