this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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Today I Learned

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In a statement, the council rationalized the reduction by stating they wanted to reduce the content load on students in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. On June 1, India cut a slew of foundational topics from tenth grade textbooks, including the periodic table of elements, Darwin's theory of evolution, the Pythagorean theorem, sources of energy, sustainable management of natural resources and contribution of agriculture to the national economy, among others. These changes effectively block a major swath of Indian students from exposure to evolution through textbooks, because tenth grade is the last year mandatory science classes are offered in Indian schools.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/evolution-periodic-table-to-stay-part-of-class-9-10-syllabus/articleshow/101058188.cms

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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 26 points 6 hours ago (4 children)

Okay the evolution part, though stupid, is religious fundie par for the course. But middle school geometry? Are they fucking retarded?

[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 14 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Yes.

Imagine not knowing the fucking Pythagorean Theorem. Imagine not being able to do basic trigonometry, a cornerstone of physics.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

A cornerstone of construction

[–] expr@programming.dev 7 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Hell, I used it to figure out the optimal viewing angle when mounting my TV on the wall.

[–] Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago

I used a website to calculate that for me because I’m an idiot and it all seems like magic to me.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

I use it so often I write a function for it into my calculator in college. Because everything is a sinusoid or triangle it just keeps showing up

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 29 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

Short answer, yes.

In 2018, Indian minister for higher education Satyapal Singh baffled the scientific community by demanding that the theory of evolution be removed from school curriculum becaue "no one ever saw an ape turning into a human being." Other political leaders from the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party came to his defense on social media.

[–] JPSound@lemmy.world 17 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

That statement alone speaks to his fundamental misunderstanding of what evolution is. Stupid people not knowing a subject, understanding their entirely flawed guess is wrong (I agree with them there) yet not realizing WHY they're wrong, then barring it because how ridiculous what they think it is sounds. Dunning something something Kruger something. I'm 100% for teaching kids that gorillas just dont turn into humans and actually teach them what evolution means.

[–] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Clearly that man needed to be taught more about evolution when he was in school.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

The thing is, evolution makes sense, so long as you aren’t going to outright reject the idea that humans aren’t a different category of thing from the rest of Animalia. It gets weird when you get deep enough to see that we share an ancestor with plants and bacteria and even archaea, but we have enough evidence that by the time you’re being asked to understand that fact you can see that line and understand how photosynthetic microbes slowly built new systems while other microbes ate the remains of them before slowly bit by bit developing new traits to differentiate and fill niches.

They don’t want to think of themselves as such, because it’s a form of humility to understand that you evolved from a worm that just happened to have a particularly effective means of transmitting signals along the course of its body. They want to think their gods made them to rule nature.

[–] ZMoney@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Everyone knows different dog breeds were invented by god in the 18th century

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Geophrey Oliver Dinglehopper?

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Nah they just understand the superiority of beans to triangles

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Yes indeed they are

[–] elxeno@lemm.ee 11 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

Are they still taught that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?

[–] deadinside91@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Hey I understood that reference!

[–] sag@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago
[–] Avg@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago

If they cut there, what else is there to teach?

[–] clot27@lemm.ee 16 points 7 hours ago

What else to expect from a RW govt who thinks hindu religious scriptures have all the knowledge

[–] pocker_machine@lemmy.world 101 points 11 hours ago (14 children)

PEOPLE FALLING FOR THIS SHIT AGAIN IS INSANE !

They haven't removed the Pythagorean theorem, it seems to be taught in lower grades. This is Pythagorean theorem for the similarity of triangles, which was dropped to remove burden during pandemic.

Periodic tables and evolution are moved to one or two grade higher. NOT DROPPED.

There you go. Now you have the facts. Enjoy the rest of your day 🫡

[–] clot27@lemm.ee 24 points 7 hours ago

Evolution is dropped from mandatory and is only taught to students who opt to learn biology, after high school.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

as said below, that’s the last mandatory grade

This is Pythagorean theorem for the similarity of triangles

could you source that?

[–] sag@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago

Source: Me and my little cousin.

[–] Murvel@lemm.ee 47 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

What the hell are you talking about!? It says in the article that these three subjects have been moved out of mandatory learning.

Meaning that most Indian students won't understand the basic principles of evolution or the most simple understanding of the composition of elements.

Not considering either of these three to be essential mandatory learning is insane.

[–] pocker_machine@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago (7 children)

The syllabus includes of related topics way before in 6th or 7th grade. Some of them are often repeated (may be even intentionally). They learn about elements and their composition in 7th or 8th grade. After having all that, if student is inclined to it they learn more in 11th and 12th grades. Most of students follow up to 12th in India. If you are so concerned go check the textbooks yourself - https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php

Although I don’t suppose most people won’t do that because why put the effort to understand things when you can spew dumb opinions around ?

The reason the topics were rationalised to improve remote learning and reduce burden on students during exams in a country where suicide rates among students due to exams and societal pressures is a real concern.

The way people have been reacting to this is as if students coming out of school are dumb fucks with no scientific knowledge. I bet the ones commenting here doesn’t even know half of what those students know.

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[–] Voltage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 hours ago

10th grade is mandatory but 90% of students who studied till 10th WILL study 11th and 12th. In 10th grade they WILL learn pythagoras theorem periodic table and evolution, just not as deep into it as it used to.

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 35 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It says in the post that 10th grade is the last mandatory grade, so this means many students will miss out on learning about evolution, no?

[–] batshit@lemmings.world 9 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Correct. After 10th grade, you can choose a "stream" (course). You can choose between science, commerce, or humanities. What's worse is that each stream has multiple branches, and biology is not included in all the branches. So if you were to choose computer science branch in the science stream, you will not take any biology classes.

So a vast majority of students would never learn about some very important scientific concepts if this was implemented, but I'm not sure if they reversed this decision or not.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago
[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

That's that the article says and nothing about the title conflicts with it. These are all pretty basic concepts that should be taught early.

[–] Draces@lemmy.world 23 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

These changes effectively block a major swath of Indian students from exposure to evolution through textbooks, because tenth grade is the last year mandatory science classes are offered in Indian schools.

I know nothing of India's education system. Does this mean it's in an optional class now or is this totally wrong?

[–] clot27@lemm.ee 4 points 7 hours ago

Its totally correct, 10th is last mandatory grade, after that you can choose which subject you wanna study for 11th and 12th

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 17 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

that's just your hypotenuse

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[–] AusatKeyboardPremi@lemmy.world 23 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Seems like you have not TIL’d fully.

Setting aside that it was temporary (though I could agree there is some malice on the committee’s part in this respect), the topics in discussion were already introduced in lower grades and the complex aspects were moved to higher grades.

But the most important part that never ever got discussed since the story broke, is that the change did got implemented because the committee listened to the feedback and dropped the plan merely a week later. [0]

The government and education ministry have some glaring flaws, but this is not one of them. They continue to make questionable decisions that deserve attention and criticism; yet these issues rarely receive the focus that this story has generated.

Please stop with the FUD, even if it is due to your lack of knowledge on the matter.

[0] http://toi.in/WFlcAb44 (apologies for linking this abomination in the name of a news website, but they were the ones to break the news and get the interviews.)

E: missed a word.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 5 hours ago

sorry about that

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 155 points 15 hours ago (19 children)

And just like that, 1 in every seven kids in the world got royally fucked.

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