

Brian Greene: Put a Little Science in Your Life - sharksandwich
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01greene.html?&pagewanted=all

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bbgm
Brian's article is one of the best I've read on this subject in a long time.
We seem to have lost that sense of wonder and curiousity somewhere along the
line. There's one reason that I became a scientist. I wanted to answer one
question "why"? We can always blame the media for sensationalizing science, or
highlighting just the alarmist aspects, but there's a huge gap between science
today and public awareness.

Part of it is that things have become more complex, and difficult to relate
to. But that can be overcome, and it must be. As Prof. Greene says

"Like a life without music, art or literature, a life without science is
bereft of something that gives experience a rich and otherwise inaccessible
dimension."

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Tamerlin
This trend is similar to the loss of creativity in education. My theory is
that it's also a side effect of having teachers who aren't experts in their
field; after all, how can you expect someone who doesn't understand physics to
teach physics? They'll teach by rote from a textbook, which leads to exactly
this. Do the same for the arts and math and every other subject, and you
gradually wear the imagination, curiosity, and creativity out of students.

It doesn't help that the masses tend to resent the intellectuals... I remember
well the looks my friend and I got when we got our AP physics test results
back, and the average was 59%, the high was 96%... they knew who got the 96,
and they blamed us for blowing the curve.

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TrevorJ
had a chance to go hear him talk one time, well worth the effort.

