Two legitimate reasons to be angry about science education

[the_archfiend]

Both of the following reasons were found via Ed Brayton's Dispatches from the Culture Wars, and both one of them are quite disturbing, to say the least:

A study concerning the level of knowledge among science teachers in Oklahoma on the very subjects they're supposed to be teaching proved that their supposed expertise is downright abysmal, and - unsurprisingly - the abysmal nature of that lack of knowledge extends straight down to the students they're supposed to be teaching. I could also go on about the AP/GfK poll that reveals some equally scary facts about the lack of acceptance of science in the American population at large, but enough people have already done that - but perhaps not loudly enough, though.

The most horrible thing revealed here is that Oklahoma - a state where I normally joke that "all the cool people I know from that state have escaped" (not quite true, but close enough) has had know-nothing idiots like Sally Kern and Josh Brecheen (feel free to look them up - I patently refuse to link to their own web sites for obvious reasons) trying to pass laws weakening science education in that state even further for decades. All in the name of getting the Yahoos to re-elect you over and over again, of course, and also to apparently produce a new generation of the Future Fry Chefs of America out of that vast mass of intellectually incurious high school graduates that they're effectively created.

The sad thing is that Neil deGrasse Tyson said it boldly a while ago, and not enough people listened. Not nearly enough. Which is why I'm reposting it again. For your kids' sakes, if no one else's.

Comments

Creating a Simpleton Nation Has A Surprisingly Simple Source...

[ugitsisgv kanouludi (from livejournal.com)]

What you are putting your finger on in this blog is actually a nationwide problem, but it's from a deceptively simple and easily fixed source...Namely, apathy. In each of our states, our local representatives are elected, or reelected, into political offices by dent of how many people make the effort to actually show up and vote for or against the candidate. You may hate the fact that you have a crack whore for a mayor, and you may wonder how this individual keeps getting reelected when you *know* the majority of your neighbors despise this character too. No matter what sentiment is in the majority, if none of the people in that majority show up to vote, and the handful of cretins who are in favor of the crack whore mayor do show up and vote...Guess who gets or stays in office? It really *is* that simple...Unless you are in Florida. They've been repeatedly busted for rigging votes. Again, wouldn't happen if enough local people actually put aside their individual issues and agree that, no matter what they *don't* have in common, what they *do* have in common is what they need to vote on *together*.