editorially /peaking C. P. Snow is credited with first describing what has hecome known as the two cultures-the division of a society into a group of persons who are scientifically and technically literate and everybody else. In this country the two cultures seem to develop early in the educational system, and a number of paradoxes exist. On the one hand, there is general confidence that American schools are continuing to produce enough professional scientists for the country's purposes. Yet some observers are increasingly concerned about a perceived growing chasm between the two cultures early in the educational orocess. ?he nation that has nurtured more Nobel Prize laureates in science than anv other sumorts an educational svstem that encourages scientific il&racy in the early grades. For the most part, citizens in this democracy are illequipped to make decisions that require scientific judgements and that are becoming increasingly routine. The concern over the issue of scientific literacy for some appears to mirror the post-Sputnik environment of the late 1950's. However that era was fundamentally different from the present situation, a t least in one respect. In the decade following Sputnik, the challenge was to develop a cadre of scientists who could assure this nation's competitiveness in scientific and technoloeical affairs. Todav. ..there is relativelv little concern over the nation's ability to produce scientists, although the details of the distribution of these scientists among industry and academics may he in question. The post-Sputnik concern with the development of scientists by the educational system involved relatively few students. In that era the task a t hand was relativelv straightforward hut not necessarily easy. Congress underwrote a major effort to upgrade the qualitv of science teaching in the Ltnited Statea. series of sophist
