Ask most American children what they want to be when they grow up, and they probably will say "doctor" or "lawyer."

Though our culture, our economy, indeed our very security are heavily dependent on science and engineering, only 12 percent of American high school students graduate with the prerequisites for a career in science or engineering. Worse yet, only 6 percent of minority children are said to be so prepared.

Don't be too surprised. If you ask further why the majority of the high school students would choose a career in medicine or law, the answers will be straight out of some popular TV shows.

"Doctors help people. They save lives." "Lawyers beat the bad guys." Most students would say.

Now, how about science or engineering as a career choice? The answers will be just as predictable: "Get real! Who wants to be a geek? They all are nerds. Besides, I hate math."

In our media, scientists and engineers typically are portrayed as introverted and humorless. They always wear white lab coats, with a collection of pencils in their pocket protectors. They wear glasses with black plastic frames.

If more students are to choose technical careers, they must have a better view presented to them.

They need to be told, for instance, that the invention of lifesaving equipment saves lives just as surely as the application of it in the hospital.

It also might help if someone emphasized to students that the lawyer who saved the defendant by introducing the DNA evidence would have seen him hanged had it not been for the scientists who discovered DNA.

Whatever we do, until students stop thinking of the term "engineer" as a synonym for "geek," it is impossible to expect our children to change their views towards scientists and engineers.