Banning Books: Most Americans Say NO!

It may not be obvious to some but I am a big fan of books (my most recent book review) and I am really not a big fan of banning books (here, here, and here). It is for these reasons I like to stay up on how people view the banning of books from public libraries. That is why I was glad to see this poll by Harris today that says most Americans do not support the banning of books in any way.

Banning or censoring books has been debated for years. A new Harris Poll shows, however, that a majority of Americans think no books should be banned completely (56%) while fewer than one in five say there are books which should be banned (18%); a quarter are not at all sure (26%). The older and less educated people are, the more likely they are to say that there are some books which should be banned completely. Opinions on banning books are linked to political philosophy: almost three quarters of Liberals (73%) say no books should be banned, compared to six in ten Moderates (60%) but only two in five Conservatives (41%) who say no books should be banned.

This is a really positive trend in my opinion. I don't feel that we should be banning access to any books from our children or even other adults our ability to access and share facts and opinions is what allows us to understand each other and our pasts. The most interesting trend is the way people view religious and, in the case of evolution, science works.

While few Americans think that there are books which should be banned completely, opinions differ on books that should be available to children in school libraries. Strong majorities say that children should be able to get The Holy Bible (83%) and books that discuss evolution (76%) from school libraries. Majorities also say so for other religious texts such as the Torah or Talmud (59%) and the Koran (57%), but approximately a quarter say these texts should not be available (24% and 28%, respectively) to children in school libraries.

A lot of this deals with people wanting their own specific religion to be viewed but not others but I was surprised that fewer people feel evolution books should be banned than feel the Torah should be. Look if you are going to have religious texts you should probably have them all so the state schools do not appear to be supporting one religion over another. Another thing is all of these books have had major influences on western civilization, both good and bad, and they should be available for students to understand why people who believe a certain thing believe it.

I was happy to see that only 16% of the people surveyed thought we should be banning books that discuss evolution. I don't know enough about the people to say for sure why they thought that way but at the very least it looks positive and looks like we are headed in the right direction and even if they feel that way for the wrong reasons at least getting students hands on real science could potentially lead to a better understanding of the science by the general public. Anyway let me end on one final note.

Banning books is bad, mkay! (it has been in my head since I started sorry)

Poor Science Eduation = Poor Economy

As PZ pointed out an update to a 2005 report was issued on Thursday which shows that as our science education has gone down so has the economy. This report should help show the importance of science education but if it will happen is questionable at best.

"Our nation's outlook has worsened," concludes the report panel headed by former Lockheed Martin chief Norman Augustine. The report "paints a daunting outlook for America if it were to continue on the perilous path it has been following":

•U.S. mathematics and science K-12 education ranks 48th worldwide.

•49% of U.S. adults don't know how long it takes for the Earth to circle the sun.

•China has replaced the United States as the world's top high-technology exporter.

Although U.S. school achievement scores have stagnated, harming the economy as employers look elsewhere for competent workers, the report says that other nations have made gains.

If U.S. students matched Finland's, for example, analysis suggests the U.S. economy would grow 9%-16%.

This is worrying news but at least some think that it is overrated.

In 2007, however, an analysis led by B. Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown University found U.S. science education worries overstated. It saw three times more science and engineering college graduates than job openings each year. Other reports have found top science and engineering students migrating to better-paying jobs in finance, law and medicine, since the 1990s.

There is of course potential that the jobs just aren't being offered because the companies don't trust in the science being taught in the U.S. As far as the science individuals moving into these other industries that might just imply that these other individuals are in even worse shape education wise, but that is just speculation and I would like to see more data on that.

The difference between going to Grad school and going to work right out of school

So this may seem really random but where I am currently in both life and in location I really got to thinking about this today. At 23 years old I am in a unique position in life most of my really good friends from both high school and college have a job now but there is a good number, myself included, who decided to continue going to school and are now in grad school. I also am not quite in the position where I know a lot of people who are working and in grad school at the same time so I won't really be discussing that here. But tonight I was hanging out with a bunch of friends from high school we are all really close and it was good to finally see them all again. As I was leaving my one friend's house (yes he owns a house) he jokingly said to me something along the lines of it must me nice to have 3 weeks off but I guess you do kind of work for it. He has next week off and I told him well I can only imagine what it is like in your position.

So what is the point? Well once you get through your undergrad education your life very quickly evolves out of the large amounts of fun it was as an undergrad. I'm not saying life isn't fun but no matter what path you take you will be in working to be where you are. So for example there is no question my friends who have jobs work harder than me when you average it out. They will work 48-50 (5 day) weeks a year I however will get a month off from winter break and 3 months off for the summer. But what do you get for that? One of my friends is working but owns a house and has a kid, my fiance and I couldn't afford to do that if we pooled all of what we make a year, we would still make less than all of my friends except the ones who are teachers (which says something about our society). They tend to get up and are at work by 7-9 in the morning where as I tend not to get up that early but I will be up working on homework or something till 2.

So what should you do? Sometimes you don't have a choice. There are certain fields, and all of academia is included in that, in which you need at least some post-graduate education so you are stuck. But is it worth going to grad school right away or to enter the work force. That I cannot answer for you, and to be honest it took me time to answer it for myself. And that is just it if you can make enough to afford to own a house and have a kid at 23 then I say go for it but if you don't want to leave school right away and are willing to work hard in the academic world go for that too. In the end it comes down to the individual and nothing else!