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Putting more money into basic research is only the beginning, the easy part, as Edward Teller and his fellow scientists see it. The tough problem is to bring about a drastic improvement in science education in the nation's high schools in order to ensure an adequate supply of scientists in the future. Only one U.S. high-school student out of two dozen takes any physics at all, and only one out of four takes algebra.
The contrast with Russian schools is staggering. In the Russian primary and secondary schools there is a standard nationwide curriculum. Children too dull to pass get shifted to vocational schools. The exceptionally bright are put into special schools attached to the universities. Scientific content of the standard curriculum: mathematics through trigonometry, five years of physics, four years of chemistry, general science (mostly natural history) in every grade beginning with the fourth. Warns AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss: "I can learn of no public high school in our country where a student obtains so thorough a preparation in science and mathematics, even if he seeks it—even if he should be a potential Einstein."
Science & Baseball. There is one underlying reason, in Edward Teller's view, for both the neglect of science education and the lack of appreciation for pure research: "A tone deafness toward science in our .society at large." If the public had an ear for science, then the taxpayers would be more willing to support pure research and science education, and more schoolchildren would get interested in science. Like many gifted scientists, Teller believes there is no special inborn talent for science, feels that talent is basically intense interest. The way to produce future scientists is to get them interested in science early. "Ten years old may not be early enough," he says, "but it is certainly not too early."
To develop an ear for science in the public, Teller advocates "science-appreciation" programs for both children and adults. "Baseball could not flourish without fans," he says, "but where are the science fans?"
Even if the U.S. manages to win the science race, says Edward Teller, "there are bigger problems for tomorrow: how to live with each other on a greatly contracted globe; how to have law and order in the world; how to extend industrialization throughout the world; how to eliminate racial strife and solve the problems of the heritage of hatred left behind by oppression and past discords. In all these really difficult problems, the problem of the scientific race is only a small part. But if we fail in that, we won't even have a voice in these bigger problems."