Foreign??
Sitting here thinking, I find it interesting that nationality rears its
head in a physics classroom. Did someone in the class actually say
"foreign," in the sense of "European" or "Asian?" If so, their
prejudice wasn't based only upon the unfamiliar, but also upon some
lurking notion of nationality in the metric system. Mike, to what extent
was that the case?
Paul
Michael Palumbo wrote:
Did you politely explain to them that we do use the metric system on a
daily basis? Or do they all live in shacks in the woods with no
electricity? ;)
It always makes me laugh at how many Americans shy away from anything
considered "foreign", as though we're not all foreigners in some way.
I think the latest statistic I read was that only 19% of Americans
even had passports, and of that group, only a small percentage had
ever used them to go overseas.
-Mike
Mike Millet wrote:
Paul,
Yes this is a college level course. I'd say about half of the class
out of probably 60 students raised their hand when he asked how many
had never heard of or used the terminology of the metric system.
Some of them vaguely remembered something from grade school, although
a couple who had even done track where all distances are in meters
said that their coaches had them run the distances in feet and
competitions were called in feet despite it being a 100m dash or
whatever.
I'm still not quite sure how they avoided hearing about it all these
years. Either they never watched any Olympic sport or never took a
science course.
There wasn't any active hostility in the class to the policy which I
take as a good sign, although several students did mention afterwards
that they didn't get why they had to learn a foreign system that they
would never have to use on a daily basis.
Mike
--
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Acting Secretary
The Pharmacy Alliance
Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
+1(432)528-7724
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