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Stay curious‼️ 🤔
Real. Curiosity is such a desirable trait in folks.
To be fair, most schools give those classes only out of obligation. Doing dumb calculations of mols and atomic masses in high school is definitely teaching kids to ask “why the fuck am I even doing this?”
Learning some chemistry basics is probably still good though. Not that we’re using it daily but just in the “hey mixing this stuff can kill you” or, in the same vein, seeing how it only requires small amounts to make big changes.
We’re surrounded by chemicals in our everyday lives, learning a healthy fear of them is probably for the best.
Also high school is meant to prepare you for further education, if you want to pursue that, so it really does cover a lot of ground for basic concepts you need to learn to understand and gain further education in whatever field applies.
There are something like 10 million students attending Christian school and the like, and another 5 million or so being home schooled.
They don’t really believe in the scientific method and critical thinking, in general. At least in my experience as a student of a Christian school. I had no idea.
Gets me wondering which type of “Christian”.
Reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8swSkk9yeV8 .
There are many christians (not of that^ ilk) who very much are into the sciences, and are undogmatic in their approach to either religion or science. … Which was a surprise to me and my teenage militant aitheism that had swallowed the false dichotomy whole.
Me in high school: I don’t understand why I have to take biology, chemistry and other basic sciences classes, but I will take those classes anyways regardless even if I don’t understand why I have to take those classes.
Me in my early twenties: Oh, so that’s why
The “do your own research” people need to have it explained to them that even experts in their respective fields aren’t automatically capable of parsing scientific literature. A family doctor with 50 years experience who prescribes antidepressants every day will have no deep understanding of what any particular scientific peer reviewed study on SSRIs is telling them. They need a grounding in statistics more than anything else, which most people just don’t have. So the idea that a non-educated, non-scientist can read peer reviewed studies and come away from them with some sort of understanding of the issue is the thing that needs to be highlighted, preferably in high school science class (earlier, frankly). A willingness to slog through scientific papers in pursuit of deeper knowledge is admirable, but is dangerously misguided without proper training. I don’t even mean training in the specific science, but just in how to speak the language of peer reviewed studies more generally. It’s very much its own discipline.
I want someone to ask Joe Rogan what ‘regression to the mean’ means. I want someone to ask him what a ‘standard deviation’ is and how to apply the concept. I don’t want to know what papers he’s read, because you could read 50 true scientific papers a day on one topic and still have no idea what the current scientific consensus is on said topic, absent the requisite training. You’ll almost certainly come away from it with a very wrong but very confident belief. Dunning-Kruger on steroids.
The ‘research’ that the “do your own research” people are referring to isn’t peer reviewed scientific literature.
It’s other fools’ social media rantings.
Vaccines could cause autism since they contain immune system steroids, and should probably not be given to people who haven’t reached adulthood. Anyone who is a decent mother has probably thought about this. GMOs can also be dangerous although not likely, outside of fats, your bodies tends to break down other things. Flat earth is a troll. Climate change is real but the solutions people have for dealing with it are stupid, annoying, intrusive, and impractical. Cars get shittier year after year because of the stupid laws, meanwhile the human population is exploding.
Also don’t tell me I don’t understand the science because I do. I just figure out things myself instead of trusting corporations and social media companies. People who unironicly think that vaccines are safe did not form that conclusion by, “understanding the science”. They came to that conclusion because some other liberal corporatists told them too. It is true vaccines will cause the cow herd to be a bit more resilient, but also if that comes at the cost of the brain and mental health, then no that’s fucking stupid. Sure to corporations having bodies is probably the best thing for them. They need as many workers as possible, but from a human standpoint, there is nothing more valuable than your mind. Don’t waste your children’s minds to make cattle for corporations.
Tbf this does kind of imply we are doing something wrong. Maybe instead we should teach people to learn and judge information, rather than train them to take information presented to them at face value.
There are as many irrational science fanatics as there are religious fanatics.
