God Enters The Classroom

[Solomon Zorn]

Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin all join the growing list of states where creationist schools are butchering the science curriculum in the name of religion.

I see my state in there. Makes me so fucking angry I want to puke. Thomas Jefferson is crying.

[Munch]

Make protests outside the schools to teach facts, not fiction.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Einstein showed that movement between two objects is relative, so the earth going around the sun is correct, and so is the earth going around the sun depending on where you are at.

Er, no.

[stromboli]

This is the shit we should be fixing

American millennials among the least skilled
http://fortune.com/2015/03/10/american-millennials-are-among-the-worlds-least-skilled/

Surprised? So were the researchers who tested and compared workers in 23 countries.

We hear about the superior tech savvy of people born after 1980 so often that we tend to assume it must be true. But is it?

Researchers at Princeton-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) expected it to be when they administered a test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Sponsored by the OECD, the test was designed to measure the job skills of adults, aged 16 to 65, in 23 countries.

When the results were analyzed by age group and nationality, ETS got a shock. It turns out, says a new report, that Millennials in the U.S. fall short when it comes to the skills employers want most: literacy (including the ability to follow simple instructions), practical math, and â€" hold on to your hat â€" a category called “problem-solving in technology-rich environments.”

Not only do Gen Y Americans lag far behind their overseas peers by every measure, but they even score lower than other age groups of Americans.

Take literacy, for instance. American Millennials scored lower than their counterparts in every country that participated except Spain and Italy. (Japan is No. 1.) In numeracy, meaning the ability to apply basic math to everyday situations, Gen Yers in the U.S. ranked dead last.

Okay, but what about making smart use of technology, where Millennials are said to shine? Again, America scored at the bottom of the heap, in a four-way tie for last place with the Slovak Republic, Ireland, and Poland.

Even the best-educated Millennials stateside couldn’t compete with their counterparts in Japan, Finland, South Korea, Belgium, Sweden, or elsewhere. With a master’s degree, for example, Americans scored higher in numeracy than peers in just three countries: Ireland, Poland, and Spain. Altogether, the top U.S. Gen Yers, in the 90th percentile, “scored lower than their counterparts in 15 countries,” the report notes, “and only scored higher than their peers in Spain.”

“We really thought [U.S.] Millennials would do better than the general adult population, either compared to older coworkers in the U.S. or to the same age group in other countries,” says Madeline Goodman, an ETS researcher who worked on the study. “But they didn’t. In fact, their scores were abysmal.”

What does that mean for U.S. employers hiring people born since 1980? Goodman notes that hiring managers shouldn’t overestimate the practical value of a four-year degree. True, U.S. Millennials with college credentials did score higher on the PIAAC than Americans with only a high school diploma (albeit less well than college grads in most other countries).

“But a degree may not be enough,” Goodman says, to prove that someone is adept with basic English, can do what she calls “workaday math,” or has the ability to use technology in a job.

I've spent time on a few forums over the years and it is apparent that there are literacy issues.  I also think it is fair to say we are all witness to the fact that theists that show up on the forum exhibit a lower degree of critical thinking skills.

We need to kick creationism out of the classroom and get back to funding math, science and general literacy programs that educate the children with real thinking skills and we need to do that now.

[Solitary]

Er, no.

Er, yes! Depending on where you are at. When you are standing outside, does the sun and universe go around the earth, or does the earth go around the sun and universe? 

The motion of any object is only meaningful when given relative to something else. Relativity in motion assures us that the laws of Physics don't vary depending on how much inertia an object has. This is important because everything has some amount of inertia. Standing on the surface of the earth, we feel that we are not in motion, but because the earth is moving, so are we. If we measure the speed of a ball thrown atop a train, we can either measure the speed of the ball with respect to the train s motion or with respect to the motion of the Earth.

http://www.brightstorm.com/science/physics/linear-and-projectile-motion/relativity-in-motion/  Solitary

[Mike Cl]

This is the shit we should be fixing

American millennials among the least skilled
http://fortune.com/2015/03/10/american-millennials-are-among-the-worlds-least-skilled/

I've spent time on a few forums over the years and it is apparent that there are literacy issues.  I also think it is fair to say we are all witness to the fact that theists that show up on the forum exhibit a lower degree of critical thinking skills.

We need to kick creationism out of the classroom and get back to funding math, science and general literacy programs that educate the children with real thinking skills and we need to do that now.

As a teacher, I've noticed this trend over the last few decades and it has bothered me greatly.  But the more and more republicans win races, pass bills, the more stupid our country becomes.  I have a code I use when talking with my daughter (who is working her way up in school administration in San Francisco)--I often relate a story to her by prefacing it by saying something like--the SFA's (stupid fucking amerikans) are at it again...................  We are becoming more and more stupid.  Very, very sad.

[Solitary]

Now I know what those vapor trails in the sky are for, the Aliens are taking over, and also using HARP. To resist is futile!