(August 16, 2012 at 5:50 am)pgrimes15 Wrote: Incidently I was talking to the cousin I mentioned in the thread last night. Turns out that she did not realise that stars were suns or that our sun was a star. "What did you think they were ?!!" I asked in astonishment.
She thought they were all planets.
It just goes to show what we might consider common knowledge, is in fact not.
I don't know where you live, but when I was in school (quite a long time ago), the minimum amount of science required of high school students was appalling. If I recall correctly, there was only one year of "science lite" required in grades 9 through 12.
While I fully appreciate that many students will not be interested in nor would find necessarily useful studying specific disciplines (e.g. physics, chemistry, biology), however, that any educational system could fail to teach such basics as the nature of what we see every day/night is disappointing.
Not knocking your cousin, BTW, but rather the educational system that apparently failed her.
/derail
