Something in the US system seems to work against teenagers maintaining an interest in science.
I believe it is the culture at large and not something specific to the educational system. The US is anti-education and specifically anti-intellectual. Despite lip service toward education, you can hear the sizzle of venom and acid dripping from lips of Republican leaders and many other conservatives when they discuss universities and science in particular.
After graduation in America's heartland... and into a full recession I was forced to try and find work in the retail sector. While there I was fully chastised, and I guess I should say harassed and discriminated against for being educated and having an interest in science.
One woman specifically looked at me with pure disgust and then yelled to everyone else where we worked "He's a scientist! Hey everyone we have a
scientist!" It was so filled with hate and bile I thought I was going to be lynched afterward. And let me explain, this was not because I said something controversial about evo vs creo or something. I just mentioned something about chemistry or physics.
At another place I was rejected for employment as the interviewer laughed in my face saying they (everyone who worked there) didn't understand why anyone would ever want to go and get a college education.
Even once I moved to the city, there was an intellectual and science negative atmosphere. When I loaned some books to my gf on evolutionary theory and she was reading them at work, coworkers came up and hassled her for believing such things.
Coming to Europe I have never seen anything like that (until recently), and most people having some respect if not interest in the sciences.
I think it was a mistake. They should have come in with dozens of scientists from different disciplines explaining what science is, why the ToE is science and is supported, why ID is ridiculous and show that the scientific community takes science seriously at every level. What they did was make it look like they did not want to show up to a race they think they can't win.
I cannot say it was a mistake. This was really a lose/lose situation. By not going in they might look as if scientists have something to hide (which is of course what one of the board members said). But by attending the board review they might have done something a lot more damaging.
Remember that ID is making great hay out of anything they can do which brings scientists out. They say "See this must be important because scientists came and had to debate". What's worse this was a fixed race. By testifying and presenting all sorts of great evidence, the board could then go ahead and do what they wanted to do anyway and declare that the evidence was presented and ID was proven correct, setting a political/legal precedent for them to quote endlessly.
It may be better off having them have to refer to the fact that scientists refused to show up, than that they did show up and were "proven wrong before a panel of intelligent and educated educators chosen by the entire state of Kansas and so surely objective and forthright in their decision and proving that democracatically elected government agencies recognize the necessity of this debate and the position of ID in that debate."
After that it will be asking why other states are being held back, because obviously if the debate was held fairly ID would win its case in every state.
Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour. This might be one, even if discretion is often mistaken as cowardice. Challenging them to a fair fight will reveal where the cowardice lies.
And actually I like how this move has helped force them into the open on their true agenda. They might have avoided discussing the real element in this (ending the scientific method) by discussing all the "weak points" of evolution. Certainly that would be buried in the broader debate.
holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)
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