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Unread 24-11-2005, 11:25
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VEX Robotics Engineer
AKA: Arthur Dutra IV; NERD #18
FRC #0148 (Robowranglers)
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Join Date: Mar 2005
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Re: Students, what is your fantasy education system?

We should never censure reality for people, at least begining for students who are in junior high school or up. (By that point, they are becoming mature enough to understand.) When I was in elementary school, my parents always had the local ABC television news on in our kitchen, so I would watch it while I ate my breakfast. I never thought it was a bad thing, even though I would see things like bombings in Kosovo and refugees, etc. Now, I think of this as a great boost to my education, as I am usually the only one in the class who actually knows what is going on in the world.

Anyone remember Fahrenheit 451? We as a society should never let that future come to be. We should never ban books from anyone. Of the top 100 banned books in the United States, I have read most of them through my school district's curriculum. And although some may have objectible content to some people, the underlying reading-between-the-lines part is what makes these books some of my favorite.

Another thing I might add is begining school at an even younger age. The younger you start teaching people, the more it becomes perpetually wired into their brains. As the children get older, they are less likely to really learn new ways of thinking. Think of accents: once you are past twelve years old, you can never rid yourself of your native accent.

Currently, our educational system has much the same focus that it did in the 1800's - writing and 'rithmatic. These are the only topics tested in many of the standardized tests. But in today's society, science and history are just as important as math and English. Science is important becuase our ever evolving technology, and the fact that 1 in 5 Americans still believe the sun revolves around the Earth*. History is important, because if more people actually understood the past and how the political situation today came to be, they could make better choices.

Students and people in general need a solid education in science and history, since I have seen WAY too many people on both sides try to support a political stance with illogic reasoning or totally incorrect facts. This is horrible! It really hit home when my history teacher told our sophomore class last year that we were already smarter than 80% of all Americans. This needs to be fixed, otherwise our democracy will begin a long spiral into totalitarian fundamentalism.

I still believe that our education system can be fixed, and that we have not passed the point of no return. FIRST is doing a great job so far in the school district level and Vex Robotics is just starting to go mainstream (it recieved high remarks in Christmas toy reviews). FIRST is really making a difference in society, but its task is far from done. Only you can help finish it, by spreading the word of FIRST, starting new FRC, FVC, and FLL teams, and writing to your local politicians to try to catalyze new legislation that betters our education system.

*If you cannot get to the article, here is a the first part of it. I bolded the important part to make it more obvious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by New York Times
Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much

CHICAGO - When Jon D. Miller looks out across America, which he can almost do from his 18th-floor office at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, he sees a landscape of haves and have-nots - in terms not of money, but of knowledge.

Dr. Miller, 63, a political scientist who directs the Center for Biomedical Communications at the medical school, studies how much Americans know about science and what they think about it. His findings are not encouraging.

While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades, only 20 to 25 percent of Americans are "scientifically savvy and alert," he said in an interview. Most of the rest "don't have a clue." At a time when science permeates debates on everything from global warming to stem cell research, he said, people's inability to understand basic scientific concepts undermines their ability to take part in the democratic process.

Over the last three decades, Dr. Miller has regularly surveyed his fellow citizens for clients as diverse as the National Science Foundation, European government agencies and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. People who track Americans' attitudes toward science routinely cite his deep knowledge and long track record.

"I think we should pay attention to him," said Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, who cites Dr. Miller's work in her efforts to advance the cause of evolution in the classroom. "We ignore public understanding of science at our peril."

Rolf F. Lehming, who directs the science foundation's surveys on understanding of science, calls him "absolutely authoritative."

Dr. Miller's data reveal some yawning gaps in basic knowledge. American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.

At one time, this kind of ignorance may not have meant much for the nation's public life. Dr. Miller, who has delved into 18th-century records of New England town meetings, said that back then, it was enough "if you knew where the bridge should be built, if you knew where the fence should be built."

"Even if you could not read and write, and most New England residents could not read or write," he went on, "you could still be a pretty effective citizen."

No more. "Acid rain, nuclear power, infectious diseases - the world is a little different," he said.
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Art Dutra IV
Robotics Engineer, VEX Robotics, Inc., a subsidiary of Innovation First International (IFI)
Robowranglers Team 148 | GUS Robotics Team 228 (Alumni) | Rho Beta Epsilon (Alumni) | @arthurdutra

世上无难事,只怕有心人.

Last edited by artdutra04 : 24-11-2005 at 11:27. Reason: Minor grammar fix.
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