Chosing to major in science

Geeky Mom has an interesting series of posts about why ended up becoming a writer instead of a scientist, despite her early interest in science and math. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

It got me thinking about how a college freshman who is unsure of what she wants to major in probably has a much easier time dabbling in social science and humanities courses than in science. At least in my own undergraduate experience, the introductory courses that science majors were required to take were huge, so students received very little individual attention. On top of that, there were long laboratory sections at least once a week. It's very hard to imagine anyone taking introductory chemistry out of curiosity or for "fun". In contrast, even though I was a science major I took a bunch of humanities and social science courses (German, history, cultural anthropology, etc.) just because I found them interesting.

There were science classes for non-science majors, of course, but they were essentially watered-down versions of the real thing. You couldn't take the special "physics for poets" course and use it to fulfill the requirements of a physics major, but I took history classes along with the history majors. Is this a sign of a general deficiency in the teaching of science and math at American high schools? Is there something inherently more difficult about learning the sciences? Or is it unrealistic to think that college students should be capable of taking introductory classes in every department, be it English or Biology?

Tags: science education