Did you see the new Batman V Superman movie? its trailer gave too much away, from wonder women to doomsday to creepy Lex Luthor. Definitely its not good to give away everything. But what about in the scientific education? Is it good to give an overview of the vastness of science in a systematic way starting from school?
The kind of education which i have gone through is somewhat summarized in this image :
The system tends to emphasis on something for so long and then just talk against it, let it be whether sun rises or not , or whether light is made up of particles or waves. I get that it is necessary to go through the whole process of learning the way our past generation understood the phenomena in order to put us into right track to pursue our future.But its not difficult to put a little more of continuity into it.
Here is the thing, i am a physics student, so i can only pull examples from the subject.But i suspect it is different in other fields. One of the basics of classical mechanics and in turn most of the modern theories in physics is the concept of Lagrangian and yet i was only introduced to it in my master's course. It maybe likely that the people who decides what to go in the syllabus think its too much for a bachelor's course, but it would not hurt to mention that there exist a more general theory for describing motion than Newtonian mechanics which was taught from 6th grade.Same goes with Tensors and its significance in physics.And then when you reach the next level of the system they throw this things at you as if we know it all.
One of the main reasons for this discontinuity is the dumbing down of these concepts in order to create a college level course in which everyone enrolled in the course to have a degree at the end of it.Here in India taking up basic science is a tricky business.In 11th grade,people around you are so excited and happy that you took science over commerce or humanities. then you go join for a bachelors programme, the same people will frown upon you.The whole situation changes when you are doing your masters course,then they treat you will respect and look up to you. It is a funny situation if you think of it , but what is special about bachelors ?The root cause for it is that the majority believes that basic science courses are alternatives for people who could not get into engineering ( I think the logic is " I cannot understand engineering textbooks nor the ones for science", then it must be the next best thing!") or it being a intermediate for some other profession which requires a minimum qualification degree.
This has to be changed and it is changing in a slow but steady pace as it is evident from the number of people who are genuinely interested in these courses. But the dumbing down still continues and education fails to present the subject in its full rigor and beauty.
Ultimately do we have to completely establish a new system? No. Changing the trend of "Do engineering , think what you want to do after that " should change and the students who end up taking these courses should be interested in it. The work is not done with that , it is also important to show them what it takes to be a scientist and encourage them to pursue science for its beauty and not for the degrees that decorate your walls.
After all , In Thomas Huxley's words , "Science is simply common sense at its best".
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