Andrew Mollison (Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter), I wonder if you could follow up in reporting on these testing results. I have a fear that part of the American student's poor performance may be due to the lack of training using the International System of units in American schools. Remember, many Americans still carry the mistaken notion that we can successfully cling to our antiquated measuring units: inches, feet, yards, miles; ounces, pounds, tons; fluid ounces, pints, quarts, gallons, barrels; and Fahrenheit temperatures while the rest of the world uses the International System of units (SI), the decimal-based metric system. The latter modern system has as its corresponding units those based upon the meter, kilogram, liter, plus Celsius temperatures. In 1975, when our government declared that we should change, I began to teach myself and readily discovered that the metric system is much easier than that which I now consider and refer to as King George III Colonial units. By the way, I was age 39 in 1975 which means that I am age 64 now. I believe in SI-metric even more now than then! Sincerely, Norman V. Werling 1240 Hunters Drive Stone Mountain, GA 30083-2545 404-292-9328
