Warning: This post is a rant.
I was in Barnes and Noble the other day when I happened upon a rather worrisome sight. My first stop at any book store is usually the popular science section, so I sauntered toward the giant "science" sign. There, I found biography, social science, and current events, but no actual science. This bothered me. Why was there no science in the science section? I didn't panic. I just asked one of the employees where the real science was. It was at the opposite end of the store...near the children's books and the sex books (tee hee). I'm hoping this was just a solitary case of mistaken sign placement (although it did bother me that they put science toward the end of the store, like they were ashamed of it. Poor science, I still love you.). Then, as I finished browsing, I noticed something else that was amiss. The entire science section was less than half the size of the teen paranormal area. Now that really bothers me. Books about teens who have paranormal crushes are fine and all, but since when is this subject trump ALL OF SCIENCE? Forgive me my bold capital letters. Surely this situation is a lone, silly mishap. If not, and it acts as a harbinger of where society is headed, then stock up on dry goods.
It can be really hard to find decent books!
ReplyDeleteI was looking around for some older books (I mostly prefer books from the 1800's to new books for some reason) and I asked an employee "Do you have any older books, like Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre or The picture of Dorian Grey? Anything like that?" and she said "I haven't seen any like that. We mostly have trashy books"
The solution to my problem? I got a kindle lol.
Okay- not to slight the hard-working, awesome teachers out there- but the American education has dropped the ball when it comes to science. Just look at what's happened in politics- people with degrees are now elitist snobs. What's up with that?
ReplyDeleteMegan - That is kind of funny. At least they were honest as to what they specialized in!
ReplyDeleteSmazourek - True, teaching science is hard to begin with and things seem to be getting harder. I'm not sure what the answer is, but it would be great to "de-mystify" science so that people can appreciate it more. It is just hard when the scientific community has to battle against pseudo-science and public mistrust on top of trying to solve the world's problems.