Quote:
Originally Posted by bojan
Yes...
But what to do to neutralise them now when it is already too late for many?
The proper education (when it is on time - primary and secondary schools) should be the normal way to ensure the critical mass of scientific way of thinking.. but this implies involvement of government (or, better, some independent body.. we can't assume the government of the day will always have the same philosophy about those things).
And no private initiative whatsoever (charity-like or whatever) will ever succeed in this task - this is the open door to corruption and all sorts of vested interests.
BTW, have you ever wandered, why former USSR produced such a large number of mathematicians, artists.... number disproportional to western percentages?
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I'm all for the proper regime of education. One thing I feel is that kids should be looked at from an early age to see what they're competent in and their education tailored to help them to achieve the highest abilities in those competencies. They should still get a well rounded education, but not at the total expense of any abilities that they might have. If a kid's good at science, then they should be pursuing this course. If they're good with mechanical subjects, then they should pursue this. If any kid has a particular ability in any field of study, then they should be encouraged to pursue that field. In order to properly develop their potentials, they have to be identified and encouraged whilst they're still young. It's no use waiting until they leave high school. By that time, they've become set in their ways and/or developed bad educational habits, or have lost interest etc. The crucial learning period and when good habits of a lifetime are developed is when they're still young and growing. High school should be a consolidation of their previous skill building and a further extension of their study into their chosen areas. University should then become the consolidation of all that previous work and the beginnings of their dedicated research and study into their chosen fields.
Or, if they're mechanical/service/manual labour inclined, into those areas.