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India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

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Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#101

Post by fluoridation »

hayst4ck wrote: post #56
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.

It's a question of where your core axioms come from. The core axiom from which a person builds a belief system can be that contradictions are wrong or that authority (the bible/priest/parent) is right. This is why conservatives frequently fail to respond to pointing out their contradictions. Their core axiom is one of authority, contradictions have little bearing on their analysis of what is true or not. New informat…

I'm not sure veneration of authority is a central aspect of conservatism. As I understand it, conservatism is about returning to a previous state of affairs that is perceived as favorable compared to the present, or about maintaining the status quo. It seems to me that two people who were raised in different contexts could be considered conservative with respect to their own contexts, while at the same time one being an authoritarian and the other being a libertarian.

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#102

Post by jonathankoren »

screye wrote: post #23

This makes no sense to me. This highly unlikely to be a political move. Science education is not political in India. Evolution, abortion, chemistry are not debated at all. This is more likely for the reasons to be innocuous. > In explaining its changes, NCERT states on its website that it considered whether content overlapped with similar content covered elsewhere, the difficulty of the content, and whether the conte…

This is the same country that tried to derail the building of a shipping channel because it would have destroyed a bridge built by a monkey army, also known as limestone shoal.

https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1663025,0...

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#103

Post by paulddraper »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #80
givemeethekeys wrote: post #45

I'm calling shenanigans. There are many education systems in India. There's a central one, but each state has its own. Indians at every economic level (except maybe the very top) value STEM education above everything else. I wish we'd learn to dial back the hysteria. I wish people weren't so damn trigger happy.

They don’t value STEM education. They value they jobs and prestige STEM education can get them. Remove the ability to get well paying engineering/medicine jobs from the equation and they’ll treat STEM education with the same disdain they have for commerce, or worse, humanities. There is very little real appreciation of education. Only its byproducts, namely, jobs.

Distinction without a difference.

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#104

Post by kjs3 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #31
whinenot wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Exam" isn't commonly used in American English. Huh? Is this a homeschool trend? Final exams are the cornerstone of US secondary and tertiary education.

I grew up in ~6 different states in 9 schools in the US during the 1990s and 2000s, and we did not have final exams from Kindergarten through 12th grade, other than Advanced Placement (AP) exams. You typically take tests at various points in time during the school year up to 12th grade, but entire course year tests labeled as "exams" did not happen until university, or AP exams if you took AP courses in high school.…

I had final exams in the US, in 2 different states, in both public and private schools. I have 2 kids, and 16-odd neices and nephews in 5 states, from 2nd to 12th grade in both public and private schools. Everyone talked about final exams. I think they get 'officially' called other things; in my state they're called Milestone Assessments, but they sure sound like a final exam to me.

"Georgia Milestones is a single assessment system that consists of end-of-grade measures in English language arts and mathematics in grades 3-8, end-of-grade measures in science in grades 5 and 8, end-of-grade measure in social studies in grade 8, and end-of-course measures for specified high school courses."

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#105

Post by Bekknqv »

Teachers will still be teaching (and this is probably what NCERT expects) these basic topics, because teaching the topics that remain won't be easy without them.

My sibling was in grade 10 when COVID hit, some topics that had been removed from the final exam were still taught (although in a somewhat brief manner, considering this was online schooling).

Indian politicians say a lot of dumb and pseudo-scientific garbage, but a few subpar comments here are wildly quoting those to act as if they're rewriting all of science in India. They've purely made omissions, no additions/revisions.

And evolution is still a chapter in grade 12 biology books- https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?lebo1=6-13

You can also find the periodic table in grade 9 science textbooks (page 6)- https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?kech1=3-6

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#106

Post by lotsofpulp »

kjs3 wrote: post #104
lotsofpulp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in ~6 different states in 9 schools in the US during the 1990s and 2000s, and we did not have final exams from Kindergarten through 12th grade, other than Advanced Placement (AP) exams. You typically take tests at various points in time during the school year up to 12th grade, but entire course year tests labeled as "exams" did not happen until university, or AP exams if you took AP courses in high school.…

I had final exams in the US, in 2 different states, in both public and private schools. I have 2 kids, and 16-odd neices and nephews in 5 states, from 2nd to 12th grade in both public and private schools. Everyone talked about final exams. I think they get 'officially' called other things; in my state they're called Milestone Assessments, but they sure sound like a final exam to me. "Georgia Milestones is a single as…

Interesting. I did not go to school in Georgia, but various states in the Midwest and Northeast, and I do not recall any year end cumulative test. If I recall, we got a grade each quarter (or half) and then that was averaged for the final grade.

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#107

Post by seatac76 »

screye wrote: post #23

This makes no sense to me. This highly unlikely to be a political move. Science education is not political in India. Evolution, abortion, chemistry are not debated at all. This is more likely for the reasons to be innocuous. > In explaining its changes, NCERT states on its website that it considered whether content overlapped with similar content covered elsewhere, the difficulty of the content, and whether the conte…

I agrée, I also did not have that impression from what I could tell. This is really bad.

All talk about demographic dividends and such are moot when such stupidity is ushered in and allowed to prevail. They may be squandering a real opportunity here.

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#108

Post by gostsamo »

FreshStart wrote: post #99
postalrat wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Germany, the US in more lefty towns, eastern Europe were the colonial past half devoured the culture. Conquered and defeated empires.

Being from Eastern Europe, I can confidently say that being a defeated empire does not prevent idiots from reimagining the past.

Everyone looks at the glory of yesterday, but some are much more obsessed with it. It becomes issue when it leads to contradicting the facts, using it to harm others, and preventing yourself from building a better future.

Re: India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks

#109

Post by ff2400t »

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?

One important thing to know about people like these is that they don't have a rational argument They have a Believe and they like to shout it out to the world.
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