Date: December 1, 2011
Title: Familiarity Breeds Apathy
Podcaster: Manoharan Karthigasu
Link: www.emaginativeteacher.com
Description: Is science in general losing its lustre among students? We live in one of the most amazing times in the history of mankind, as we begin to slowly unravel the mysteries of the Universe. Yet at school students are more interested in the latest gadgets. What’s going on?
Bio: A Parent-Educator-Storyteller, teaching High School Mathematics and Theory of Knowledge in an international school in the Indonesian Archipelago.
Sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” has been sponsored by NO ONE. Please consider sponsoring a day or two so we can continue to bring you daily “infotainment”.
Transcript:
FAMILIARITY BREEDS APATHY
To say we live in one of the most exciting times in the history of mankind in regards to scientific discovery is a gross understatement. In the last century or so, many mysteries of the Universe have been unraveled and currently a lot more are being explored in greater depth. The scientific community is studying many new ideas and theories such as the multiverse. The recent Curiosity launch, James Webb Telescope and the New Horizon are some of the new exciting things to look out for in the coming years. Not only it’s going to keep many scientists around the world busy but also many of us teachers. To be able to get glimpses of Mercury, Titan, and Mars from the comfort of our own living rooms shows how far we’ve come since the day of Galileo and his humble telescope.
But I believe herein lies the danger, familiarity breeds apathy. Some of these scientific findings and discoveries don’t have the “wow” factor on students anymore. A new iPhone release would easily be more popular. Why is this so? Do we expect the unraveling of the mysteries of our Universe and ultimately ourselves, a trivial matter? Are they so distracted seemingly by other more important things? In our increasingly globalized world, dictated by a capitalistic mindset, young adults are becoming more materialistic, worshiping their gadgets; and in the developing nations students are battling each other to obtain better grades in standardized exams for place in Universities. Yes I know, these matters have been discussed before. Yet we need to address these very issues head on, as these are the very factors that are numbing the innate, curious minds of many young adults in schools. When it comes to choosing courses, they rather choose the easier route or the one that promises a lucrative career.
As a Math teacher, I have always reminded my kids, don’t worry if you don’t quite understand a new Mathematical concept clearly the first time, it takes time, you can’t expect to comprehend certain topics that took Mathematicians hundreds of years to develop in one classroom session. I’ve always emphasized patience, appreciation, application and even the precious stories behind some of those remarkable discoveries. I have always been fascinated not just with the profound theories that has changed the way we view the world but also with the stories behind them. The motive behind the question, the labor, perseverance, sometimes the ridicule that these men and women had to face in search of truths fascinates me. Curiosity pushed them to the limits of their human abilities.
Here’s the thing, I am convinced kids are interested to dwell deep into these things, but it is the very nature of our curriculum that sometimes doesn’t lend itself to allow this. Due to cultural sensitivities, sometimes we don’t want to entertain certain questions to investigate all possibilities. In the name of “internationalism” we want students to respect all views (which we ought to) without challenging certain positions critically. Often, teachers themselves have grown weary and lost their own desire to be inquisitive.
Quoting Stephen Jay Gould
“Only two possible escapes can save us from the organized mayhem of our dark potentialities-the side of human nature that has given us crusades, witch hunts, enslavements, and holocausts. Moral decency provides one necessary ingredient, but not nearly enough. The second foundation must come from the rational side of our mentality. For, unless we rigorously use human reason . . . we will lose out to the frightening forces of irrationality, romanticism, uncompromising “true” belief, and the apparent resulting inevitability of mob action . . . Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism-and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency.”
I believe astronomy provides the avenues to enable us to think critically about things that we so often take for granted.
The other day I stated discussing with one my classes about an episode of Curiosity hosted by Stephen Hawking and his views on the beginnings of the Universe. One of the students asked a question, how is it possible to create something out of nothing and that sparked an interesting class discussion. It’s amazing in a world of hyper connectivity how very little they know about scientific evidences. At the end of the class, one of the student came to me and said “Sir, this is one of the best class, I really enjoyed that discussion.” It is not about influencing, it is about creating meaningful conversations to start them thinking. Just today, another kid came up to me and said, I watched the launch the new rover, Curiosity to Mars, as I discussed about it in class a day earlier. A Grade 10 kid then asked, where do they get the fuel to travel so far. Well we obviously started discussing Newton’s Law. This tells me one thing, they are curious and they do want to know. We need to make the time to initiate such discussions and entertain their questions.
The field of astronomy has tons of contemporary issues that could be used as starting point for knowledge acquisition in both human and social sciences. I don’t claim to have all the answers to the questions posed above. What I do know from personal experience in classrooms are, interest in Math and Science are dwindling by the year and they are losing their sense of awe and wonder of our planet and the Universe.
As a father of two young kids myself, I believe their future holds a great potential, and probably as well one of the greatest challenges to face mankind since the Second World War. What do I want of my students? To simply enable job security and entrance to top universities? I want them to continue the scientific revolution that started from the ancient Greeks, to seek answers, to overcome world problems, to become the change agents, to see the bigger picture, to take risks and to dare to make a difference. It may as well start the same way the ancients started, by looking up the heavens, grateful of the amazing planet we’ve been blessed with and to start asking questions again. There is so much more to discover.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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