<story><title>The Two Cultures</title><url>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>rayiner</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is the scientific equivalent of: Have you read a work of Shakespeare&amp;#x27;s?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not convinced that either of these is really important for a general education. I think educators fixate on romantic ideals of what is important to know while ignoring the subject matter that is relevant to ordinary life.&lt;p&gt;Where I grew up, the required high school curriculum includes a lot about ancient civilizations, creative writing, chemistry and physics, and algebra. It didn&amp;#x27;t teach how to write a persuasive proposal in a business context, string together a logically-sound argument, or form inferences from empirical data, and taught very little about contemporary politics or recent American or world history. It didn&amp;#x27;t teach how to mediate an interpersonal conflict at work, delegate a task, or effectively communicate an idea in a presentation.&lt;p&gt;I lament that I spent so much time &amp;quot;learning&amp;quot; in school and have so little to show for it. I know about different kinds of cloud formations, which extinct native American cultures lived where, the difference between the soil composition in different parts of the country, spectral lines in different gasses, etc. This is trivia.&lt;p&gt;I see the argument made by Snow as simply lamenting that there is under-emphasis on one particular set of romanticized unnecessary knowledge and over-emphasis on a different set. Most of physics, chemistry, etc, are neither directly relevant to your typical person nor readily digestible as being illustrative of more general principles that are relevant. A core educational curriculum would be better served teaching more fundamental concepts directly: scientific method, statistical methods, data analysis, etc.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Two Cultures</title><url>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>netcan</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;The number 2 is a very dangerous number: that is why the dialectic is a dangerous process. Attempts to divide anything into two ought to be regarded with much suspicion&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>