Writer's Block: add to the high school curriculum

[rivendellrose]

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Honestly? Statistics.

I'm not talking really tough-math statistics (although that's good, too, for those who have the knack), I'm talking about theoretical statistics, the kind of stuff that allows you to see through the really asinine stuff that marketing companies and biased research groups use to trump up their dogma. I'm talking about sample size, correlation vs. causation, and how to tell if a study is totally bunk. One might even call this "skepticism 101," but... well, let's not scare people away by doing that. Basically, not enough people know how to see through the horrible little numbers games that people pull. I got lucky - I had a psychology teacher who taught us the basics of some of this stuff, and later I picked it up from other sources, and then from a really good statistics class that I got strong-armed into taking because it was a departmental requirement for anthropology. I sucked at the math (particularly since it'd been three years since I'd done anything with a scientific calculator at that point...), but the theory... god, I loved the theory parts.

...Anyway. That or a more general class examining the many and faintly horrifying ways that commercials and ads and other forms of marketing manipulate us, but that might be even more controversial, and a little bit of stats would send them in the right direction, I think.

Comments

[websandwhiskers.livejournal.com]

I want to see a basic pharmacology course taught - so that people don't, y'know, nuke their livers and die by taking Tylenol and cold medicine at the same time because they don't know any better.

I've actually had to explain to people at work that Tylenol, Advil, and Aspirin are not all the same thing, nor are they interchangeable in all circumstances. Having the average person really understand why they can't stop taking their antibiotics the second they feel better would go a long way towards avoiding the world ending a la Stephen King's 'The Stand', too.

[websandwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Um, to clarify, when I say "at work", I mean I had to explain to clients, not coworkers.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree with you, wholeheartedly. And also emphasizing the withdrawal effects of some medications and how you can't just stop taking them, you have to wean off of them. I learned that the hard way.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

I agree with your pick one hundred percent.
I know so many people that know nothing about the OTC drugs they take and think that if one tylenol is good, two must be better. And don't get me started on people that don't finish their antibiotics, or people that demand antibiotics from the DR. even though the DR. tells them what they have just needs to run it's course and that antibiotics won't help.

[beam-oflight.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of your more general class because after 3 years of statistics all it has made me want to do is fall asleep, and i'm a nerd ffs, and has taught me nothing about advertising, but I guess if it was more specifically geered that way it would be more interesting though.