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Hi Chuck,

It is that disconnect which needs to be closed.  I think medicine, health, agriculture and food are the places to start.  In a sense the use of animals in testing things, the notion of organic versus non-organic, of vaccines, of disease and pesticides, of waste management, of bottled water, etc. Evidence based observation, theory, testing, refuting, constructing, choosing and selecting, all play a role.  Something like, "This is my belief and theory for the following reasons…" needs to become the socially accepted theory of interaction.  

All humans are inextricably link to a tribe which needs and warrants some form of socio-economic equity, and it needs to be universally built upon.

The other day, while at my local butcher shop, I happened to ask for a recommendation on meat.  He quickly replied, "I always eat organic."  I said, "Why?" And he said, "If you don't eat it, garbage in garbage out."  I said, "Really, have to you tested that?" I chose not to go organic, but I couldn't help feeling like I'd made a second class choice on the word of a knowledgeable expert with all his bona fide.  Clearly, a ridiculous example, but this same form of expertise is repeated writ large across human existence, and it basically doesn't wash that well in an age of universal access to information, and even the best of experts can be mistaken, that goes with expert territory.

We are likely in a period of social transition driven by technology and changing relationships with information that radically affects our social personal needs and desires. Education in every form needs to focus on modes of thinking and processing the information at hand––it's much less about proprietary access to information.

And though still good and factual, like Newton's Laws, the central dogma of DNA has changed over the years.

Charlie
On Apr 14, 2012, at 8:35 AM, Martin Weiss wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> Chuck
> 
> Fascinating that Santorum takes his sick daughter to doctors who are class
> of intellectuals he is so dismissive of.
> 
> Martin
> 
> On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 11:27 AM, Chuck Howarth <[log in to unmask]>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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The opinions and thoughts expressed here are my own and should in no way be construed or attributed to the Exploratorium or related organization, and do not represent an institutional position.
Charles Carlson
Senior Scientist
exploratorium
3601 Lyon St.
San Francisco, CA 94123
[log in to unmask]
Tel:   415-561-0319
Fax:  415-561-0370
http://blogs.exploratorium.edu/whyintercept/









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