1. Science is thrilling - except in our schools

Comment #204559 by saraswati on July 5, 2008 at 8:05 am

Comment #203803 by Rational_G

Science may be fun - depending upon your teacher, the curriculum, and your own interests. However, the requirement isn't for it to be fun. The requirement is for it to be fundamental.

Do we hear the same whining about literature or history? Everybody is going to find some subject boring.

The problem is poor education, not inadequate entertainment value.

Teenagers think lots of school subjects are boring. Too bad.

Teach the fundamentals well and you will have produced clear thinking citizens.

Quality education, not pandering entertainment.

It's a two way street. The students have to apply themselves and the schools have to produce quality teachers and curriculum.

Unfortunately, our society doesn't place a lot of worth on quality education and well paid teachers. Celebrities in rehab seem to be more worth our attention. It's a problem of setting priorities, not a problem of style.

Making it "fun, fun, fun" is not the answer.

2. Science is thrilling - except in our schools

Comment #203762 by saraswati on July 3, 2008 at 2:11 pm

Wow, I guess I must've been lucky... I took IGSCEs and A-levels, and I thought all my science teachers and classes were fantastic. They hold a large part of the responsibility for instilling my interest in science.

There was a lot of memorising, but it didn't seem like just a bunch of disconnected factoids, it was always part of some greater system or process, which I was fascinated to learn about and understand.

I do have to agree with sidwafu, though - I found much of the "hands on" stuff pretty boring. It may be important in order to learn about the scientific method and to get introduced to experimental techniques, but for me the experiments did not contribute at all to developing interest in science. Measuring the period of a pendulum or watching potato slices expand seemed hopelessly mundane compared to the things that we were learning about in the "theory" section of class.

3. Richard Dawkins lecture at ASU's Tempe Campus

Comment #183957 by saraswati on May 23, 2008 at 10:02 am

I want to check out that Douglas Adams speech that he mentions, does anyone know where I can find it?

4. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178391 by saraswati on May 11, 2008 at 10:46 am

There are no words for how horrific this story is.

The most horrifying part for me is the fact that her mother called to her brothers for help, only to have them proceed to help with the killing. It means that there isn't the remotest difference between the generations.... how can there be change, then?

5. British Airways takes beef off the menu to avoid offending Hindus

Comment #178066 by saraswati on May 10, 2008 at 11:45 am

Ugh. My objection to this is that now all passengers will choose the chicken, leaving only the fish option for those at the back of the plane. Always happens to me.

Anyway, don't most airlines already offer all sorts of options, including "Hindu vegetarian", on special request? And many airlines already offer an Indian vegetarian meal as one of the two major options on all flights to and from India.

If they're really taking beef off all planes it doesn't make sense do to that for fear of offending Hindus... I don't think Hindus make up a significant proportion of flights that don't originate or end in India.

The article didn't explicitly specify, are they also going to stop serving pork on all planes?

Rather than fear of offending, it seems to be more about pleasing as many people as possible, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I just hope they don't end up serving only vegan food.

6. Evolution's Critics Shift Tactics With Schools

Comment #175030 by saraswati on May 4, 2008 at 8:12 am

One thing that saddens me is educated, intelligent, more or less rational people who accept evolution but don't oppose ID/creationism. The "controversy" came up once in a conversation I had with two fellow grad students, and the two of them agreed on "why don't we just let them teach both". They don't seem to understand what exactly it means to teach pseudoscience along with science, to create controversy that isn't there, and to insist on doing all this with young, impressionable minds as the recipients.

Another atheist non-creationist (what's a good word for a person who accepts evolution?) I know seems to think that the whole ID movement has no hope of succeeding, that the various checks and balances will keep it from going anywhere. And so there is no need for scientists to stoop to their level and combat ID, which in his opinion makes both creationists and scientists look bad.

I suppose this fits in with what some of the previous posters said about fools being certain while wise people have doubts and refuse to believe that their fellow citizens could be that stupid.

But are we wrong to be so worried? I don't know anything about the US political system to know how close these academic freedom bills are to actually being implemented. Do we, with our constant exposure to this kind of news in the atheist/rationalist community, see the problem as bigger than it really is?