The identification of “literacies” seems to be the “in” thing. And, it seems that whatever is now considered a literacy we are not good at it. Now, adults do not understand basic concepts of science. For example, how long does it take the earth to revolve around the sun. Try this quiz, more philosophy of science, but I guess it is to get to the issue of what people think science is. Some terminology – the meaning of “law”, “deduction vs. induction” – seems a little trivial.
OK, one could look up the % of the water that is considered “fresh water” (an example from the post), but having this information as part of internal knowledge may be more likely to influence how we react when someone advocates spending money on a water conservation policy. I think that is the point here – the concern that lack of basic information may influence an understanding of policy issues. We use our knowledge to interpret our daily experiences. The fact that information is out there for us to access and use to interpret new experiences may be a reality, but is this the way comprehension of our world really works?
