Thank you for a more accurate portrayal of the situation in the USA - as
someone outside that country it could be easy to read the original comments
and believe them to be true. However in this particular case someone
posting as "Dan" but infact really being known as "John P Schweissthal"
really speaks volumes (metric or otherwise). The same is true of "Euric",
"Kilopascal" etc etc etc.
But for a "new reader" (non US) the story could 'possibly' be believed.
Thanks for the "correction" Jim!
Steve
From: Jim Elwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:38115] Re: metric in the classroom
Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2007 10:31:40 -0700 (MST)
I made the mistake of opening one of Daniel's emails, and cannot resist
responding -- what a load of B.S. he is spewing! My comments in red.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Jackson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2007 9:54:23 AM (GMT-0700) America/Denver
Subject: [USMA:38112] metric in the classroom
I think America's schools and students need a rude wake-up call.
Oh, are you talking about America's PUBLIK schools, run by America's
GOVERNMENT??? Gosh, I thought you worshipped all things socialist!!
They need to be told point blank that their metric ignorance Somewhat Real
and anti-metric bias My personal experience teaching metric to many of our
Publik Skool graduates is that anti-metric bias is almost nonexistent --
the problem is lack of education, not active dislike is a motivating factor
in businesses choosing to have their products made in metric elsewhere in
the world Total BS -- I challenge you to post ANY concrete evidence of ANY
company moving production outside of the US due to metric ignorance. High
paying manufacturing jobs are disappearing and have been disappearing for
some time Again...B.S. -- it is the low-wage jobs that are outsourced, not
the high-paying ones forcing Americans to live on less pay, excessive
borrowing to maintain a middle class life style and working on the average
60 to 70 h per week at a low paying job More BS -- see
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm. Then to rub salt into the
wounds, the products once made in inches in the US are now made in metric
elsewhere and imported back to the US. The difference is they are made by
metric loving people and not made by metric haters. Yet, the metric haters
still buy them. Of course, the reality is that few people who pay attention
to the units in which something is "made," so love or hate metric, this is
immaterial.
The reality of this situation may scare enough people to make them realize
that metric is needed to keep the US from descending into a third world
economy with poverty for everyone. It's America's economy that is kicking
all others in the teeth, particularly Europe's. Tell me again how not being
fully metricated is holding back the USA? Teachers that are anti-metric aid
the problem and should be removed from teaching positions and have their
certificates revoked. Too bad teacher's unions and government bureaucracy
make that nearly impossible!!
Dan
As I tell my employees whenever I teach metric classes (and as Pat Naughtin
has pointed out many times), the USA is largely metric already, aside from
a facade of packaging of consumer products. Every year the country becomes
more metric, and in time our old colloquial units will dissappear. It won't
be as fast as most of us would like, but it IS happening.
Jim Elwell
**********************
Jim Elwell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
801-466-8770
www.qsicorp.com
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