Fundamentals

Image by mndoci via FlickrWanted to touch upon a couple of topics that sort of play together in my head. I have always considered education a fundamental right, and considered a quality, well-rounded education, both formal and informal, among the most important things we can provide children. Alas, that seems to be under attack. While that above statement applies to schooling, I also value higher education, but have discovered that many, even techie types, seem to think that higher education is not worth much, that learning the fundamentals is somehow not important. I agree that applied education is important, but we can also agree that when you are in your late teens, early 20′s you’re usually too young to figure out what you’re going to do with the rest of your life. A sound grounding in the fundamentals of science, to pick a broad field, makes you more capable of evolving within and outside your field of interest

Fundamentals is the key word here. There is always a debate between funding fundamental science and applied science. We are at a stage where our funding of science that seeks to understands the fundamentals of how the world around us exists and works (or inside us for that matter) is falling behind, with an emphasis on applied science. Where would we be without the fundamentals of physics and chemistry that have driven so much science and engineering over the last 50-60 years. Biology is there today. We need to understand the fundamentals. Lets not short sell the importance of doing that in our hurry to develop the next anti-obesity drug or genetic test.

In a world where curiosity and knowledge are second citizens, it becomes even more important that we really re-establish the value of good learning, and of understanding and figuring out the basics