[SOLSC] Phone Note--"New girl same--note on transaction"

I am taking part in the Slice of Life Story Challenge with Two Writing Teachers. For this challenge I will be attempting to write a "Slice of Life" post each day in the month of March and each Tuesday after that.

As I mentioned yesterday, the notes on my phone are difficult to decipher at best. They're worth it though. Typically, if I'm willing to come to fisticuffs with my phone for the sake of an NPR segment, it has to be good.

Message #1
"New girl same--note on transaction."

Translation: New Carl Sagan--quote on education

No joke. "New girl same" is actually "new Carl Sagan". There is a new Carl Sagan, but I thought saying his name would cause the speech-to-text some confusion. Heh. Maybe I should have just said Neil deGrasse Tyson.

So, Neil deGrasse Tyson is the new Carl Sagan.  Though, I imagine he would prefer to be called by his own name. He struck me as quite... cocky, but perhaps a well-earned cockiness. There was an interview on NPR's Here and Now that was fascinating. Mr. Tyson has some thought-provoking opinions on science education that deserves its own post. It's actually his opinions on education in general that had me drafting a letter to him as I drove.  Here are some quotes (from a different blog, but aligned with what I heard):

"You learn, and they test you, and you need a high score on the test, and the teacher only likes the kids who get the high score and the kids who are quiet while they're teaching, because they're the well-behaved ones. What are we promoting in society? Well-behaved automatons that spew back what they learned in a book. That's not science. You can get a parrot to do that. Give me somebody who sees — now this could get dangerous, right? Somebody who sees a wall outlet and wants to stick a wire into it to find out what happens. So you don't want kids dying from their experiments, so yes, there's a certain oversight as a parent you have to exercise. But any sensible parent would know what those limits are. I would claim that those limits are much higher than what are normally granted the behavior of children."

"And that's what the school system tends to cherish, not only in the curriculum, but in who learns it. That's why you have kids with their straight-A averages embossed on their jackets, and you're supposed to be impressed that they got A's. And no one seems to ask, "Well, tell us your insights about world affairs. Tell us your deepest thoughts about the nature of mathematics." "Oh, we didn't learn that in school." That's the reply. "

So, before I "spew" my thoughts.  What are yours?