It pointed out that test scores had been declining almost steadily since the 1960s. Science instruction is particularly weak. In 1992, a panel of the nation's governors noted that U.S. students ranked last in science and mathematics achievement when compared with their peers in other nations. Unfortunately, instead of strengthening our science programs, environmental education has made them worse. Straying from Science, and Then Some I n the past, most environmental education was called ecology and it was taught as a part of science.
Children learn about the carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles.
This text exemplifies the way science books used to cover ecological issues. By 1990, for example, more Pennsylvania high school students enrolled in environmental science classes than in physics. Environmental education spread from junior high and high school to the primary grades. And it invaded other subjects in an oversimplified way. Texts on health, geography, civics, and history now typically contain one or more environmental chapters.