If you think widespread ignorance of basic science and maths is bad now, talk to your local school about the…

If you think widespread ignorance of basic science and maths is bad now, talk to your local school about the impossibility of finding maths and science teachers. Societies are in a STEM death spiral, a self-reinforcing implosion. /1 https://t.co/t2H6KZr5mX

The more we can’t find people to teach these subjects (well), the fewer people will leave school with any intention of doing anything science or maths-related. So it’s getting continuously worse. Not helped by decades of a shift of educational focus to ‘job-ready graduates’. /2

I’ve had to teach my own kids a lot of their science and maths, because what they were getting at school was so appallingly bad. Nothing to do with teacher quality. and everything to do with a culture that pays little attention to these subjects. Business studies is booming. /3

Meaningless job-ready subjects that provide about as much educational value as eating cardboard does for you nutritionally. Kids actively encouraged to drop ‘hard’ subjects like science and maths, to ‘protect their mental health’. It’s an ocean of dumb out there. /end