5.05.2007

"...the post-scholastic set..."

This is how Natalie Angier, NYT columnist and author of The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, describes folks like me: out of school and no longer able to dedicate the time to go back and learn things like the hard sciences.

Strikes me that this is one of those phrases that misses from both ends:
(a) anyone hep to the phrase "post-scholastic set" is likely a grad in a good job with either an express or implied continuing education requirement. True, they aren't in a science lab, but they certainly aren't beyond picking up a slightly more technical overview of the field. Whether they choose to or not is a different question. A question which "pop science" likely does not answer.

(b) anyone who has no idea what "post-scholastic set" might mean is also the kind of person for whom "pop science" holds little to no appeal.

1 comment:

David said...

Hell yeah!

There's certainly value in providing science for the masses, but there's no need to be condescending about it. Thus, I agree with (a).

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