Harvard Graduates Explain Seasons

Interview with Harvard graduates in the 1980s illustrated how widespread the misconception of seasons are.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Harvard
• seasons
• graduation
• ignorance
• idiocracy

[nkip9230]

and this is why MIT will always be better than Harvard.

[qbslug]

How the fuck would their theory agree with the fact that summer and winter both occur at the same time in the different hemispheres

[athenasmarts123]

I'm almost going to middle school and I know why we have seasons. I bet those graduates must be so embarassed!

[1989sfh]

You paid how much for your education?

[lovelplants]

wow.. so old video.. they're maybe professionals now.

[johnmcaraher]

@nkip9230 Don't get cocky: search YouTube for "MIT genuises with lightbulb"

[YouJelly21]

@electroriffs No. It's not. Harvard doesn't just teach you some art classes. It teaches a philosophy, has a certain creed and teaches certain values as well. It's not just the classes you get to take.

Oh and watch me flop out my diploma that says "harvard" on it on my job interview. I think they'll give a shit. Not because of your education necessarily. It matters because they think "Harvard accepted this dude. He must be some serious shit."

[nanpetersen]

The study is actually aimed at teachers. It isn't meant to slam the graduates, per se, but to ascertain exactly how schools continue to fail to teach basic scientific concepts: that even the smartest among us can't answer questions that should have been resolved in elementary school science. I attended a whole teacher workshop on this video once. The point was that science should be more hands on and illustrative than text driven.

[DarkwingScooter]

@jsecaur You are right, I wasn't aware of the larger video until it was pointed out to me. But that doesn't make the notion that the world is about to come to an end because some arts graduates don't know the correct description of a physical event off hand.

There are terrible travesties of scientific reasoning in the world, this isn't one of them, it is just plain old fashioned ignorance.

[jsecaur]

@DarkwingScooter "the way the video presents it is drivel but it makes sense in the larger context." your quote suggests that you were not aware of the entire video.

Also, please stop putting words into my mouth. Everything else you're writing is aimed at a straw man. Have a good life.

[DarkwingScooter]

@jsecaur Didn't I say that I agree that the clip makes sense in the larger context. (looks down). Yep I did.

Saying that something is a fact that EVERYBODY must know in order to be knowledgeable is really bad reasoning.

It is hardly surprising that people think that things they happen to know is more important than what other people happen to know, but to say that any body of contingent knowledge is generalisable in the way you suggest is sorely mistaken.

People know what they need to know...