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So, the royal thing is happening this weekend, and will give a lot of folk pleasure, and make a lot of republicans angry. Personally, I can put up with the anger for the sake of the pleasure, and I don't have the slightest confidence that if we scrapped royalty we would then be able to invent something to replace it--invented pageantry is like invented languages or invented religions, a very good idea in the abstract, but in practise they end up being pursued with passion by a few and completely ignored by most. The tale of Higgins the Heathen seems to me a propos here. Besides, I'm told righteous anger can be a pleasure in itself, so by all means have at it.
I'm seeing a lot of righteous anger lately on FB and elsewhere about the idea that kids should not be taught science. "Science is the key to our future," says one William Nye, and goes on to say that it would be a disaster if we were to "raise a generation of people who don't believe in science." I hope he felt better after that. Obviously I agree. Science is very important, and it should be a part of every child's education.
But there was this filk in XKCD a while back, which had a line in it which gave me a genuine cold grue. "Why anyone who wants a job would study lit's a mystery," sang the stickman. This is not a joke. Real, three-dimensional people believe this. They it is who have shaped the educational systems in Britain and America all my life, making education into "training for jobs," and as the economy has worsened and Employment has become the new god, more and more it has been the non-technical areas of education that have been pared away and downsized. It's all very well (touching on another old sore) for people to say how they'd be perfectly happy for religion to be taught in comparative mythology classes, but what kind of job are you going to get studying that? And the result is that we are in very grave danger, if it isn't happening already, of raising a generation of people who don't believe in art, or literature, or poetry, or music, unless it's happening right now on their iThings. At best--at best--what will happen is that those subjects will be de facto reserved for those who don't need to get a job, because their families are rich. A new aristocracy who get the culture, while the rest of us get trained to be happy unthinking workers.
Science may be the key to our future, but art and culture are the hinges on the door. If they get rusted shut, door won't open even with the key.
This is why I hope and pray (as it were) to see the work-optional society appear on the horizon in my lifetime. Not, as some might think, because I hate work and want an excuse to laze around all day watching telly and being fed through a tube. Premise partly right, conclusion dead wrong. We need a society in which education can be--for EVERYONE--a way of equipping young people, not just with the skills to make money, but with the cultural and creative heritage of those who went before us, with the eyes that looked on a different world and the ears to hear its songs, with the treasure that is otherwise going to rot and gather cobwebs in the vaults of time because "there's no money in it," or "who wants to know about dead poets and stuff?" or "it's just not relevant in the modern world." Excuses like that make me tired.
So when people go on about how vital science is in education, I think "yes but." All I need to know about science I already know, which is that it is the best way to understand the physical universe around us and if I have a question about said universe a scientist will give me the best possible answer, even if that answer turns out to be "we don't know yet." I don't have to be a scientist myself, and I treasure that freedom as I do the freedom not to own a gun, and I want it safeguarded for future generations. I want them to be better educated than I am, not just about evolution, but about everything. Every single one of them. And if a Nicaraguan can be found who'll teach them how to catch a wild horse as well, so much the better.
And now I shall stop and do useful things. Sorry about that--it's been stewing all night.
I'm seeing a lot of righteous anger lately on FB and elsewhere about the idea that kids should not be taught science. "Science is the key to our future," says one William Nye, and goes on to say that it would be a disaster if we were to "raise a generation of people who don't believe in science." I hope he felt better after that. Obviously I agree. Science is very important, and it should be a part of every child's education.
But there was this filk in XKCD a while back, which had a line in it which gave me a genuine cold grue. "Why anyone who wants a job would study lit's a mystery," sang the stickman. This is not a joke. Real, three-dimensional people believe this. They it is who have shaped the educational systems in Britain and America all my life, making education into "training for jobs," and as the economy has worsened and Employment has become the new god, more and more it has been the non-technical areas of education that have been pared away and downsized. It's all very well (touching on another old sore) for people to say how they'd be perfectly happy for religion to be taught in comparative mythology classes, but what kind of job are you going to get studying that? And the result is that we are in very grave danger, if it isn't happening already, of raising a generation of people who don't believe in art, or literature, or poetry, or music, unless it's happening right now on their iThings. At best--at best--what will happen is that those subjects will be de facto reserved for those who don't need to get a job, because their families are rich. A new aristocracy who get the culture, while the rest of us get trained to be happy unthinking workers.
Science may be the key to our future, but art and culture are the hinges on the door. If they get rusted shut, door won't open even with the key.
This is why I hope and pray (as it were) to see the work-optional society appear on the horizon in my lifetime. Not, as some might think, because I hate work and want an excuse to laze around all day watching telly and being fed through a tube. Premise partly right, conclusion dead wrong. We need a society in which education can be--for EVERYONE--a way of equipping young people, not just with the skills to make money, but with the cultural and creative heritage of those who went before us, with the eyes that looked on a different world and the ears to hear its songs, with the treasure that is otherwise going to rot and gather cobwebs in the vaults of time because "there's no money in it," or "who wants to know about dead poets and stuff?" or "it's just not relevant in the modern world." Excuses like that make me tired.
So when people go on about how vital science is in education, I think "yes but." All I need to know about science I already know, which is that it is the best way to understand the physical universe around us and if I have a question about said universe a scientist will give me the best possible answer, even if that answer turns out to be "we don't know yet." I don't have to be a scientist myself, and I treasure that freedom as I do the freedom not to own a gun, and I want it safeguarded for future generations. I want them to be better educated than I am, not just about evolution, but about everything. Every single one of them. And if a Nicaraguan can be found who'll teach them how to catch a wild horse as well, so much the better.
And now I shall stop and do useful things. Sorry about that--it's been stewing all night.