I am shocked, absolutely shocked

[Miss Chicken]

It is bad enough that

More than 40 per cent of Australians do not know how long it takes the Earth to travel around the sun, according to a new survey.

The Australian Academy of Science surveyed more than 1,500 people, asking them basic scientific questions.

It found nearly 30 per cent did not know if humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs, and that 41 per cent did not know it took the Earth a year to travel around the sun.

SOURCE


but I have just found out that my best friend don't know long it took the Earth to orbit the Sun. How could someone like her, who is reasonably intelligent, not learn this during her 52 years of life on this Earth?

She said it was because she isn't interested in science but shouldn't this be classed as basic knowledge?

 

[RJDiogenes]

It's depressing, not only how low standards are in society, but how disinterested people are in the world around them. How can we improve the educational system when people are so apathetic about learning?

 

[stoneroses]

Sounds like a daily mail story.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The other day my son asked me, in front of my best friend, "Mum, which is the planet that has a day that is longer than its year" (he was talking about it with a friend on the internet). I told him 'Venus' and my friend wasn't curious enough to even ask about it.

Maybe I should be pleased that my sons consider me a better source for information than the internet.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Maybe I should be pleased that my sons consider me a better source for information than the internet.

Though hopefully not for everything. Otherwise you've been holding out on us.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Maybe I should be pleased that my sons consider me a better source for information than the internet.

Though hopefully not for everything. Otherwise you've been holding out on us.

They tend to ask me about science, geography, history.

But never about sex. Or sports.

 

[Lt. Uhura-Brown]

Maybe I should be pleased that my sons consider me a better source for information than the internet.

Though hopefully not for everything. Otherwise you've been holding out on us.

They tend to ask me about science, geography, history.

But never about sex. Or sports.

Cats?

Everyone knows the internet exists only for porn and cat pics, although never at the same time - except under some very specific circumstances.

 

[Miss Chicken]

about 70% of our conversations are about cats - I am a trainee Crazy Cat Lady after all.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

It's just a unhappy fact that peoples education levels differ from one to the other, i left school at 16, i could not tell you how many inches were in a foot, my understanding of grammer was and still is basic at best, and as for stuff like the solar system, i cant remember any such type of lesson in any classes at school, i would have loved stuff like that at school, but all we got was the boring, copy out of a book and dont talk and bother the teacher or you get the belt, type education.

And before you know it life has plied you with responsibilites which can leave you little time to actually stop and look a round you, which is a shame.

 

[Miss Chicken]

My friend and I learnt under the same education system at around the same time and yet she seems to have done much less than me. She never studied a foreign language, or learnt to read music or play an instrument and now it looks like she like she didn't do much in science or mathematics at school either. She says she was never interested in the school library (though she uses the library a fair bit now). Yet my friend is intelligent.

It seems to me that she might have never had a passion for learning. Not a spark. I just cannot understand how anyone can be like this.

 

[Tosk]

How can such an intelligent person not understand how someone could have different interests than them?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It's not hard to find 30% of any given population that's monumentally dumb or ignorant about something. Consider, for instance, that the median IQ is supposed to be about 100. This means half of the population has an IQ below that. When you look at things in the aggregate, it makes sense.

It's also not unusual for many people to lack knowledge that isn't relevant to their daily lives--like the rotational period of Venus. Most of us here like learning and gathering knowledge. But it should come as no surprise that a great many people don't. Many of them are too busy just trying to survive to worry about collecting what is ultimately (to them) trivia.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I kinda wish this thread was about gambling going on in this establishment

In my experience, a lot of people who don't know the answer to these questions are just incapable of putting facts they learned together to reason the outcome. The trick is to find out if they realize they missed something obvious after you tell them the answer or if they still don't conceptually get it. I've seen some people overthink the question and have to think they need to know how long the Earth's orbit is and how fast it is going in order to calculate the answer rather than that it just takes one year because that's the definition of a year. I could be wrong, though.

 

[Miss Chicken]

How can such an intelligent person not understand how someone could have different interests than them?

I can accept friends having different interests from me, what I can't understand is how they can lack such basic knowledge.

Many of them are too busy just trying to survive to worry about collecting what is ultimately (to them) trivia.

My friend is certainly not busy. She has been on unemployed benefits for the last 15 years and before that on a single parents benefit for about 12 years.

In my experience, a lot of people who don't know the answer to these questions are just incapable of putting facts they learned together to reason the outcome. The trick is to find out if they realize they missed something obvious after you tell them the answer or if they still don't conceptually get it. I've seen some people overthink the question and have to think they need to know how long the Earth's orbit is and how fast it is going in order to calculate the answer rather than that it just takes one year because that's the definition of a year. I could be wrong, though.

Maybe that is the case. My friend's reaction to the question was "How could I possibly know that?". She also didn't know what made a day a day.

Strange thing is that she is scifi fan (TV shows not books). She loves Babylon 5, Farscape, Earth Final Conflict, Doctor Who, Firefly, Crusade, Torchwood, Sanctuary but despite that she says she is totally disinterested in science.

 

[Miss Chicken]

For anyone who is interested the full report is here.

It seems that 30% of the people thought that it only took a day for the Earth to orbit the sun. The choices were a) one day b) one week c) one month d) one year e) not sure.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

They could have mixed up the revolving around the sun and rotating on its access bits of trivia they learned in school.

 

[MacLeod]

Well as we all know it takes the Earth 365.25 Days to complete one full orbit around the sun. These are basic science questions.

 

[auntiehill]

I kinda wish this thread was about gambling going on in this establishment

That was my first thought as well.

"Your winnings, sir."

 

[FPAlpha]

It's depressing, not only how low standards are in society, but how disinterested people are in the world around them. How can we improve the educational system when people are so apathetic about learning?

Yeah well.. sign of the times i guess when young people's idols are Kim Kardashian and the news about a royal baby make it to the front pages instead of some goofy looking scientist or other intellectuals (who often enough just get mocked).

We are to blame ourselves for this development and it begins in school and ends with our general life that has elevated consumerism above everything. It's just easier to sit yourself down in front of the TV or the computer and watch meaningless crap than crack open a book that needs concentration and thinking because we don't want to "work" after we have already put in our 8 hours daily at the actual workplace.

For me it's up to the parents to actively guide their kids early on on a good path that leads to a well rounded person but that requires effort and hard work too and success isn't guaranteed (some people just don't care about anything no matter what you do).

 

[MacLeod]

^True parents have to play a part in teaching their children. But ask yourself this did you learn more about the world around you/hisotry at school or after school. Watching documenatries, reading about subjects which actually interest you.

It might be my memoy but how things were taught when I was at school was more or often or not done in a boring way. But in general are children these days taught or taught to pass a test so the school looks good?