Facebook Science
Jun. 10th, 2016 11:37 pmWhile I know that Facebook has its uses, it often becomes a forum for people to troll and toss out opinions that no sane person would speak. I try not to engage in such discussions, because too often people defend their opinion so strongly that it becomes abusive. The responses by some can be incredibly telling though.
I was reading a post there about a group of Japanese high school students who had developed a process on how to observe the development of a fertilized chicken egg. The process seemed incredibly basic, yet fascinating. They cracked open an egg gently, placing the yolk and albumen in a clear cellophane/plastic cup, capping it, and placing it into an incubator. The video showed the chick forming and eventually "hatching" without a shell. The resulting chick was just chirping around.
One commenter was a high school teacher who lamented that Japanese classes in science was "light years ahead" of American classes. While I don't necessarily agree with the statement, I think generally people believe that Japanese schools are more rigid and advanced. Lots of the opposing comments refuted his claims, some more vehemently than others.
The comments that made me both laugh and shake my head was from younger folks who commented that "light year" was a unit of distance not time, implying that the teacher was incorrectly using the terminology and, therefore, had no place to comment on education issues. When the teacher told them that "light years ahead" was a common expression of advancement, and even provided a dictionary link for the term, he was dismissed by the same commenters because they had never encountered it before.
The irony was amazing, these ignorant younger people arguing about the expression versus the literal in a discussion about the status of American education. I just shook my head.
Disgusted, I just moved on to a cute story about rescued kittens.
I was reading a post there about a group of Japanese high school students who had developed a process on how to observe the development of a fertilized chicken egg. The process seemed incredibly basic, yet fascinating. They cracked open an egg gently, placing the yolk and albumen in a clear cellophane/plastic cup, capping it, and placing it into an incubator. The video showed the chick forming and eventually "hatching" without a shell. The resulting chick was just chirping around.
One commenter was a high school teacher who lamented that Japanese classes in science was "light years ahead" of American classes. While I don't necessarily agree with the statement, I think generally people believe that Japanese schools are more rigid and advanced. Lots of the opposing comments refuted his claims, some more vehemently than others.
The comments that made me both laugh and shake my head was from younger folks who commented that "light year" was a unit of distance not time, implying that the teacher was incorrectly using the terminology and, therefore, had no place to comment on education issues. When the teacher told them that "light years ahead" was a common expression of advancement, and even provided a dictionary link for the term, he was dismissed by the same commenters because they had never encountered it before.
The irony was amazing, these ignorant younger people arguing about the expression versus the literal in a discussion about the status of American education. I just shook my head.
Disgusted, I just moved on to a cute story about rescued kittens.