Even though I’ve spent my career focused on literacy, my sister blew my mind a few years back when she mentioned to me the problem with “science literacy” in our country. As an admittedly non-science minded person, this phrase surprised me. The problem with science literacy is that, well, people are illiterate.
You don’t have to look far to see that science illiteracy is an issue. Let’s start with the recent EPA deregulation of coal ash waste. If you want to keep looking, you can start down the path of controversial issues (that shouldn’t be controversial) like vaccinating children and climate change. I balked at a post in a Facebook group recently where a mother asked that we respect her “choice” regarding vaccines.
In my hunt for a good definition of science literacy, I found this one from Discover: “Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity. It also includes specific types of abilities.” There’s a lot more to it that you can read about here. There are lots of different definitions, of course, and schools and test-makers define it with a more academic bent.
What strikes me most about Discover’s definition is that it specifies that the knowledge is required for “personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity.” Truly, this applies to every facet of living life in a society. Whether or not you vaccinate, wash your hands regularly, recycle, believe in homeopathic remedies and the “healing” properties of essential oils is based on your level of scientific understanding. Even topics like infant sleep and organic produce are fraught with misinformation, misleading “studies,” and misinterpretation from people who aren’t science literate.
The danger in all of this comes from Dr. Google. I’m astounded when people like me think they know more than someone who’s spent their career in medicine or studying climate change. I’m not saying that a healthy questioning or second opinion is bad, but you still need to know what you’re asking, how to ask it, and of whom you’re asking it.
As a parent, I think about how important science literacy is to my family and to my children. I want them to experiment, to try things, to learn on a basic level. But I also want them to think critically, to look at sources, to make informed decisions in their lives. They need to be able to read, sure, but they really need to be able to reason. Here’s to advocating for science literacy, too.