I’m almost ashamed to admit this, given the atmosphere here in Canada of late. I was raised…sniff…wait a moment…in a scientific family. Yes, my parents foolishly expected me to wonder about the causes of things, to enquire and explore. My mother, though a lawyer, fell under my father’s spell. She’d make me argue, using facts and arguments, for every freedom I desired. She always won. I studied harder, researched more, and was able to persuade her, finally, that getting married was a good idea, and that being a grandparent wasn’t usually deadly. I took up a scientific occupation, even took an epidemiology degree.
I became used to making coherent arguments, using research and confidence intervals and science to prove it.
It seems unlikely now to think of parents willing to put their children through such testing.
“Oh, Billy,” they say, “If our Prime Minister says it, who are we to argue?”
I feel sorry for parents these days. Here their poor kids need science to get into university (should they be able to afford it), yet the science presented in school is directly contrary to the knowledge crushing, faith based statements we are asked to believe.
Not to worry, little children. Facts are being removed from your schools as we speak. Science curricula are being dumbed down, oil is being made a good for the environment thing, smoke and smog is being given a “green” label. It has a dollar-sign on it, and that’s all that matters.
I’m going undercover. My MS brain makes it hard to remember scientific thoughts, anyway. And as for those pesky scientists…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH2_ueCeVv4&feature=player_embedded#!