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I discourage useless degrees that churn out unemployable educated idiots.
There are no useless degrees. College isn’t a trade school. College grads are not unemployable. They are more likely to have fewer periods of unemployment and higher lifetime earnings than those who never went to college. Calling college grads idiots says more about you than them.
There are a lot of powerful forces aligned against scientific education in our country, most notably of these forces are the religious contingent and the corporate interest contingent...both these Ultra powerful forces have fought tooth-and-nail against scientific education and it shows as we have to import the vast majority of our scientific talent from countries that have a socialized educational system and thus wildly out perform us in every measurable category since all their people have equal access to education reguardless of their social economic status and this puts our capitalist educational system at a hopeless disadvantage versus the socialized power houses of Asia in particular.
As someone who has spent the majority of their career in the sciences it is endlessly entertaining how inept the average American is in questions of basic sceince and how much this educational level varies from region to region
In answering a basic scientific question on a social media site lately i was besieged with people with 1/5th my resume calling me all kinds of names and posting silly comedic gifs out of frustration..i assumed these people were teens or at least young adults but after some digging i found out they were adults in their 40ties in some cases!!!
No matter what the question may be
*life at conception
*evolution
*global warming
We dont seem to take the scientific facts as seriously as most "developed" nations
* i am politically neutral as i love guns and think religion should be taught in school yet i support labor unions/net nutrality
Perhaps we are so bad at science because somebody paid the lawmakers to nerf the system....after all, if you run big religion or big corporations your probably not to keen on a scientifically educated populace...bad for "business"
Haven't read the whole thread, but no, it's not religion that causes the problems with science. As a country we were highly religious up until the past couple of decades AND at the same time, we were forward look, industrialized, high tech. Think back to Ben Franklin, through Thomas Edison, Simon Lake, right through the Wright Brothers, atomic energy, the space program, the 100 and 200 inch telescopes, integrated circuits, ARPANET, right until today. The idea that religion is anti science is pure bunk spread by those who have animus toward religion.
Let's instead look at when this country started doubting science. Sometime in the 60s/70s it started with the counter culture, don't trust anyone over 30 generation. The anti science bent spreads through the education system where teachers have little to no math and science education. APS did a study that shows less than 1/3 of high school science teachers actually have a degree in the subject vs a degree in some form of science teaching. The teachers themselves dislike math and science and pass that fear along to kids. Who in turn think "science" is hard; something that only the nerds and geeks and other unpopular kids understand. In school, ignorance is cool. Knowledge is forbidden.
Now take those same science-fearing kids and grow them up to distrust "big" anything -- big government, big business, big science. Feed them with a media that doesn't distinguish between science and pseudo science where the pseudo science uses words that they can understand vs the math required in real science. Teachers themselves fall prey to pseudo science in the media and then teach it in the classroom.
My solution? Start with the teachers. Require degrees in actual science and math from degree granting institutions, not "schools of education." Pay those with the degree commensurate with what industry pays for that degree. Require hard core science in high school to graduate.
Yep, this topic really spins me up because I worry about the quality of science education in this country. Religion isn't the problem; it's a red herring to distract from the real problem -- the education system and media. I raised two kids through this system, one who went on to be a practicing physicist, and it scared me to see how hard the education system worked against kids who wanted to learn science, esp young women and girls, actively discouraging them at times.
Haven't read the whole thread, but no, it's not religion that causes the problems with science. As a country we were highly religious up until the past couple of decades AND at the same time, we were forward look, industrialized, high tech. Think back to Ben Franklin, through Thomas Edison, Simon Lake, right through the Wright Brothers, atomic energy, the space program, the 100 and 200 inch telescopes, integrated circuits, ARPANET, right until today. The idea that religion is anti science is pure bunk spread by those who have animus toward religion.
Let's instead look at when this country started doubting science. Sometime in the 60s/70s it started with the counter culture, don't trust anyone over 30 generation. The anti science bent spreads through the education system where teachers have little to no math and science education. APS did a study that shows less than 1/3 of high school science teachers actually have a degree in the subject vs a degree in some form of science teaching. The teachers themselves dislike math and science and pass that fear along to kids. Who in turn think "science" is hard; something that only the nerds and geeks and other unpopular kids understand. In school, ignorance is cool. Knowledge is forbidden.
Now take those same science-fearing kids and grow them up to distrust "big" anything -- big government, big business, big science. Feed them with a media that doesn't distinguish between science and pseudo science where the pseudo science uses words that they can understand vs the math required in real science. Teachers themselves fall prey to pseudo science in the media and then teach it in the classroom.
My solution? Start with the teachers. Require degrees in actual science and math from degree granting institutions, not "schools of education." Pay those with the degree commensurate with what industry pays for that degree. Require hard core science in high school to graduate.
Yep, this topic really spins me up because I worry about the quality of science education in this country. Religion isn't the problem; it's a red herring to distract from the real problem -- the education system and media. I raised two kids through this system, one who went on to be a practicing physicist, and it scared me to see how hard the education system worked against kids who wanted to learn science, esp young women and girls, actively discouraging them at times.
Im talking about anti abortion people depicting a fully developed fetus at 3 weeks post conception and "omnicorps" comminishinging a study that suggests that "chemical x" is perfectly safe to dump into the ocean
these characters have special interist groups who actively seek to do things like eliminate the term "evolution" from school programs and allow development in flood zones
Science is the enemy of many major industries
(Like the petrol chemical corps killing battery technology)
Im talking about anti abortion people depicting a fully developed fetus at 3 weeks post conception and "omnicorps" comminishinging a study that suggests that "chemical x" is perfectly safe to dump into the ocean
these characters have special interist groups who actively seek to do things like eliminate the term "evolution" from school programs and allow development in flood zones
Science is the enemy of many major industries
(Like the petrol chemical corps killing battery technology)
Do you not see that you are falling prey to the very pseudo science media and education system I was talking about? Conspiracy theories that science from "big anything" isn't to be trusted? Those were exactly the points I was talking about in answer to your original question.
Everyone in the United States wants to use the King James Bible as a science textbook?
What support do you have for this claim?
My SIL has a Masters Degree in Science and teaches HS science. His younger son is Autistic while he older son isn't. Received same number of childhood vaccinations. He blames vaccinations on his younger son's Autism. "Some are more prone than others and it not a one size fits ALL". Asked him about Andrew Wakefield and he never heard of him. Jenny McCarthy is Donny's wife to him. Even my elderly husband with a BS degree, who sees many doctors and gets every vaccine recommended, said "Be careful with young BOYS and vaccinations".It is a statistical fact that there are far more boys with autism than girls.
Require more science courses for college? Forget the Bible as a science textbook. I was raised Catholic and the King James Bible was a BANNED BOOK.:rolleyesis
Factually, the OP question is that we are lot dumber right now than many nations and people.
Using actual metrics and statistics just proves that point. For example, that 85% of Americans supported a war in a place they could not point to on a Globe tells you quite a bit.
That Americans will pay 11K per person per year (double what others pay) for health care is another statistic that cannot be denied.
That's before you get into all the stuff that Americans can be made to believe based on a news story or Facebook share.
My SIL has a Masters Degree in Science and teaches HS science. His younger son is Autistic while he older son isn't. Received same number of childhood vaccinations. He blames vaccinations on his younger son's Autism. "Some are more prone than others and it not a one size fits ALL". Asked him about Andrew Wakefield and he never heard of him. Jenny McCarthy is Donny's wife to him. Even my elderly husband with a BS degree, who sees many doctors and gets every vaccine recommended, said "Be careful with young BOYS and vaccinations".It is a statistical fact that there are far more boys with autism than girls.
Require more science courses for college? Forget the Bible as a science textbook. I was raised Catholic and the King James Bible was a BANNED BOOK.:rolleyesis
If all kinds of theories were going to be thrown forward, it's more like that.....
1. Male brains are wired differently.
2. Pretty well known that Older Males having children...children are more likely to have autism (one example of that in my extended family).
3. Lack of vaginal births (natural childbirth) and breast feeding/bonding
4. Pollutants of sorts....food, air, water, etc.
Dollars to donuts when all the causes are found 2 or more of the above will be related. If Vaccines are related at all they will down at the level of "He ate big macs and drank more than 2 drinks a day" or lower. Correlation, not causation...or one of many actions which combines to disconnect enough neurons in the child.
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