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126 comments on Thursday Open Thread...

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TJ on December 8, 2005 - 5:20pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I seem to recall seeing somewhere that China expects to graduate 400,000 engineers this year.
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Leanan on December 8, 2005 - 8:59pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I think China will kick our butts, scientifically.  In China, everyone learns calculus.  It's expected, just as everyone here is expected to learn how to drive.  (While here, we get "Math is hard" Barbie.)    

Plus, I suspect the next big thing will be genetic engineering, and we're at a huge disadvantage there.  We try to teach biology without talking about evolution, which is kind of like trying to teach physics without mentioning Newton's laws of motion.  And work with stem cells, cloning, etc., is blocked by the abortion issue.  The new Lysenkoism...

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LevinK on December 8, 2005 - 11:25pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
We try to teach biology without talking about evolution..

Sorry for my off-topic and lack of info about some ills of the day, but is this really being done now in schools?

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mikeB on December 9, 2005 - 5:48am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Yes.

I teach evolution vs creationism as a writing project in my university freshman comp. class.

When I inquire into my students' backgrounds, it turns out several have had no instruction in either Darwin or the Bible.

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Leanan on December 9, 2005 - 11:16am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Yes, and the reason is the "free market."  Textbook publishers must cater to the religious right, or lose a huge chunk of marketshare.  Basically, if Texas won't buy the books, it's not profitable to publish them.  So even communities where evolution is widely accepted find their choices limited.
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step back on December 9, 2005 - 12:26pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
The "Invisible Hand" is once again providing the magical, optimal solution for all of us. In our society, greed-for-profits trumps over any notion of truth, justice and honor. The bottom line is therfore, that our system of free-for-all self-governance (the Adam Smith approach) forces us to swallow stupidity (Creationalism, Intelligent Drugsign) and to smile as we do it.
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126 comments on Thursday Open Thread...

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