We have the most educated people in the world.

[edhopper]

True, but we are certainly not the most educated people. As evident by creationism, tea-partiers and Sarah Palin
Just as have the best heath care in the World.
Yes, this is probably true, it's just not available to most Americans.

These are distinctions that need noting.

[ananda]

1. Some people in the USA are well educated..

.. that's true.

That "we" have the most educated people in the world
is a generalizing hyperbole that is most debatable.

[edhopper]

2. I would say a PHD coming out of

Harvard or MIT could easily be considered one of the most educated people.

But then again that is not the point of my post.

[pleah]

4. +1

[pleah]

5. ?

[pleah]

6. sorry Wow this was grinding didn't know it was posting multiple times.

[immoderate]

3. I'm flattered, but...

That is sooo meaningless.

I'll bet our creationists know more about creationism than their creationists. :)

OTOH, you might run into trouble when you try to rank people on who is more educated.

--imm

[edhopper]

8. I don't think you got my point.

Just because we have SOME of the most educated people, doesn't mean that as a people, we are well educated.
Just like having great health care available, doesn't mean, as a nation, we have great health care.

[Goldstein1984]

7. We tend to be selective in our education

Few Americans have what would be called a "classical" education. Most are specialized.

I often have conversations with people who are otherwise very intelligent but willfully ignorant in specific areas.

Our schools get the blame for poor science education, but as a culture we let religion interfere with that science education.

I also find that people who are self-educated tend to be selectively educated. Either because they unintentionally pursue only a subject of interest to them without making any effort to look at the big picture, or because they intentionally ignore any information that conflicts with their preconceived notions. That is, they select a desired conclusion and seek or accept only information that supports that conclusion.

And we tend to be anti-intellectual as a culture. We condemn those with advanced degrees as "elitists."

Witness the debates on evolution, climate change, extinction, and the utility of fetal stem cell research. We seem to endlessly debate these subjects in the arenas of politics and popular culture, while there is no significant debate within the scientific community.

On edit: Fixed 3 typos

[Mr Generic Other]

10. goldstein, everything you say is true.

i like to use the word compartmentalized rather than specialized. our educational system takes kids and shoves them into funnels (the wide end) at then squishes them through the narrow end.
one begins college taking general university requirements and progresses to a "major" where "specialized" knowledge.
few gain skills in more than one subject and many school systems now penalize students who do not move toward graduation quickly enough.
a renaissance education takes a lifetime's commitment and more leisure time than most workers have.

[Igel]

11. It's true that we often have gaps.

However, singling out religion for blame is shortsighted.

I've mentioned before in this forum a grad student--advanced to candidacy in a humanities dept.--who condescended to "those types" in engineering and science and proudly considered herself their superior. They were "narrow minded." Then when I was going to heat up my lunch in a microwave she chided me, telling me that the microwaves went into the food to heat it up, but would be released when my body digested the food, irradiating my stomach.

Yes, she said this with a straight face. I have to wonder what science she took as an undergrad.

This is on par with the nurse that handed me my dose of I-131 in a fairly standard yellow-orange drug vial. When I had the capsule in my mouth, prior to swallowing it, I thought that I should check to make sure the dose was what I expected. The nurse snatched the small plastic vial out of my hands, telling me that the containers "soaked up" beta radiation and would release it into my skin if I held on to the container too long. Of course, beta rays are electronics, dangerous because they move at relativistic speeds. Things moving at relativistic speeds tend not to be trapped in small plastic vials for very long. You'd think a nurse working in radiology would actually know the dangers of what she's working with. You'd be wrong in this case.

The problem is what parents and students--and many faculty--think colleges should be doing. Are they professional schools to train kids for their careers? Are they to produce socially useful and aware citizens? Are they to provide a common culture and set of references? Should they only teach things "relevant" to students or to the social agendas of somebody or other?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted sub-thread

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