14 DAY TRIAL // This is a not a pointless satire on the educational system in the US. These are the results of a survey that points out that only about a fifth of all Americans have a clue of what science really is, and thus believe that the Sun is actually revolving around the Earth and that the Tooth Fairy gives them money in exchange for the falling teeth.
Dr. Jon D. Miller is a political scientist directing the Center for Biomedical Communications at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and he regularly surveyed US citizens to find out their scientific literacy. Many surveys have been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and some European government agencies.
The findings prove that freedom of expression means also the freedom to believe everything except scientific facts and that "only 20 to 25 percent of Americans are scientifically savvy and alert," as he pointed out in an interview for The New York Times. As he pointed out, one adult American in five still believes that the Sun actually revolves around the Earth and not the other way around. But it doesn't stop here, he continued.
Most of them don't understand what a molecule is, besides the fact that "it's really small," less than 1 in 3 knows that DNA is the molecule of heredity and only 1 in 10 understands the notion of radiation.
"Our best university graduates are world-class by any definition," he said. "But the second half of our high school population - it's an embarrassment. We have left behind a lot of people."
Probably that's why Romanian is the second most widely spoken language at Microsoft, why Indian and Chinese scientists are making the most important discoveries for major US universities and institutes and why English is actually the most spoken language in the world, so that non-English natives can understand one another.
I don't know if this has anything to do with many US citizens being homeschooled by religious fundamentalist, or with the fact that getting an online degree is easier than getting a loan from a bank, but it's in fact good news.
Why? Because it's good to know that you will always have a good workplace waiting in the US, as long as you is doing yo' job betta an' fasta than they can eat a burger.
Bye, y'all!