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.
Interpretation
Education should inspire passion rather than just focus on methods and procedures.
Neil Degrasse Tyson emphasizes the importance of passion in education, suggesting that contemporary education systems often prioritize processes and techniques over igniting genuine interest and enthusiasm in students. He laments that this shift away from passion could hinder creativity and limit the joy of learning.
In practice
During a school board meeting discussing curriculum changes.
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.
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.
Let me tell you something about full moons: kids don't care about full moons. They'll play in a full moon, no worries at all. They only get scared of magic or werewolves from stupid adults and their stupid adult stories.
As a journalist, I fundamentally believe that keeping the public informed is an essential part of democracy.
Take young researchers, put them together in virtual seclusion, give them an unprecedented degree of freedom and turn up the pressure by fostering competitiveness.
Anyone can repeat a technical explanation they read in a text-book or blog post.
Whenever I met anyone who knew anything, I would bore them stiff until they told me what they knew.
A book is always an emergence above everyday life. A book is expressed life and thus is an addition to life.
I thought I was going to school to be other people, but really, what I learned was to be myself - accepting myself, my strengths and weaknesses.
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