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.
Theyve 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, Boyles law, and Ohms 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 Blairs ministers received a report from academics at Kings 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 Chaddertons 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.
Its 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 whats in store for them.
There were no exams. Students were assigned to make a salad once a week and were graded for its quality, originality, and nutritional value.
I teach math at a regional comprehensive university with 6000 students. We don't have a physics degree. It sort of fell through the cracks in the late 1960s when the four-year programs were being put together in what had been only a two-year program campus. Many of us have long since wanted to remedy this, but won't get a physics degree because it would only attract a handful of majors (we can't afford new faculty lines). We do offer BS/BA degrees in math, chem and bio. The latter has hundreds of majors.
ping
The students are smart; they know where the jobs will be when they graduate. Physics isn't one of the major employers, either in number of opening or in salary.
Britannia ping
No kidding. I was arguing with a guy who did not want more reactors because they might give him cancer (pure BS BTW). However, he did have a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Go figure.
Good grief! - - 10 years from now... PhD thesis = "Pot Holes are Bad". LOL!
Indeed it would.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but generally speaking, once you get past junior high school (ie past grade 8 or 9) don't students in north America generally have the option to bypass science courses altogether? At least in my personal experience I never learned any real hard science in terms of chemistry or physics until grades 11 and 12, and those courses were entirely optional. "Science" classes in elementary and junior high were jokes, really, where I can't recally learning much more than a smattering of biology and some basic scientific concepts. No real lab exercises to speak of. Most of my schoolmates who weren't planning further studies in the sciences never took physics, chemistry or biology. Personally I never took high school biology, not having an interest in it. Forcing people who have no interest in the sciences to study them is unlikely to produce graduates who have any real understanding of those sciences, IMO.
Personally I just wish that scientific illiterates like most reporters weren't allowed to comment on science stories that they not the slightest understanding of.
No, it's an accurate description of ID. The best way to introduce ID is to trash science in general. That's the only way ID can be considered science.
"My Miracle Weight Loss Plan!"
They could slash their education budget, and just have the kids watch TV all day....
Will you give it a rest already.
Can't you guys at least limit your insults to the ID / Evolution threads. Why do you feel the need to hijack other threads by baiting people with snide comments.
No, I won't give it a rest. Science education and ID intertwined. People who don't understand science think they are separate, but ID is a threat to science education in general. What the British are doing is, for practical purposes almost the same. At least the British aren't trying to pass non-science off as science. Without science we will be cutting our own throats in terms of technological and scientific advances that, thus far have help make the U.S. a fantastic nation.
Now we know.
LOL!!
That's great.
Regardless, I will not comment any more about this subject on this thread. The 10 Evolution / ID threads per month are more than enough.
I paraphrased the line from the "Talking Rings" scene in the 1960's version of the "Time Machine."
I was about to search on-line to see if it also occurred in the book but then remembered that this was one of those instances where the movie was actually better than the book. The "Talking Rings" scene (and most of the second half of the movie) didn't occur in the book.
Glad you liked it.
And 10/month is only a fraction of the total number ;)
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but generally speaking, once you get past junior high school (ie past grade 8 or 9) don't students in north America generally have the option to bypass science courses altogether?"
That's how it was when I went to school in the 1960's and '70's. I took biology in ninth grade and supposedly I was done. Only reason I took physics and chemistry my senior year in high school is that I aced the science part of the ACT and my counselor suggested them (loved physics; hated chemistry). But I'm pretty sure that high score was due to my addiction to Isaac Asimov's non-fiction, not school. ;)
I homeschool, but I've seen the requirements for public schools my state, and the science requirments at the grade school level are laughable. Sort of a symbolic effort until sixth grade, and not very serious after that.
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