According to a report sponsored by the California Academy of Science, 77% of Americans can't answer the following three science questions correctly.
- How long does it take for the Earth to revolve around the sun?
- Did the earliest humans and dinosaurs live at the same time?
- What percentage of the Earth's surface is covered in water?
Dude.
These are not trick questions. They're not even tricky questions. No one is asking you for gravitational constants or the speed of light. You don't have to harken back to your high school chemistry classes for this. The finer points of Pluto's classification as a planet are not under consideration here. No periodic table, no calculus, no trig.
The way I see it, if you can't answer these questions, then you have two respectable options.
- Go read.
- Promise me you'll never, ever reproduce.
If you choose option 1, good for you. I can lend you some of Luke's books.
Look, if that many people can't answer these basic questions about our world and how it works, then our country is failing in its duty to educate its citizens. When half the students are failing the test we have to look at the teaching system as well as the students. Ignorance is not a crime. It's an opportunity.
So please, for the love of god, absorb some information, huh?
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- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
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