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Actually, I am upset that science education in this country has fallen so far that many Americans have less science & maths education than most Communist, ex-Communist and Third World (AKA "developing") countries.
Most of my engineering & science colleagues are Chinese, Indian, and from ex-USSR countries. Not because they are paid cheaply--many make more $$ than I do, and have become naturalized citizens with all the same workplace rights I have--but because it's darn near impossible to find Americans with math and science skills. They send their own kids to special tutoring, because they think the American educational system is insane not to teach algebra till high school. Every time I see a mainstream media reporter screw up scientific facts, or engage in that post-modernist "there's no such thing as a fact, only someone's opinion and all opinions are valid" it gives me another grey hair.
I am upset because scientific illiteracy and innumeracy has the potential to kill me. I've already been sick with preventable diseases (pertussis) because people saw it on teh intartubez or teh teevee that vaccines cause autism (they don't). I've already been exposed to a whole host of workplace hazards because American co-workers didn't know why or how to read an MSDS on chemical handling. DH and I have both been incorrectly medicated by doctors who give out pills according to something they heard once from a friend and from a pharma salesperson rather than according to evidence-based medicine. I'm upset that doctors are prescribing medications off-label when the last pharmacology class they sat in was back when Eisenhower was president. I'm upset that snake oil salesmen are allowed to sell poison--or tapwater--or magic beans--to people who are desperately ill and in pain, but who can't see the snake oil for what it is because they know so little about how the human body works. I'm upset that the basics of geology and biology are not taught in many schools because it might upset some parent's Bronze Age mythical belief system. I'm upset that those Bronze Age myths are used to justify denying medical care to people in need. I'm upset that people are easily fooled because they don't know the first thing about epistemology, because their foolishness can kill me. I'm sure they'd be, yanno, really sorry afterwards, but the point is that I'd still be dead.
One of my colleagues has posited that there is a wormhole somewhere in the Midwest, and it leads directly back to the 12th century. That's the only explanation for why we currently have people wandering around completely innocent of
the Enlightenment upon which so much of Western society is based, including much of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Rosalind, I agree completely with what you said here until you hit the
"Bronze Age" stereotypes. This is one of the things that causes
polarization of academics, intellectuals, theologian, common pragmatic
people, conservatives, liberals, democrats, republicans, cats and dogs.
None of the problems you mentioned, and I COMPLETELY agree they
are problems, have anything to do with some midwestern biblethumper.
Our public education in this country is horrible. Why? Our society as a
whole doesn't promote math and science. It's become a cultural issue.
Our Christian/Bronze Age schools are turning out MUCH HIGHER
educated children than the public schools are.
Mainstream Media? That's a mess. It's also so sensationalistic and one
sided that it causes more seperation of smart people, like the ones
contributing to this thread.
Doctors and pills? I don't know, maybe it's greed, human nature, bad
science. I'm not sure.
MSDS sheets made me laugh. I carry a binder 3 inches thick that contains
the chemical reactivity of everything I carry on my truck. Heck, I can't
carry Listerine breath spray with me unless I have the MSDS sheet for it.
Bravo
