The Stupidest Thing Ever Said on TV , , ,

When asked which was closer, the sun or the moon, one of the applicants to be on the show Beauty and the Geek actually said "aren't they the same thing?" Now, I realize that not everyone's parents are middle class or interested in science or understand the basic nature of the solar system by age 5, but you shouldn't be allowed to graduate from grammar school without knowing that the Sun (Sol) is enormous; Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun; the Moon revolves around the earth; Jupiter is the largest planet; Saturn's Great Red Spot is actually a storm that has been raging for over 300 years and its moon's are the most likely place for extraterrestrial life in the solar system; Neptune is the only planet which has rings that orbit perpendicular to the equator instead of a parallel manner; and Pluto is the 9th planet. Ok, that last one will no longer be true, but this lets me work in that I think it's interesting that they decided to downgrade it from a planet instead of promoting a few more Oort Cloud objects to planet status.

It's things like that answer which make me think No Child Left Behind is a good idea and that WE SHOULD HAVE A NATIONAL CURRICULUM. I get that lots of teachers (including the two generations of teachers in my family) oppose NCLB because it fosters "teaching to the test," but teaching to the test is not necessarily a bad thing. If the test is properly constructed around questions central to understanding the subject (e.g., the transitive property in math, or the proper use of semi-colons - please note irony) then teaching to the test can be an incredibly valuable tool for improving general education levels. And of course recent immigrant children should not be included in the measurement of a school's performance.

Competition is a good thing and in most cases brings out the best in people. It's also the fundamental basis of our society - we are primates and mammals after all and exhibit the same range of programmed behaviors - and would force schools to focus on education as an output, teaching as an input and administration to act like good managers - paying teachers by their merit instead of seniority and firing teachers who don't care or are poor performers.

End of Rant.