tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post7680165360567756808..comments2024-03-28T02:45:03.204-07:00Comments on Antediluvian Salad: Cartorynchus Proposed as Analogous to Epaulette Sharks: An Exposed Reef Hunting Tidal Pool SpecialistDuane Nashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14467779935085970909noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-16785163175347484952019-08-27T19:10:13.361-07:002019-08-27T19:10:13.361-07:00salad cá ngừ<a href="https://webnauan.vn/salad-ca-ngu.html" rel="nofollow">salad cá ngừ</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-76768243897042536632017-09-23T15:42:18.088-07:002017-09-23T15:42:18.088-07:00@Devin Myers Maybe its because I'm in Californ...@Devin Myers Maybe its because I'm in California and a little bit of a bubble compared to the rest of the country but your experience just ughh… from an earth science teacher to boot!! I didn't know it was that bad, I always thought it was from up above that such dreck was being pushed - not from the teachers themselves.Duane Nashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14467779935085970909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-24923045951655447692017-09-23T11:26:50.344-07:002017-09-23T11:26:50.344-07:00I've also noticed that a lot of teachers in la...I've also noticed that a lot of teachers in later stages of education don't really like the subject they teach. It becomes very difficult to get interested in a subject if you can see that the instructor doesn't even like it. Nothing contributes more to memorization and understanding of a topic than discussion and the way classrooms are usually run in the US treats open discussion like a gateway drug to anarchy. I can recall getting dozens of questions after giving a presentation of how dinosaur paleontology has progressed since Jurassic Park and the teacher was quick to put a stop to the back-and-forth discussions that were bouncing all over the room. I'd never seen a classroom so engaged and the teacher took that energy as a sign that things were getting out of control. That really says a lot.<br /><br />That "useless knowledge" bit is a direct quote from a middle school math teacher who got mad at me for not understanding the week's lesson. It was in reference to the fact that I carried paleontology textbooks to read in my spare time but couldn't understand math, so apparently she thought I was just blowing off the classwork to read even though I only read when there was absolutely nothing left to do. I've since discovered that I have dyscalculia and my inability to learn math has nothing to do with my level of effort, but teachers instead preferred to blame it on being distracted or not trying hard enough or not paying attention. Nothing could be less motivating than hearing "you need to start paying closer attention, try harder" after funneling all of your energy into desperately trying to learn a topic, only to find out you failed the test because you just didn't get it.<br /><br />On a related note, my junior year Earth Science teacher (who was an old earth creationist and highly religious, which often interfered with her teaching) routinely became furious at me when she taught a history of life on Earth. She claimed dinosaurs evolved in the Carboniferous, called all extinct reptiles and non-mammalian synapsids dinosaurs, said that mammals didn't evolve until the Cenozoic and are descended from dinosaurs, claimed that pterosaurs couldn't fly and dinosaurs were cold-blooded failures that only lived in swamps, etc. Her lessons were firmly rooted in a poor understanding of the 1950's view of paleontology and I made sure to correct misinformation as often as possible. She took offense to it but not in the way you'd expect. It wasn't that I was challenging her authority, rather, she thought it was absolutely ridiculous that a <i>mere student</i> would dare to know more than her. Her exact words to me after class one day was "I don't care if it's wrong, you need to stop being such a know-it-all." As though it was completely fine to misinform the poor students! Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00873928646244585114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-5001702986768106222017-09-23T06:11:32.552-07:002017-09-23T06:11:32.552-07:00@Devin Myers There probably is a lot of truth to y...@Devin Myers There probably is a lot of truth to your comment. School is in many ways more of a training ground for fitting into society than an active and participatory quest for knowledge. Yes, by 5th grade most kids are turned off by the drudgery of learning and those that remain curious about the world are labelled the "nerds" "outsiders" and "weirdos". So possibly both the school and peer groups collaborate in a sinister way to create a stony path for truth seekers.<br /><br />"Lots of my elementary and middle school teachers even made fun of or discouraged their students from exploring topics outside the curriculum because it was "a waste of time" and "useless knowledge, we don't teach it for a reason". <br /><br />That's so sad. If I was a principal I would consider such expressions from teachers grounds for dismissal!!Duane Nashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14467779935085970909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-90859875321601471102017-09-22T22:08:18.957-07:002017-09-22T22:08:18.957-07:00In my experience, school did nothing but crush kid...In my experience, school did nothing but crush kids' curiosity! You're so railroaded into learning a comparatively tiny and uninteresting body of information in a highly specific and limiting way that your ability to think outside that school-induced box is obliteratd. I watched it happen myself! By 5th grade almost all of my peers were anti-learning purely because school made it a chore. Learning is meant to be fun but school made it a stressful, frustrating mess. Lots of my elementary and middle school teachers even made fun of or discouraged their students from exploring topics outside the curriculum because it was "a waste of time" and "useless knowledge, we don't teach it for a reason". The few teachers I did have that genuinely tried to encourage curiosity came way too late; they were all high school instructors.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00873928646244585114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-16569535999430661562017-09-22T21:13:16.715-07:002017-09-22T21:13:16.715-07:00Yes i really tried to ground it in the nebulous as...Yes i really tried to ground it in the nebulous aspect of evolutionary thought. For me I think notions of identifying missing links are a bit like trying to locate the electron. Often times I think claims of missing links do more to serve the researchers stature and ego than really speak to the vagaries and "bushiness" of evolution.<br /><br />On bad education in America: well I'm a product of the public school system. That being said I always felt my number one teacher was my curiosity. Even in college I felt most of the stuff was "review" and I was just doing it because that was what one was supposed to do. I mean, there are good public educators I just think a lot of their time and energy goes to stuff besides teaching. What I'm more worried about is not the teachers, it is the apathy of students. Why are young kids so curious and enthralled with the world but somewhere in grade school a good majority of them lose this? I don't get it.Duane Nashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14467779935085970909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-33303946180069376712017-09-22T18:55:17.102-07:002017-09-22T18:55:17.102-07:00This post really speaks to the misconceptions peop...This post really speaks to the misconceptions people have about evolution. Man, I tried explaining it the other day to a man who'd grownup with creationism. Try as I might, there was no breaking through the years of bad education America provided him with. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06827953749890389191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-66326208614296037142017-09-22T11:10:35.187-07:002017-09-22T11:10:35.187-07:00Thanks Beetle Boy. There will be a mix of smaller ...Thanks Beetle Boy. There will be a mix of smaller ideas and bigger ideas in the future. Some more easily digested and some more far reaching and speculative. Duane Nashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14467779935085970909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8161161431451849208.post-44822645057443544022017-09-22T01:21:14.409-07:002017-09-22T01:21:14.409-07:00What a neat and plausible idea, you’ve easily conv...What a neat and plausible idea, you’ve easily convinced me. I actually really enjoyed this post, focusing on a smaller theory, not quite as revolutionary, like your lipped Smilodon, etc. Very interesting, hope to see more like this in the future.Beetle Boyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06313879056602866312noreply@blogger.com