Posted on 09/29/2005 7:30:22 AM PDT by ZGuy
The report that a hospital in West Yorkshire has banned visitors from cooing at new-born babies is, in fact, only the second dumbest thing the Brits have lately done.
They’ve also removed science from the school curriculum. New regulations just announced by the Blair government, and taking effect next year, will allow students to bypass the hard sciences in favor of courses deemed “relevant.” More precisely, students will be permitted to choose between traditional courses that teach the Periodic Table, ionic equations, the structure of the atom, Boyle’s law, and Ohm’s law – and newly-designed courses that will teach about the drugs debate, slimming issues, smoking and health, in vitro fertilization, and “the nuclear controversy”. According to The Times of London, the new regulations were adopted after Tony Blair’s ministers received a report from academics at King’s College, London, which concluded that “science lessons were often dull and boring, and required pupils to recall too many facts.”
Not surprisingly, the new courses – officially called TwentyFirst Century Science – are a hit with students. At North Chadderton upper school – one of 80 at which the new program has already been pilot-tested -- students who previously had been forced to learn physics and chemistry were, instead, taught what foods to eat. According to North Chadderton’s head of science, Martyn Overy,
“The proportion getting higher grades in science went up from 60 percent to 75 percent. The course kept their interest, had more project work, and was more relevant.”
It’s hard to imagine anything a government could do that would be more likely than this to condemn its people to technological and economic backwardness. That it would happen in Great Britain – which has given humanity so many of its very greatest scientific minds, including Issac Newton and Francis Bacon – is beyond belief. Well, almost beyond belief.
Those poor, un-cooed-at babies in West Yorkshire have no idea what’s in store for them.
Oh, yes they can. You didn't see the misdirection there. You see, what they mean by "controversy" isn't really controversy, which you would expect requires two (at least) definite positions, with supporting arguments on each side. For that, you would need hard science, but for this "controversy" all that is needed is the proper attitudes. Information only gets in the way of the sort of "education" that is thought proper for the proles.
Dr. Petr Beckmann used to comment on the "nuclear debate" in the USA by pointing out that it was no "debate" at all, only a monologue.
No one can remember when or how the decision was made to divide humanity into the Eloi and the Morlocs.
Now we know.
I beleice they will be content that understanding will be insifficient for effective arguement.
Uh... In other words...
There will become a fleet of people who are trained to have certain opinions, who have no intellectual foundation with which to grapple. Their minds cannot be changed. You will not be able to "reason away" bad science, because they will have no clue what you are talking about.
These folks will be ripe to join the "2 + 2 = 5" generation. Telling them that 2 + 2 = 4 will not help, for they will not know how to add.
(Actually, no need to, George. We can hear you just fine where you are.)
I guess they won't be producing many scientists, engineers or medical workers in a few years. Britain is sliding to third world status pretty fast. Then again, coupled with the growing muslim population, did anyone not see this coming?
Sounds like the crevo threads on FR. Lots of creationist types trying to bash evolution, yet they don't even know (or want to learn) the basic definitions of evolution.
THis might interest you. Seems like all of Britain has decided learning science is too hard and boring. Maybe the IDer's will look to this for inspiration. It would fit with their agenda.
Well sure, why not? Earth, Wind, and Fire; that's all we need to know! Praise Odin
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LOL!
This explains it...
The British were asked about Blogging and they confused it with Dogging...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3119024.stm
"Taking mathematics from the beginning of the world to the time when Newton lived, what he has done is much the better part." Gottfried Leibniz
Andrew
Well, they could mandate teaching "Intelligent Design..."
The "nuclear controversy" and the "evolution contoversy" here in the US are both symptoms of poor education.
We need to increase, not decrease, basic science teaching. OTOH, though, we also need to improve the quality of the teaching in math and all the hard sciences.
blatent misrepresentation of ID.
lack of wit.
If this ping list is for incredibly stupid government actions re science, I'd like on.
Physics has been disappearing from classrooms for several years. Lack of interest. It's unfortunate that such a fertile ground of metaphor is being denied the poets of the next generation. But, perhaps it is appropriate that evolution instead of laws should provide figures for the next stages of societal transformation.
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