Holmz said:
McNally Family said:
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Here in this country, we are still waiting for the teachers in the public school system to finish learning how to effectively utilize computers, so they can then move forward and help the children of this country (and themselves), to learn the metric system. The soda pop industry just became impatient, and decided not to wait.
B.S.
Congress passed a law in the mid 70's, and then recanted when people revolted.
If they could not do it following on the heals of he Apollo space program, I doubt they could do it now... Public opinion is too difficult to sway. It is certainly not the fault if teachers.
Here is a link to the actual history of the attempt to covert the United States to the metric system. It is rather long, so I doubt most people will read most of it, but certainly there is plenty of blame to pass around, the Education Department is certainly included.
http://www.gao.gov/assets/160/154089.pdf
The answer, which to me seems so obvious, is to teach the metric system to children from the start. I would certainly not take the approach most school systems take (excluding private schools), to wait and require two years of foreign language for High School graduation. It is well documented that Foreign languages should also be taught from a very early age, if long term success is to be achieved.
Teaching children the Metric system from day one, would over time, eliminate any and all obstacles the report I provided the link for, has reflected (it is the adults that are holding the process back, not the children). It would be interesting to poll teachers to see how many of them have a working knowledge of the Metric System. Until it is a majority, there is no hope of the process succeeding, as they would be out of necessity, the front line in initiating the transition.
You mentioned the 1970's as the starting point for the failed switch to the metric system; well it has been over 40 years now and we are no where near the point of establishing the standard with anyone (outside of the scientific and engineering fields) . Had we started with the children then, as we must do now, everyone under the age of 45 would be well versed in the metric system.
Imagine how much more efficient global trade would be if we were all on the same standard (see report for reasons congress even wanted the metric system to start with).
Of course, it would also have meant that old farts such as myself, would not not be finding it necessary to take on this new foreign language, this late in life. I am doing it more for the benefit of my 16yr old son, so he does not grow up with dated and obsolete knowledge, that the rest of the world is not using. He is certainly not learning it from his teachers.
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