In this stage of the world's history, to be fearless, to be just and to be efficient are the three great requirements of national life. National efficiency is the result of natural resources well handled, of freedom of opportunity for every man, and of the inherent capacity, trained ability, knowledge, and will - collectively and individually - to use that opportunity. -Theodore Roosevelt, Message to Congress, January 22, 1909
World War II was undoubtedly the most pivotal time of change in American methods of teaching and learning to date, and the policies enacted then still strongly influence our primary focus today. Thanks to the considerable primary and supporting efforts of Vannevar Bush (no relation) in his role as the Director of the Office of Research and Development, military research helped facilitate the war ending in a favorable manner.
After the war, Bush advocated for the focus on basic research to continue on in peacetime. This was the beginning of the National Science Foundation.
Towards those ends, with our renewed focus and sense of purpose at the close of the war, beginning in the mid 50s we saw another revolution in the teaching of science. As with many times after a major military conflict, the US saw major postwar innovation on many fronts, and education was no exception. It was at this time that educators first began studying not only what was being taught, but also how it was being taught. Unfortunately, while many of the ideas fielded at the time had merit, most have since been discarded, cast out or heavily revised.
There was a major initiative led by the NSF in the 60s to reform education that serves as an example both of how not to and how to proceed. While policy makers had been concentrating on science as a means of keeping up with the Soviet Union, the scientific community became disillusioned with the public perception of science. Scientists wanted the public to understand what science is about.
Science is nothing more than investigating a subject in a wholly honest, fearless, and equitable manner. It is the pursuit of knowledge.