on 2003-03-25 03.45, Joseph B. Reid at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > It is my impression, having lived for 12 yeas in England, that the > social gap between the arts and the sciences is particularly deep, > especially in the so-called "public schools", where science is known > as "stinks". I have also lived in France for 5 years where > scientific knowledge is considered to be an essential ingredient of a > good education.
Dear Joe, That is an interesting comparison. I have for many years observed that many of my acquaintances in the media are deeply innumerate � highly literate but deeply innumerate. I imagined for years that this could be overcome with the equivalent of something like a few sessions of remedial arithmetic until one day a journalist said to me: 'You know Pat that when I was at primary school I would be physically ill if ever a teacher asked me for an answer to any arithmetic problem. "If the teachers asked what's two plus three", I would begin to shake and feel sick � I never had the confidence to guess what the answer might be. And I still feel nauseous if I am confronted with any sort of number problem'. Any program for metrication that does not (somehow) cater for attitudes like the one held by this (and many other) journalists is doomed, not to failure but, to a much longer process of implementation than envisaged or planned. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia
