Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/08/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I totally agree that conversion doesn't work. You need to start thinking in metric - just like with a foreign language. Don't translate - think in the other language. Metric makes so much more sense. I use it whenever I can - of course, in the darkroom and with photography, metric is the only language! I wish more of my cookbooks used metric, but so far, it's only the "foreign" ones that do. Tina On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 11:39 AM, Aram Langhans <leicar at q.com> wrote: > Ah, to be metric. I sure remember the ill-fated attempt in this country to > "Go Metric". I had just started teaching in this little town in > Washington, > Odessa. I was teaching 6-8th grade science. The law gave all kinds of > money and materials to schools to teach the kids metric. The school looked > around at the staff and classes they had and asked, "Hmm. Who should we > give this task to. I know. Science teachers. They use metric anyway." > So > the task was mine. But they also looked at all the materials that were > send > and saw that there was a "lot" of math involved, so the said the math > teachers could assist the science teachers. Let the fun begin. The > materials, or at least the ones that I got, were all conversion based. > Lets > teach our kids how to convert from the English system to the Metric (or > should I say SI) system. I looked at that and said, forget that. They > will > never learn it that way. So, the math teacher and I devised an immersion > curriculum. For 15 minutes each day (at the start. It expanded as time > went on), we started talking in just "metric". We would hold up objects > and > ask what length, volume, mass, etc. they were. Just "Think Metric". We > went on metric field trips around town, walking about and asking how far > that was, sizes, masses, etc. The kids were really learning the metric > system. Of course, after they left our classes, they were back in the > English world again. It didn't take many years and the school district > said > stop. Too bad. I felt we were really making progress and the students > were > bilingual in measurement. > This country has always been afraid of change. From things as benign as > metric to civil rights. If I remember correctly, when Canada changed, they > just said this is the way it will be and did not teach how to convert. As > Nike says, Just Do It. Change all the signs, order forms, product labels, > etc. Just Do It. Mass confusion for a bit, but if you have to, you will. > Of course, any politician who votes for something like that would not be > reelected. > So, as a scientist and science teacher, I just plug along an in my class, > we Just Do It until it is second nature. > > Aram > > Aram Langhans > Semi-retired (retarded?) Science Teacher > & Unemployed photographer > > "The Human Genome Project has proved Darwin more right than Darwin himself > would ever have dared dream." James D. Watson > > Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:07:57 -0400 >> From: Rei Shinozuka <shino at panix.com> >> Subject: Re: [Leica] Today is 8/9/10 >> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> >> Message-ID: <4C5FEF9D.40406 at panix.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed >> >> On 08/09/2010 03:34 AM, Jeff Moore wrote: >> >>> While I don't want the world to be boringly culturally homogeneous, >>> there are some things we should all just get with the program on: >>> >>> >>> - Use the metric system, dammit. >>> >>> >>> Metric? We might as well dissolve the NFL and watch guys in shorts >> maneuvering black and white Archimedean Buckyballs using only their feet. >> >> :-) >> >> But any American born in the 1960s should remember this: >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metric_Marvels >> >> The article closes: >> >> "Ultimately, /The Metric Marvels/ failed to convince Americans to >> convert to the metric system. ... Americans largely ignored governmental >> attempts to push them in the direction of metrication, and the USMB [ >> (U.S. Metric Board <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Metric_Board>) ] >> was eventually disbanded in 1982 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982>." >> >> -rei >> (the ugly american, whose favorite lens is the 1.97 inch noctilux) >> >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > -- Tina Manley, ASMP www.tinamanley.com