Re: VERY OT--political note(please ignore if you think it's too OT)

Julie Bove <juliebove@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

: "Wes Groleau" <Groleau+news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
: news:getoge$g05$1@xxxxxxxxxxx
: > Michelle C wrote:
: >> I really don't see how people can funtion without knowing where nations,
: >> cities, etc. are located. To me, that's like failing to understand the
: >> Earth circles the sun.
: >
: > Which also has little bearing on daily life.
: > While I deplore the prevalence of ignorance,
: > I can't consider it essential to functioning.
: >
: > I know which island Napier is on, but that knowledge
: > doesn't really make much difference in my interactions
: > with someone who lives there, much less have any effect
: > on my sugar or my salary.

: Exactly.

: I can remember someone asking in 5th grade why we needed to learn what the
: state capitals were. The teacher replied something like, "Let's say you're
: in a bar and some guy comes up to you and asks you what the capital of North
: Dakota is?"

: I replied to him if I were in a bar and some guy said something like that to
: me, my life would have to be pretty pathetic.

: And now when Angela asks me why she has to know certain things, I simply do
: not have an answer for her. I can honestly say that for the most part, math
: beyond the simple stuff does not enter my daily life. Yes, I need to know
: how to add and subtract to balance my checkbook, pay bills and make sure I
: am not being overcharged for things at the store. But with the labeling
: most grocery stores have these days, I don't even need to use my brain to
: figure out the price per ounce and stuff like that.

: If I were going to use wallpaper or paint or do something like sew a dress,
: I would need some math skills there to find out how much material to buy.

: In cooking, I might need to know how to scale up or down a recipe. But if I
: go to certain websites and find a suitable recipe, I can just do that right
: online with a mere click of the mouse.

: But I have never had to figure out the arc of an angle. Or what kind of
: triangle I was looking at. Or patterns. Or what comes next in a sequence.
: Or how to add figures in the millions and trillions. I did learn that my
: calculator only goes to 8 digits. Not that I couldn't add up those numbers
: on my own, but I've just never had to.

: My friend and I actually discussed the math the other day and she concluded
: that perhaps they are exposing kids to all this stuff in the hopes that some
: kids will be interested and will one day get jobs that require such skills.
: Although we didn't know offhand what those jobs might be. I was told once
: by a contractor that he graduated from college with an advanced math degree.
: He said it was necessary for his line of work.

: Writing enters my life on a daily basis because I like to do it. If I
: didn't, I wouldn't have become a writer. And I must say most of what I see
: here on this newsgroup is well written. Yes, I know some people have
: trouble with their eyes and perhaps with their fingers. They make typos.

: But elsewhere? Eek! I go to several forums where the concept of a
: paragraph has escaped people. Some are clueless about punctuation. Or when
: to use upper case and lower case. And the spelling? Or botched up phrases!
: Like "If worse comes to worse". It really makes me wonder how these people
: made it out of school. And then someone pointed out to me that maybe they
: didn't. That might be the case.

: Science? Perhaps that has helped me with cooking and gardening. And with
: medical things.

: I think classes like drama and dance have helped me to build self confidence
: and to help relating to people.

: Art? Perhaps that helped with decorating the house.

: I worked in the school library and learned the Dewey Decimal System. Like I
: use THAT on a daily basis. I have pretty much forgotten it now. And
: everything is on the computer now. Nor more card catalogs.

: In fact I think most of what I had to learn in school is stuff that doesn't
: enter into my daily life at all now.

No one knows whta a 10 year old will finally be interested in and will hae
to face in life, either through choice or otherwise. If you don't master
basic skills like math, language, History, Geography, Science, etc as a
yongster you are closing the door on many possible futures for a child.
maybe you don't need hgher math or Science, but many peopledo in their
work or interests adn hobbies as they move along in life. For you, Drama
and Dance gave you self conficence, for others, succeeding in a school
subject or on the sports field or on the violin, etc does it for them. Yu
can't cut out subjets at a young age or there are too few choices for a
person as they mature and move into the adult world.

In addition, just knowing thngs makes life so much more interesting. My
science is quuite old, as I finished university over 50 years ago and my
subsiquent education was not science based, but iI have a general
knowledge tht enables me to understand things in the news or things I
discuss with my biologist son or computer programmer son. I also find tha
thaveintg a full mind keeps me happily reading and learning new things. I
read the whole Taubes book, in cluding several goes at the physiology that
was entirely new to me adn lved that I could conquor it and follow is
thught.

I studies genetics when Mendel and dihbred crosses were he big thing. I
never learned about DNA in school and still have only a hazy
understanding of it. I am sory to have missed that as it was just coming
in when I was at school. My father remembered learning about those
mysterious things, rdio waves, when he was in High School. It was
challanging but gave him some insight into what came later. Curiosity may
have killed the cat, but it never does to inquiring individual.

Wendy-Rant off



.

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