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India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

nature.com

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Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#81

Post by spaceman_2020 »

WhatsName wrote: post #4

Cutting and defunding education seems such a prevalent global trend, I find it hard to believe there is no hidden agenda. At least here it seems to happen with the clear political agenda. Who needs evolution and democracy anyways other than those inconvenient to the indian government.

A lot of developing countries are in a phase of working out their future paths. Most of them inherited colonial institutions and power structures and are finally hitting a point where all the old guard has died or become irrelevant.

There’s a period of negotiation - figuring out what parts of your colonial history you want to keep, what to change. So many things we assume as “normal” invariably have roots in colonial past. Current systems of Democracy, strict courts of law, scientific education, while great, were introduced by earlier colonial rulers.

Most countries will now spend a few decades fumbling around in internal negotiations to figure out whether they really need 14 years of scientific schooling, democracy, etc.

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#82

Post by spaceman_2020 »

Dig1t wrote: post #11
benced wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is far more common in India to go to a private school. As a rule of thumb, if you know an educated Indian, they went to private school. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/10/in... This makes this decision both more and less outrageous. On one level, it had less effect than a similar decision than the US. On the other, it helps cripple the poor in India (who are actually poor, not American poor)…

That goes against what I heard from my Indian friends. I was told that public schools are actually more prestigious than private schools, they are more rigorous apparently?

Public colleges are prestigious

Public schools are a joke and you would usually find kids mocking anyone slightly unsophisticated as “from a government (public) school”

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#83

Post by local_crmdgeon »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #77

India has been getting high on its own supply for a few years now. The narrative is that all knowledge originated in ancient Indian texts and was stolen by the west. Even the ISRO chief made a comment in this vein a few days back. Cultures that keep looking at imagined past glories, imo, are destined to become static and falter.

>Cultures that keep looking at imagined past glories, imo, are destined to become static and falter.

If education was just chanting this half the day the world would be better off.

I had a Hindu nationalist recently berate me about how the "US had lost the Space Race, ISRO was the clear winner."

I mentioned the US landed on the Moon first, and he said "would rather have not landed on the Moon than live in a country with a large number of Black people" (put less pleasantly).

Weird guy! Weird political movement!

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#84

Post by jcranmer »

local_crmdgeon wrote: post #83
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #77

India has been getting high on its own supply for a few years now. The narrative is that all knowledge originated in ancient Indian texts and was stolen by the west. Even the ISRO chief made a comment in this vein a few days back. Cultures that keep looking at imagined past glories, imo, are destined to become static and falter.

>Cultures that keep looking at imagined past glories, imo, are destined to become static and falter. If education was just chanting this half the day the world would be better off. I had a Hindu nationalist recently berate me about how the "US had lost the Space Race, ISRO was the clear winner." I mentioned the US landed on the Moon first, and he said "would rather have not landed on the Moon than live in a country w…

> I had a Hindu nationalist recently berate me about how the "US had lost the Space Race, ISRO was the clear winner."

... did they give any examples of ISRO space accomplishments that predate US or Soviet accomplishment?

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#85

Post by local_crmdgeon »

jcranmer wrote: post #84
local_crmdgeon wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Cultures that keep looking at imagined past glories, imo, are destined to become static and falter. If education was just chanting this half the day the world would be better off. I had a Hindu nationalist recently berate me about how the "US had lost the Space Race, ISRO was the clear winner." I mentioned the US landed on the Moon first, and he said "would rather have not landed on the Moon than live in a country w…

> I had a Hindu nationalist recently berate me about how the "US had lost the Space Race, ISRO was the clear winner." ... did they give any examples of ISRO space accomplishments that predate US or Soviet accomplishment?

No, he just pivoted to talking about how America is just a bunch of "Black ghettos" and then I blocked him.

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#86

Post by meepmorp »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #67
sriram_malhar wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, you are not reading the situation right. The fascist elements have hijacked the term "science". Nowadays, it is science if you say that cowling protects against atomic radiation ([1]) or you say that ancient India had interplanetary travel ([2]) .. note that the latter was at an official track at the Indian Science Congress on science in ancient India. If the vedas said something, that is science. If the white ma…

[flagged]

What does any of this have to do with the US?

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#88

Post by postalrat »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #77

India has been getting high on its own supply for a few years now. The narrative is that all knowledge originated in ancient Indian texts and was stolen by the west. Even the ISRO chief made a comment in this vein a few days back. Cultures that keep looking at imagined past glories, imo, are destined to become static and falter.

What countries don't look back at their past glories?

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#89

Post by standardUser »

I found it really beneficial to be exposed to these concepts at a very young age, giving me a lot of exposure over many years and helping inform my overall view of science and the world as I grew up. I had a particularly keen interest in evolution starting with a visit to the Museum of Natural History in NYC at age 6! My mother bought my friend and I pamphlets on evolution (my mother had to clear it with his parents before giving it to him) and it became on ongoing fascination for me for many years.

I know little-to-nothing about elementary education in India, but I always appreciated the broad-based approach to education I experienced in the US, with various concept introduced very early, and then re-introduced periodically over the years. If anything, I would support throwing more knowledge at young students, knowing that they'll only absorb a fraction of it. Though I suppose that approach is anathema to standardized testing.

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#90

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

fractalb wrote: post #46

They actually cut the syllabus for students below class X. It's not a ban or anything. And it's only NCERT's (central board of education) syllabus. Each state has its own education board and syllabus. The headline is not honest.

if each state can just ignore the NCERT curriculum, and if the NCERT curriculum itself is educationally insufficient (not teaching evolution or the periodic table in a school curriculum makes that curriculum a failure), then what is the point of the NCERT curriculum?
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