On 21/05/2008, Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 10:42 AM, rick wrote:
In other words, that a few schools in a few small towns teach it
alongside real science doesn't concern me much. They don't teach it
in my son's schools, but if they did, he'd get some schooling from me.
I'm reminded of the famous mathematician Ramanujan. I wonder how he
would have turned out if his teachers had taught gibberish alongside
his mathematics in the same class, with the same text, at the same
time all under the moniker of 'mathematics?' By the way, his family
was very devout.
Never underestimate the importance of basic education. Science lessons
are not just for the few who are going to be Nobel Prize winners. It
is vital in a scientific age that people generally have an
understanding of what science is and how it operates. To mislead
school students into believing that there is a controversy, within
biology, between evolution and Intelligent Design is a long term
recipe for disaster.
My own favourite schoolroom story concerns John Dalton, the pioneer of
modern atomic theory. In 1826, the French chemist Pierre-Joseph
Pelletier made his way to Manchester to see him, and was astonished to
run him to earth teaching in an elementary school. On walking into the
classroom Pelletier found the Quaker scientist engrossed in correcting
the work of a small boy. He inquired, "Est-ce que j'ai l'honneur de
m'adresser à Monsieur Dalton?"
"Yes," replied Dalton in his homely northern accent, "Wilt thou sit
down whilst I put this lad right about his arithmetic?"
