personally i would. I and i presume millions of others, were only taught the metric system at school so why persist with imperial? I think we should also switch to driving on the right too. Phase it in with buses and cyclists first.
One can only blame onseself for one's personal ignorance. In any case, one can't complain about nanny states if one doesn't take personal responsibility...
meh, cop out. At primary school i did not choose which system i was taught. If you want to stick with imperial measure measurements there is an obligation to teach it. Its indicative of the UK's half assed attempts at most things.
Neither did I --I was taught metric. But when I came over here I got my head around Imperial. It is not difficult.
Not everyone is as gifted as you though, and some people struggle with learning new systems. I suppose they must try harder though in their path to enlightenment
Zen and the art of measuring? I think that different measuring systems are like languages: it always pays to know more than one (even if it is just to broaden the mind), and like language, their meaning makes sense in the context of their cultural history. People often think that Metric makes more sense than Imperial, but that is because they don't appreciate its cultural origins. An inch is about the length of a joint of the thumb and a yard is roughly the distance from the tip of your nose (or the center of your chest) to the fingertips of your outstretched arm, or three feet (the distance between two outstretched arms of an adult is about six feet). A foot is kind of obvious. These measures were useful because one could use one's body as a frame of reference in the absence of a ruler. Metric makes sense too because of its neat decimal organisation and I prefer to work in it because millimeters allow for greater precision (working in fractions of inches is a pain). But I think that both systems have their applications. And anyway, living in the UK and refusing to understand the Imperial system is like refusing to speak English. It's just stubborn ignorance.
Then surely schools should be teaching both systems at the earliest age possible? Why teach one way only to introduce another at a later stage? Kids get taught foreign languages at primary school level, so why should they not be taught both measurement systems if they're both in use in the UK?
Perhaps it's an attempt to phase out imperial; certainly a lot of older people haven't a clue how to use metric, my Mum has no idea how much a kg is IIRC I never once used imperial in school as part of a subject, it was metric all the way (I'm 22).
I bet we had similar arguments when our monetary units went from the old money (£, /- and d.) to the decimal system we use now. I wonder how well the initial change over went? I think that there would have been alot of people out there who suddenly lost the ability to place value on items accurately. As I said, not everybody adapts well to change, and some take longer than others to get used to the change. Over time, it would get easier obviously, as the monetary units change has shown. I know some older folk who still think in terms of the old money by instinct first.
They should, for sure. But at least the Imperial system is easier to home-school than a second language.
I could also teach my kids alot of other things at home, and do so. But this doesn't mean that whatever I teach them shouldn't be part of their curriculum. After all, we do pay to have our children actually learn something at school.
We do, and in a perfect world we would get our money's worth. But in this imperfect world we, as parents, have to equip our children to live in it as best as possible. That includes picking up the slack where we see our state (well, tax)-sponsored systems failing (why do you think people pay good money to send their kids to public schools?), thereby also giving our children the clear message that life does not come on a silver platter and is not always fair. We have to work hard for what we want, and sometimes even that goes unrewarded. Such is life; what can you do but deal with it?
Because in the few cases were imperial is still used (ie on the roads), changing to metric would give no additional functionality, whilst still having to incur the cost of changing all the signs. [/thread]
I hate the imperial system. I'm in the U.S., and I have to battle the imperial system everyday. Things would a lot easier if we used metric.
