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

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      3 months 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
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        Seriously… the Pythagorean Theorem is the single most important piece of practical math that can be easily taught to everyone.

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

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          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.

        • PlasticLove@lemmy.today
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          And yet I’ve never needed it once in my life.

          Wish instead of learning bullshit math, I was taught how to repair stuff around my house that I use everyday or a million other useful life knowledge.

          • Soup@lemmy.world
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            It’s so easy, and the more the you advocate for removal of “useless” knowledge the happier these people are to get rid of it. And no, they won’t replace it with the other stuff. Good workshops in schools ain’t cheap but the people willing to fuck over their whole country sure are.

            Besides, I never took a shop class and I figured out how to do so many things including complicated car repair and fixing my dishwasher. Your problem isn’t that one thing is useful and the other isn’t, it’s what appears to be your inherent lack of curiosity. Being exposed to information is a good thing. Plenty of people much smarter than you are very thankful for it, no need to be bitter.

          • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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            I think perhaps it’s lack of utility is more on account of the user than it is on the uses…

            • PlasticLove@lemmy.today
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              You think the average citizen there is going to be sending people into space next year or something?

              This isn’t something people need as general knowledge, schools are better used to prepare people for life.

          • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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            3 months ago

            I use it all the time. If you need a right angle, 3-4-5 gives you one, and that’s Pythag, baybeee.

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            The primary reason to teach math is to instil a form of logical reasoning. For instance, Phytagoras theorem is typically the first introduction to formal proofs. It’s literally the antidote to much of the stupidity we are currently observing in the world.

            Having said that, your response is particularly idiotic because Phytagoras theorem plays a crucial role in home improvement projects. The fact that you have never applied it in real life is likely why you cannot repair stuff in your house.

            More generally, I use the knowledge I have attained from physics and mathematics when I repair stuff at home. Maybe the reason you have trouble with these things is because you didn’t pay attention in school?

          • minnow@lemmy.world
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            Wish instead of learning bullshit math, I was taught how to repair stuff around my house that I use everyday do things that frequently use the Pythagorean theorem

            FTFY

            Honestly though, you don’t know what you don’t know, right? So nbd. But yeah, home improvement goes a lot smoother when you know your basic geometry math. So genuinely, I wish you were taught both.

      • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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        The Pythagorean theorem is no foundation of anything. It is just one solution to one problem that nobody else had solved before.

        Archimedes has built the foundations that you are talking about.

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        Just for clarification, so less people use it wrong:

        a² + b² = c² (a*a + b*b = c*c) is the Pythagorean Theorem.

        a2 + b2 = c2 would be a+a + b+b = c+c.

        • Aatube@kbin.melroy.orgOP
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          when i’m away from my computer’s compose key, i put the exponent after a term to do it in plain text, and would write the latter as 2a+2b=2c.

      • pocker_machine@lemmy.world
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        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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      Well it says mandatory, hopefully it still stays in most schools. Absolutely fucked tho

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    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 🫡

    • Murvel@lemm.ee
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      What the hell are you talking about!? It says in the article that these three subjects have been moved out of mandatory learning.

      Meaning that most Indian students won’t understand the basic principles of evolution or the most simple understanding of the composition of elements.

      Not considering either of these three to be essential mandatory learning is insane.

      • pocker_machine@lemmy.world
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        The syllabus includes of related topics way before in 6th or 7th grade. Some of them are often repeated (may be even intentionally). They learn about elements and their composition in 7th or 8th grade. After having all that, if student is inclined to it they learn more in 11th and 12th grades. Most of students follow up to 12th in India. If you are so concerned go check the textbooks yourself - https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php

        Although I don’t suppose most people won’t do that because why put the effort to understand things when you can spew dumb opinions around ?

        The reason the topics were rationalised to improve remote learning and reduce burden on students during exams in a country where suicide rates among students due to exams and societal pressures is a real concern.

        The way people have been reacting to this is as if students coming out of school are dumb fucks with no scientific knowledge. I bet the ones commenting here doesn’t even know half of what those students know.

        • Murvel@lemm.ee
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          Again, quoting the article, it says that many students (although maybe not most) will graduate without an understanding of these three subjects.

          How can that be considered a positive, and what’s even more; acceptable?!

                • Aatube@kbin.melroy.orgOP
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                  What secondary sources do you propose we trust? Deutsche-Welle has a reputation for fact-checking and retractions. What’s your source that students who don’t major in math or biology will learn these?

      • Voltage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10th grade is mandatory but 90% of students who studied till 10th WILL study 11th and 12th. In 10th grade they WILL learn pythagoras theorem periodic table and evolution, just not as deep into it as it used to.

    • thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works
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      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
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        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.

    • Clot@lemm.ee
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      Evolution is dropped from mandatory and is only taught to students who opt to learn biology, after high school.

    • Draces@lemmy.world
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      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?

      • Clot@lemm.ee
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        Its totally correct, 10th is last mandatory grade, after that you can choose which subject you wanna study for 11th and 12th

      • portuga@lemmy.world
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        Kids in india in a few years: the sum of the square of the cathedrals equals the hypothesis

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      as said below, that’s the last mandatory grade

      This is Pythagorean theorem for the similarity of triangles

      could you source that?

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      That’s what the article says and nothing about the title conflicts with it. These are all pretty basic concepts that should be taught early.

    • Damage@feddit.it
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      Also 'cuz I’d like to see how they could progress in the curricula without Pythagoras and the periodic table.

    • Suzune@ani.social
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      Thanks for that. I hate people who leave out important information and context. They are evil.