Dear Sir:
Justin Scheck correctly points out that efforts to convert the United States
to the metric system have faced significant cultural resistance over the
past four decades ("Cooking a Poundcake in a Metric Oven Is No Easy Task",
Nov. 24). Although metric system devotees are often portrayed as amusing
eccentrics, a far more serious issue involves the significant disadvantage
imposed on American students by an educational system that fails to adopt
the weights and measures used not only by 95 percent of the world's
population but also in the fastest growing occupations in the United States.
Current research suggests that as much as 40 percent of instructional time
in primary and secondary education is now spent on standardized test
preparation and administration. By using customary units in standardized
testing, particularly in science related subjects, American Educators and by
extension our children are faced with the unique liability of
dual-measurement instruction.
It is commonly acknowledged that students who choose to enter Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields must learn to use the
metric system. Those who have the intellectual skills required to achieve
these advanced degrees will likely find the conversion to "metric thinking"
to be a modest burden compared to acquiring the rest of the knowledge needed
to succeed in their chosen profession. However, few realize that the
healthcare industry is also exclusively metric. As the fastest growing
employment sector in the United States and currently employing one in eight
Americans, millions of workers such as doctors, nurses, physician
assistants, pharmacists, physical therapists, nutritionists, and home health
care workers, to name a few, are required to learn and effectively function
in metric units. Learning a new measurement language is not an easy task
for all Americans. Preventable medication errors in the United States
continue to have deadly consequences. Please refer to the Institute of Safe
Medication Practices ( <http://www.ismp.org/pressroom/PR20110808.pdf>
http://www.ismp.org/pressroom/PR20110808.pdf) for additional information.
Healthcare and STEM occupations are only two areas of employment where
American students are not well served by the use of customary units in K-12
STEM instruction. Most modern career paths in manufacturing such as
precision and additive manufacturing and notably, all American automotive
manufacturing have voluntarily converted to metric units. The United States
Armed Forces, which is the largest organization in the world, requires its
workforce to learn and function in metric units.
While it is certainly amusing to read about Zach Rodriguez's reprogramming
of his parent's oven to display metric units, there are far more important
questions requiring national attention. Why does our K-12 educational system
continue to use customary measurement units in STEM instruction when neither
university level programs nor professional employment opportunities utilize
them? Could one call educating our children to think and function in
customary units an institutionalized cognitive disadvantage solely impacting
American children? I have not found any occupational evidence to support
the continued practice of utilizing customary units in STEM instruction.
I wish this article would have dedicated less time to the philosophical,
cultural aversion to the adoption of the modern metric system and instead
focused on a more practical question: How might America's preference
towards customary units impact your child's future employment opportunities?
Cordially,
Bridget Nagarajan
Executive Director, M Power
( <http://www.teammetric.org> www.teammetric.org)
