Canadians ace science test

[applegrove]

Canadians ace science test
Behind only Finland and Hong Kong of 57 countries
JILL MAHONEY

From Friday's Globe and Mail

November 30, 2007 at 5:16 AM EST

Canadian teenagers rank third in science on a respected international test, according to initial results released yesterday.

The survey, which measured the scientific knowledge of 15-year-olds in 57 countries last year, found this country's youngsters were behind only their peers in Finland and Hong Kong.

"Canadian students have proven again to be among the best," Kelly Lamrock, New Brunswick's Education Minister and chairman of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, said in a statement.

Educators consider the test, which is called the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, a comprehensive yardstick of students' academic achievements and use results to drive policy and practices.

........SNIP"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071130.wsciencegta30/BNStory/National/?cid=al_gam_nletter_newsUp

[applegrove]

1. USA isn't in the top ten.

[Downtown Hound]

4. Yep, and the Netherlands is

That place where pot is legal and supposedly makes you stupid.

I'd be surprised if the U.S., the land of God and Guns, is even in the top twenty. What most Americans don't realize is that our dominance in the science and technology fields is largely because of foreign students that come to our universities and keep the ball rolling for us. Universities, I might add, that were built during a time when Americans actually valued education.

[BB1]

10. Yup. We're a funny little country.

Not only is pot legal, but also whoring and holding fair elections.

Besides, all that smoking never ever made me give money to a political party. I mean, we're dumb, but not that dumb.

[Purveyor]

6. Actually the US ranked '29th' out of 57 countries.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/42/8/39700724.pdf

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Yes, but did the test assess their knowledge of

creationism and moronic design?

[applegrove]

3. Exactly.

[adnelson60087]

5. I would like to see if there is any correlation with

the higher science scores and UN rankings on quality-of-life issues. Also, I bet there is a good correlation with these science scores and the level of secularity in that country.

[izquierdista]

7. Probably not

If you include the former USSR countries, they still have very good educational systems and they score well, but the quality of life there sucks. I just spent a week touring around Ukraine, witnessing the effects of disaster capitalism firsthand. Education gets devalued there little by little as they see charlatans and hucksters scam money and buy the big cars and build new houses. On the whole though, unreliable hot water is not as much a calamity as one might think, and certainly easier to remedy than a dumbed down society.

[adnelson60087]

8. I'm not sure we should include those former USSR guys yet

as they haven't been established as relatively free republics for a significant time to really get their stuff together. But you're right, hot water can be overcome....a dumbed down society is much harder to rise above. Especially when the voting public is none too bright and easily led and manipulated.

[izquierdista]

12. Free republics??

Bite your tongue! :spank: :spank: And watch how you pair your words for unintended references.

It takes a while living behind the Iron Curtain to dispel all the tall tales and propaganda that one was fed as a youth. The people there are freer in many ways than those living in the US. People of the same sex are freer to show genuine affection for each other without being looked askance as a "couple of homos". Bad behavior such as public drunkenness, groping, public urination, etc., are punished immediately with societal disapproval and not looked upon as an opportunity for the police to process another hapless miscreant into the prison industrial complex. I heard political opinions expressed openly without being shouted down or guided off to a "free speech" zone. Little kiosks are everywhere selling all sorts of publications (including lots of porn), so the press doesn't seem censored. There seems to be a lot of new construction on churches and mosques, so while I don't care much for religion, it seems free to thrive.

As far as economic freedoms, they are lacking in that regard, but I'll leave that for another posting.

[sss1977]

9. Yeah, but do they know if Britney is pregnant again?

[BB1]

11. They already know what gender it will be

since the eggs probably came from their farms...