Comment Re:Then what is the proper forum? (Score 1) 498
"I'm not agreeing with the director, but I think the official answer would be 'the proper forum is in Social Studies, during our unit on Race Relations.'"
Life is a paragraph, not a dictionary.
To call the young girl's experiment sociological and relegate it to a Social Studies class misses the point in my opinion. Her science fair entry possessed all the attributes of the scientific method. You're right in that it wasn't a how-long-does-it-take-hand-soap-to-dissolve-in-tap -water experiment. I guess that one would be viewed as "classic science".
The point, though, is: Was the experiment performed with the purpose of offending? Was the original experiment performed by Dr. Clark in the 1950's intended to offend or illuminate? If I knew the experiment at issue was being performed by the child of a neo-Nazi, then yes, I might be suspicious that the purpose was more to prove a point than to uncover facts. But does that really apply in this case?
To argue whether an 8 year old girl can execute an experiment which will conform to and be accepted by the larger World scientific community as "valid science" is absurd. The purpose of the science fair was to encourage scientific enquiry and the following through of a process. Even experiments which are done poorly are allowed into science fairs. No, the issue has nothing whatsoever to do with science or racism or anything even close. It has to do with fear. Fear on the part of the staff at Mesa Elementary School. Nothing more than that.
I recall an incident when I was in school where a boy was sent home for wearing a tee shirt that looked like an American Flag.
Must we return to those days?
Life is a paragraph, not a dictionary.
To call the young girl's experiment sociological and relegate it to a Social Studies class misses the point in my opinion. Her science fair entry possessed all the attributes of the scientific method. You're right in that it wasn't a how-long-does-it-take-hand-soap-to-dissolve-in-ta
The point, though, is: Was the experiment performed with the purpose of offending? Was the original experiment performed by Dr. Clark in the 1950's intended to offend or illuminate? If I knew the experiment at issue was being performed by the child of a neo-Nazi, then yes, I might be suspicious that the purpose was more to prove a point than to uncover facts. But does that really apply in this case?
To argue whether an 8 year old girl can execute an experiment which will conform to and be accepted by the larger World scientific community as "valid science" is absurd. The purpose of the science fair was to encourage scientific enquiry and the following through of a process. Even experiments which are done poorly are allowed into science fairs. No, the issue has nothing whatsoever to do with science or racism or anything even close. It has to do with fear. Fear on the part of the staff at Mesa Elementary School. Nothing more than that.
I recall an incident when I was in school where a boy was sent home for wearing a tee shirt that looked like an American Flag.
Must we return to those days?
