A few days ago my housemates invited a few of their friends to the house for a little driveway barbeque. One guy brought his girlfriend (I'm assuming) along, and I overheard a conversation between her and Matt's wife Sandra regarding her plans after graduation. She said that she never studied in high school or in her first year of college, but when she started her nursing classes as a sophomore she realized "it was too much work," so she switched to psychology because she "wanted something easier."
...
I will ignore for the moment the irony here, in that a psychology degree is utterly useless unless one goes on to graduate school to get one's Psy.D. or Ph.D., both of which require 4-5 more years of school than a nursing degree.
My big question is: why don't people care anymore? Seriously. I'm not being rhetorical or theatrical or glib. I've always assumed human beings, even non-scientists, were infused with an utterly insatiable curiosity about the unknown. I mean, heck, watch little kids open their wrapped birthday gifts. They're ravenous, and I don't think that is entirely attributable to greed or materialistic tendencies - I think that's a burning desire to make known what was formerly unknown.
Take, for example, an article I found in The Observer yesterday. One researcher said the average American today knows less about biology than the average American did TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. It's nothing short of astounding to me, and I'm not easily astounded by the stupidity of my fellow human beings.
Man. I need to take a break. I have much more to say about this, but if I try to do it all at once I'm bound to knife somebody.
...
I will ignore for the moment the irony here, in that a psychology degree is utterly useless unless one goes on to graduate school to get one's Psy.D. or Ph.D., both of which require 4-5 more years of school than a nursing degree.
My big question is: why don't people care anymore? Seriously. I'm not being rhetorical or theatrical or glib. I've always assumed human beings, even non-scientists, were infused with an utterly insatiable curiosity about the unknown. I mean, heck, watch little kids open their wrapped birthday gifts. They're ravenous, and I don't think that is entirely attributable to greed or materialistic tendencies - I think that's a burning desire to make known what was formerly unknown.
Take, for example, an article I found in The Observer yesterday. One researcher said the average American today knows less about biology than the average American did TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. It's nothing short of astounding to me, and I'm not easily astounded by the stupidity of my fellow human beings.
Man. I need to take a break. I have much more to say about this, but if I try to do it all at once I'm bound to knife somebody.
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