The metaphor works better than we had imagined it would. New patterns for reform are emerging as leaders work to bring order out of chaos on their individual campuses, putting pieces together in ways that make sense for them, for their students and faculty, for their distinctive capacity to serve the larger national purpose. If we could read behind these statements, we might see that the capacities of leadership needed in this century are precisely those capacities that come from a rigorous engagement with mathematics, engineering and the various fields of science. This was a key point addressed in the first PKAL report, in a discussion on why each and every student today should have the best possible learning experiences in these fields during his or her undergraduate years. Science teaches better than most subjects what few political or industrial leaders appear willing to admit- that one learns more from what goes wrong than from predictable success.
Scientists seek insight from experiments that fail.
Society would be well-served if all leaders expressed authentic respect for honest error and openly admitted to changing their views, based on new evidence. Share ideas freely. Science thrives on the exchange of ideas and data, since only through such free flow can understanding be achieved and validated. There is no surer defense against persistent folly than the bright light of complete information. Although data can surely mislead or be misinterpreted, they are less subject to anomalous perturbations than are strongly held convictions or ingrained prejudice.