Is Science As Important As Football?
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Is Science As Important As Football?
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Re: Is Science As Important As Football?
#2Important to whom? To the average person-in-the-street, the answer is no. Science isn't terribly entertaining, lacks an easily understood competitive aspect and isn't accessible. Football, on the other hand, is something people can and do play amongst themselves and can be watched/enjoyed at many levels of competition.
To society as a whole is a different question. But I'm not sure it leads to a different answer. Billions of people watched the World Cup over several weeks. I can't imagine science, short of things like positive-net-energy fusion or curing AIDS having anywhere near that much interest.
I've studied science and have been fortunate enough to be able to create scientific software. I'm also comfortable with allowing people to do what they want, and pay attention to what they want. I'm not able to do football professionally, but I can (and do) do this science stuff professionally. Different strokes for different folks, eh?
Re: Is Science As Important As Football?
#3Its an aside, but it always frustrates me to hear about the cuts at NASA and how the budget simply won't allow this or that project when every city in America seems to think it needs an $800mm tax-payer funded arena to "stimulate the local economy."
No, you don't get moon bases, hover cars and cures for cancer. You spent your allowance on football, remember?
Re: Is Science As Important As Football?
#4Interesting analogy. I would say the danger isn't quite in students injuring themselves in the classroom as much as it is giving destructive chemicals to students. Sure some of them can handle it, but the deviant ones will create havoc given the opportunity. In football there is a certain physical discipline allowed, where as in science its just the principals office, which can be better than class. Good analogy, but I think far from raising the argument...
Re: Is Science As Important As Football?
#5I don't remember my science classes to be that exciting. Then again, my sports teacher didn't like football either.
Re: Is Science As Important As Football?
#6His complaint is that science education is boring, but the same could be said for any number of subjects in school. The irony is that it's the same scientists who've created performance targets for educators to hit in the form of standardized testing. This has led to unimaginative teaching and a strictly check-box approach to learning by running down a long list of curriculum items in a very limited time frame.
Re: Is Science As Important As Football?
#7His complaint is that science education is boring, but the same could be said for any number of subjects in school. The irony is that it's the same scientists who've created performance targets for educators to hit in the form of standardized testing. This has led to unimaginative teaching and a strictly check-box approach to learning by running down a long list of curriculum items in a very limited time frame.
People creating performance targets for students to hit on standardized tests are not scientists.
Re: Is Science As Important As Football?
#8Interesting analogy. I would say the danger isn't quite in students injuring themselves in the classroom as much as it is giving destructive chemicals to students. Sure some of them can handle it, but the deviant ones will create havoc given the opportunity. In football there is a certain physical discipline allowed, where as in science its just the principals office, which can be better than class. Good analogy, but…
Let's all worry about the "deviants". Conformity for the win!
Re: Is Science As Important As Football?
#9Its an aside, but it always frustrates me to hear about the cuts at NASA and how the budget simply won't allow this or that project when every city in America seems to think it needs an $800mm tax-payer funded arena to "stimulate the local economy." No, you don't get moon bases, hover cars and cures for cancer. You spent your allowance on football, remember?
Football is a very important pastime to a lot of people. Just playing devil's advocate here: can you name one reason why those NASA programs are more important than the football arena, without making reference to your own subjective value system which would be at odds with that of the ardent football fan's?
Re: Is Science As Important As Football?
#10Its an aside, but it always frustrates me to hear about the cuts at NASA and how the budget simply won't allow this or that project when every city in America seems to think it needs an $800mm tax-payer funded arena to "stimulate the local economy." No, you don't get moon bases, hover cars and cures for cancer. You spent your allowance on football, remember?
Football is a very important pastime to a lot of people. Just playing devil's advocate here: can you name one reason why those NASA programs are more important than the football arena, without making reference to your own subjective value system which would be at odds with that of the ardent football fan's?
Football can and would exist without subsidies. Spending public funds to support private industry is a bad economic decision. Funding space travel on the other hand is something that would not exist without public funds. So it's outside of the effecency debate.
“debating gladiator reform while Rome burns…”