Curriculum: Kansas, Where "Ignorant" is the New "Educated"

John Rennie, editor in chief of Scientific American, has published an article called Kansas, Where "Ignorant" is the New "Educated.". He clearly points out the increasing distance between the practice of science and the educational experience of science as well as the inability of an education system to adapt. Here's an excerpt...

Kansas: People say that it's flat. But to me it seems to be going downhill.
Somewhere right now in Kansas, there is a little child who may grow up to be a brilliant scientist. She may make fantastic contributions to science, and future generations may remember her as one of the brightest intellectual lights of her time. But if so, it will be despite the public education that she received in Kansas, because today six dimwits on the state's Board of Education voted to lower the standards for how science is taught.

Needless to say, they don't think they are lowering the standards--to the contrary, they think they are raising them. That's how you can tell they are dimwits.

Supporters of the standards said they will promote academic freedom. "It gets rid of a lot of dogma that's being taught in the classroom today," said board member John Bacon, an Olathe Republican.

If George Orwell were alive, I think he'd agree this development is not only good but doubleplusgood. Because just teaching kids the right answers is an unbearable infringement on academic freedom. Just think of the advantages that those Kansas students will have when they go up against their peers from other states and other parts of the world, who only know the accepted facts and theories and think that logical consistency is desirable in science.

Here's the link to the complete article. He's absolutely right.