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Chuck -
I was in Paris recently and trying to explain this attitude (which goes well beyond Santorum, as you suggest) to a few of the natives I was in conversation with. I had trouble convincing them that I was not joking. They just think its silly. How anyone could advocate being stupid seems incomprehensible. But, just like making ignorance seem like a desirable alternative to rigorous science. the very notion of being educated as something negative belies a motive to control people as the erstwhile candidate implies. So maybe I'm wrong in thinking we have not done a good job educating people about science, maybe it runs deeper than that, maybe we have not done a good enough job helping people understand the difference between good and evil.
Stephen Miles Uzzo, PhD.
VP, Science & Technology
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Flushing Meadows Corona Park, NY 11368 USA
V +1.718 595.9177
F +1.718.699.5227
On Apr 14, 2012, at 11:27 AM, Chuck Howarth wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> I think the issue has grown beyond science to a broader antipathy towards intellectual pursuits in general, as Rick Santorum's recent quote suggests. Here it is if you missed it:
>
> "There are good decent men and women; who go out and work hard every day; and put their skills to test that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor trying to indoctrinate them."
>
> What Stephen is proposing is exactly what Santorum objects to—the possibility that people might actually learn to think for themselves. It is pretty amazing that a major national candidate would dare to make a statement like that. You would think he would be laughed out of the campaign. But unfortunately no. We have our work cut out for us, guys.
>>
>> Jennie -
>> My point was not that we should just take away dogma and permit the vacuum to be filled with whatever people wanted, but that we should completely rethink the teaching of a bolus of content through rote learning, and replace it with teaching kids how to think, deepen their understanding, and master asking questions and seeking answers. We are trying so hard to turn out encyclopaedias rather than thinking adults that we completely miss the opportunity to teach them the most important things, which, indeed, aren't even things.
>>
>> Stephen Miles Uzzo, PhD.
>
> Chuck Howarth, Vice President
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