Sad Sacks

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/sad_sacks/

by cluiggi • 17 years ago

5 2 17 years ago

cluiggi• 17 years ago

Our take on the week: As a UK adviser is fired over politically unpalatable advice, and an English teacher is suspended over an article about animal sexuality, the fate of facts is on the line.

DanielBMarkham• 17 years ago

But to say that clinical descriptions of animal sex in the context of a science article is inappropriate for 16-year-old honors students is to say the real world is inappropriate.

But er, isn't the real world inappropriate for kids? Isn't the whole idea of schooling is to gradually introduce kids to more and more of the real world? And aren't such decisions always subjective in nature? So wouldn't politics play a heavy role in what was or wasn't appropriate?

As for the political adviser giving advice contrary to his party -- once again, aren't we all a bit confused here? The purpose of political appointees in the science and medicine communities is to fulfill a political role, not a scientific one. Surely there are thousands of competent scientists able to ask great questions and do substantive research. What's needed is a person to be a bridge between the scientific and political worlds. And that person, guess what, regardless of their credentials is a politician, not a scientist.

I understand the narrative is supposed to be "science under attack by (fill-in-the-blank) idiots!" but I haven't seen it, and I'm not seeing it here. In fact, in both of these cases people were making political statements -- about the penalties of drug use or the appropriateness of training material -- and using the "it's science!" simply as cover.

They might be selling, but I'm not buying.

More nerd flame-baiting.

Sad Sacks

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