Kids are never the problem. They are born scientists. The problem is always the adults. They beat the curiosity out of kids. They outnumber kids. They vote. They wield resources. That's why my public focus is primarily adults.
Interpretation
Children's curiosity is innate, but adults often suppress it, creating barriers to their exploration and learning.
In this quote, Neil DeGrasse Tyson emphasizes that the natural curiosity and inquisitiveness of children are fundamental traits that should be nurtured, not stifled. The blame for any decline in children's exploration lies with adults, who may impose limitations due to societal norms, fears, or priorities, thus it is crucial to focus on fostering an environment for adults that encourages the support and empowerment of children's natural scientific instincts.
In practice
This quote can be used in an educational seminar to emphasize the importance of fostering curiosity in children.
The problem is that many people operate on the assumption that NASA should go to Congress every year with hat in hand and justify it every year. Well, I see it as the greatest economic driver that there ever was. Economic drivers don't need justification.
The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they're 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we're on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It's not a 50/50 story. It's not. Period.
As a scientist, I want to go to Mars and back to asteroids and the Moon because I'm a scientist. But I can tell you, I'm not so naive a scientist to think that the nation might not have geopolitical reasons for going into space.
In just one year, the expenditure of of the U.S.'s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Lots of people think, well, we're humans; we're the most intelligent and accomplished species; we're in charge. Bacteria may have a different outlook: more bacteria live and work in one linear centimeter of your lower colon than all the humans who have ever lived. That's what's going on in your digestive tract right now. Are we in charge, or are we simply hosts for bacteria? It all depends on your outlook.
I have what passes for an education in this day and time, but I am not deceived by it.
Ours is an age of pedagogy. Anxious parents instruct their children more and more, at younger and younger ages, until they're reading books to babies in the womb.
What separates developing countries from developed countries is as much a gap in knowledge as a gap in resources.
School is a twelve-year jail sentence where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned.
To become comfortable with uncertainty is one of the primary goals in the training of a physician.
Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading.
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