Hi, everyone, Here’s an opinion piece published in the Idaho Times-Reporter, 2021-10-31. Written by Alexie Menafee, who is in grade 8 at the Indian Valley Middle School, Enon, Ohio.
Best wishes, Peter Goodyear, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] From the teen: Confusing customary or meaningful metrics? In physical science class we had to debate over what we think of converting to the metric system and that really got me thinking. Is the customary system really benefiting the US? There are many reasons for people to still want to use customary but all of those can be debunked. Some examples my peers gave are that people are already accustomed to the customary system, it would be very costly to change, and it’s already printed on all the products. Overall, even though those are valid points they can easily be proven wrong. People may be used to the customary system but the metric transition shouldn’t be difficult. To begin, in most schools it is already taught in math and science classes, so getting rid of the customary system would actually just cut down the curriculum and make room for more important skills. Additionally, it is a lot easier to learn the metric system; with the customary system there are a lot of confusing conversions and random numbers, but with the metric system it is consistent with multiplication and division by 10. Also, for the new generation it would be a lot easier for them to only have to learn one system. Therefore, people may be accustomed to it but the switch should be easy. Even though it’s already printed on all our products that should be an easy fix. A lot of food products already have the conversion on them, which means it would be a good place to start. The US could just start having factories not put on the customary unit, which takes unnecessary time and money. For the citizens who don’t know the metric system this might seem confusing but they can just Google it or have someone else help them, this will make it easy for them to eventually get used to. To sum up, it may be printed on all our products but it should be an easy fix. All in all, it might not be ideal for some but converting to metric would be the best option. To start, the transition shouldn't be difficult because it is already taught in school and easy to learn. The US loses money by not converting because it takes unnecessary time that could be used to make money. Lastly, the customary system may be printed on all our products but that’s an easy fix because the metric system is also printed on most products. Overall,even though the points listed above are valid concerns, they can easily be debunked. Alexie Menefee participates in the Advanced Reading and Competitive Writing Course for gifted writers in grade 8 at the Indian Valley Middle School.
_______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
