The irony is that the current problems facing the United States and its schools in large measure are a result of the last major reform movement in science and math education. Before Sputnik, many science and math courses tended to be practical in nature: the chemistry of food for future homemakers, the geometry of woodworking for would-be carpenters.

That is in striking contrast to most other industrialized countries, where teaching posts in science and math are highly sought, and where students receive four or five years of progressively rigorous training in all areas of math and science at the high school level, preceded by as much as six carefully coordinated years of math and science classes at the elementary level.

Either for cultural reasons or because of fundamental inequities in the U.S. educational system, many minority groups-especially blacks and Latinos-have never been particularly drawn to science and math. And while women have made some advances in earning doctorates in scientific fields in recent years, the situation is expected to reverse itself within a matter of years. The latest figures from the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science show that the percentages of women earning undergraduate degrees in science and engineering has actually and inexplicably been declining for the past two years.