Uplift, you seem to have a misunderstanding as to how science works.
The basis of science is this:
(1) You speculate that something might be true
(2) You work out an experiment to provide evidence that your idea is probably right.
(3) If the experiment is successful, you work from the assumption that your idea is right until/unless someone comes up with an experiment that proves your idea wrong.
Failure of an experiment doesn't mean that
science failed - experiments failing is part of the scientific method : it's how science works out what isn't true. Similarly, failure of a particular theory doesn't mean that science has failed - it means that science is working as it's supposed to. Science is about trial and error - some error is both expected and
necessary.
Michelson/Morley is referred to as "'the most successful failed experiment" because the experiment didn't do what it was expected to do -
and because that failure gave scientists the necessary information to refine the accuracy of their theory.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Namaste  I do not see how the Western school system, the scientific world view or the unfortunate Morley and Michelson have anything to do with the amount of school shootings in America. Education systems and regard for scientific thinking are very similar in the US and Australia yet people (and children!) don't get shot here nearly as often (methinks, possibly) because guns are much harder to get a hold of. If wicked science is the cause of this misfortune, why doesn't it affect Aussies in the same way? |
Nah. Like Michael Moore pointed out in "Bowling for Columbine", Canada has as many guns per capita as the US and a ton less shootings. Access to guns is certainly an enabler, but it's not the cause. Moore speculated that the 'culture of fear' in the US was the ultimate cause.
To actually be on-topic for a moment (
):
I believe that yes, financial skills would be a valuable thing for skills to teach. I also believe that, even more valuable than teaching knowledge, would be providing kids with the emotional and developmental skills they need to take control of their own life. Like JiriNovotny pointed out, the current implementation of schools focuses on passive receiving of information at the expense of self-motivated and independent thinking. That does
not produce the best possible citizens - or lives.