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submitted 1 week ago by Aatube@kbin.melroy.org to c/til@lemmy.world

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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[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Thats religion for you.

[-] ToastedPlanet 4 points 6 days ago

This is what the incoming Trump administration wants to do to the US.

[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 150 points 1 week ago

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

[-] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 62 points 1 week ago

Right?

Let's see, Pythagorean theorem, is what, a couple thousand years old, and a single statement, right? And it's the foundation of geometry and trig. Hell, I regularly say it in my head (a2+b2=c2) when trying to figure out spatial relationships, for dumb stuff no less (will this table fit on my patio with room to walk around it?).

It's how you ensure anything you're trying to make square is square. In framing (shed, house, deck, whatever) it's used to ensure you setup your string in the proper orientation and don't end up with a parallelogram.

And the Periodic table.... The bloody basis of understanding chemical reactions and physics.

I guess if you're not teaching the Periodic Table, there'd be no hope if understanding evolutionary theory, since it's predicated on chemical behaviour.

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Seriously… the Pythagorean Theorem is the single most important piece of practical math that can be easily taught to everyone.

[-] IamAnonymous@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

And I just recently used it to measure the length of christmas lights I need for my roof, being 15 years out of school.

[-] AliasVortex@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

I'm a software engineer and I think one of my personal favorite random applications of Pythagoras/ trig was in my data visualization class back in scool. The assignment was to take a dataset of Soviet space launches with dogs and display it in an interactive approachable manner (ie less rigorous data science and more local science center), so I thought it would be fun to show rockets for each lauch and animate them rotating around the earth. Queue the trig to place each icon an appropriate distance (scaled to the launch height in my data), angle, and spacing from the earth.

I'll admit it doesn't come up all that often (in web development), but it's nice to have that foundational knowledge to dredge up when I need it.

[-] pocker_machine@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That is taught in lower grades. The article is misleading. What is actually dropped is a specific advanced topic on the Pythagorean theorem.

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[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 5 points 1 week ago

Well it says mandatory, hopefully it still stays in most schools. Absolutely fucked tho

[-] pocker_machine@lemmy.world 137 points 1 week ago

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 🫡

[-] littlewonder@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

PEOPLE FALLING FOR THIS SHIT AGAIN IS INSANE

  • Me, everyday, reading any news lately.
[-] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 37 points 1 week ago

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 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

[-] clot27@lemm.ee 28 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Draces@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

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 7 points 1 week 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 19 points 1 week ago

that's just your hypotenuse

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[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 7 points 1 week ago

as said below, that’s the last mandatory grade

This is Pythagorean theorem for the similarity of triangles

could you source that?

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[-] grue@lemmy.world 58 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

What the actual fuck? Those are all taught way before 10th grade here in the US, even in my ass-backwards state.

[-] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

I feel like they worded it poorly or misinterpret it from the source. Post-soviet edu has all three at 5th grade (age 10-12), the beginning of the middle school, because only then you can start and learn respective fields for remaining 5-7 years. If you place them in the last year of school it you don't have a room for that at all.

I suppose it should've meant 'in their whole 10-year program', not the tenth grade.

[-] pocker_machine@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Yes they are in India too. This article is misleading. It is about a specific advanced concept using the Pythagorean theorem.

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[-] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago

Ok don’t make it mandatory but then what would you be teaching instead? These are all like the basic building blocks of chemistry and geometry. You just aren’t gonna teach kids those subjects then?

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[-] AusatKeyboardPremi@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

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[-] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 week ago

Goddamn fascists man.

[-] clot27@lemm.ee 20 points 1 week ago

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

[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

India is super conservative. A lot of Trump’s biggest supporters are Indian in the US.

[-] elxeno@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Avg@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

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

[-] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

All I know is where the pee is stored.

[-] deadinside91@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Hey I understood that reference!

[-] sag@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago

Those darn triangles!

[-] BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Modi's ahead of Trump on many many things. Mulsims are not yet lynched by mobs in the US

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[-] uebquauntbez@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Keep 'em ~~dump~~ dumb, easy to control.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

But then they'll never learn to proofread their comments.

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this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
543 points (100.0% liked)

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