What to Do About the Next Generations Science Standards

It may not seem relevant to the NGSS, but, within the first week of my first teaching job, I learned three things that have transformed the way I think about teaching.

The first was related to textbooks.  I was very concerned about my textbook.  I was teaching one hour of physics, one of chemistry, and four of biology, and I needed to know: in Biology, would  I be using the BSCS yellow....or green.  I was pretty frantic about it.

One Rebecca Scott, the director of our magnet program at North High School in Minneapolis told me this:

I was to never, ever determine what I taught by what was in a textbook.  I was hired for my expertise in the science.  I needed to know that science, and how students learn it, inside and out.  And the book would serve as a tool.  I was not to determine what I taught by what was in some book.

Ms. Scott did not mince words.

The second was related to the first.  I very much wanted to be the sponsor of a club, or something.  I didn't even really care which one it was, but I wanted to be part of the action.  I didn't know how to fence, but I would coach fencing if they would let me.

One Alethea Halcomb, perhaps the greatest physics teacher I have ever known, told me this:

"No."  I was not to coach or sponsor anything.  For three years at the least, because it would take me that long to have my curriculum down pat, and it was my job to learn the curriculum  inside and out.  When I got that down, then we could talk about fencing, or whatever.

The third was related to the standards that we had at the time in Minnesota.  I was very concerned about the standards.  Some of them were scary, and some seemed silly, and I didn't know with them.

One Michael Minnema, the finest of chemistry teachers, told me this:

Don't worry too much about the standards, for this too will pass.  Focus on the science, focus on students, do a good teach, and the rest would take care of itself.

That was in 1992.  In all of these years, I have never seen an instance in which these words were proven false.  And, I think that they still hold true in the face of the Next Generation Science Standards.

This NGSS thing is something of a political and economic behemoth.  They are not especially good standards.  If they were lumped into the pile of state standards, they would be somewhere in the middle of the pack.  (See the Fordham ratings of standards:  http://standards.educationgadfly.net/#me) Which means that they may make matters better in some places, and in some places they won't.  But either way, there may be no stopping them.

As instructors, what are we to do with that?

We will do what we've always done:  Know our content.  Know how students think about content.  Focus on the science, focus on the students, and do a good teach. The rest will have to take care of itself.