June 5, 2006

Too much specialization

First Coast News - Florida State News - Criminology Students Find Real Dead Body at Mock Crime Scene in Fort Lauderdale

Some high school criminology students in Fort Lauderdale got a taste of the real thing this morning.

To me, the news isn't that some student criminologist bumped into a dead homeless guy. To me the story is that there are highschool students studying criminology.

I find this kind of specialization in highschool classes appalling. I'm not even talking about that fact that most highschool students don't really know what they want to be when they grow up. I'm talking about something as specialized as criminology when the students don't have the basics down.

Students shouldn't be allowed to graduate with out algebra, geometry, 4 years of english, biology, chemistry, and physics. For science I'm not talking about life sciences or physical science, I'm talking about real physics and chemistry.

In this example, criminology, it is the combination of physics, chemistry, and psychology. First lets posit that the students have taken physics and chemistry and actually understand them. The next thing they should be doing is taking psychology... but I doubt everyone in the criminology class can explain HOW a lightbulb works or why thermite is one of the hottest reaction known to man or how to separate hydrogen from oxygen and what the final ratio of gasses you will wind up with, or how to know how much water you need to produce how much oxygen or hydrogen. All of these are basic science problems. I don't believe you can use and adapt complex chemistry and physics if you can't handle the basics.

Posted by pqbon at June 5, 2006 1:18 PM
Comments

That's assuming that theory must always precede practice. I think that practice can be a really good route towards understanding theory. Taking journalism in high school didn't stop me from learning how to write a 5 paragraph essay. Hardware hacking in grad school has, if anything, given me a better understanding of ohm's law than ap physics ever did.

I'm not saying we should skip the basics or exclude theory... I'm completely in agreement with you on graduation requirements (and I might add more math, history, foreign language and at least intro philosophy ^_^). But as I recall, even after all those requirements there's still some room for electives and I see no reason why criminology can't be one of them.

Posted by: meta at June 6, 2006 11:54 PM