this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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Today I Learned

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In a statement, the council rationalized the reduction by stating they wanted to reduce the content load on students in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. On June 1, India cut a slew of foundational topics from tenth grade textbooks, including the periodic table of elements, Darwin's theory of evolution, the Pythagorean theorem, sources of energy, sustainable management of natural resources and contribution of agriculture to the national economy, among others. These changes effectively block a major swath of Indian students from exposure to evolution through textbooks, because tenth grade is the last year mandatory science classes are offered in Indian schools.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/evolution-periodic-table-to-stay-part-of-class-9-10-syllabus/articleshow/101058188.cms

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Okay the evolution part, though stupid, is religious fundie par for the course. But middle school geometry? Are they fucking retarded?

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Short answer, yes.

In 2018, Indian minister for higher education Satyapal Singh baffled the scientific community by demanding that the theory of evolution be removed from school curriculum becaue "no one ever saw an ape turning into a human being." Other political leaders from the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party came to his defense on social media.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago

"no one ever saw an ape turning into a human being."

Maybe phylogenetics then? Tells pretty much the same story and is based on measurable data.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That statement alone speaks to his fundamental misunderstanding of what evolution is. Stupid people not knowing a subject, understanding their entirely flawed guess is wrong (I agree with them there) yet not realizing WHY they're wrong, then barring it because how ridiculous what they think it is sounds. Dunning something something Kruger something. I'm 100% for teaching kids that gorillas just dont turn into humans and actually teach them what evolution means.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Everyone knows different dog breeds were invented by god in the 18th century

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Geophrey Oliver Dinglehopper?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Clearly that man needed to be taught more about evolution when he was in school.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

The thing is, evolution makes sense, so long as you aren’t going to outright reject the idea that humans aren’t a different category of thing from the rest of Animalia. It gets weird when you get deep enough to see that we share an ancestor with plants and bacteria and even archaea, but we have enough evidence that by the time you’re being asked to understand that fact you can see that line and understand how photosynthetic microbes slowly built new systems while other microbes ate the remains of them before slowly bit by bit developing new traits to differentiate and fill niches.

They don’t want to think of themselves as such, because it’s a form of humility to understand that you evolved from a worm that just happened to have a particularly effective means of transmitting signals along the course of its body. They want to think their gods made them to rule nature.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

"I ain't never seen no animorphs"

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes.

Imagine not knowing the fucking Pythagorean Theorem. Imagine not being able to do basic trigonometry, a cornerstone of physics.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A cornerstone of construction

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Hell, I used it to figure out the optimal viewing angle when mounting my TV on the wall.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

I use it so often I write a function for it into my calculator in college. Because everything is a sinusoid or triangle it just keeps showing up

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I used a website to calculate that for me because I’m an idiot and it all seems like magic to me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Any sufficiently advanced technology does. It's nice to have tools, whether they're ready baked ones or there's some assembly required. The latter tends to be more adaptable, but using what's in reach is smart.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Yes indeed they are

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Nah they just understand the superiority of beans to triangles