universally accepted national program of sufficient strength to bring about metric conversion according to a definite timetable, and we have further assumed a strong public relation campaign to THINK METRIC. As a final prefatory remark, we would comment on the eagerness expressed at the Education Conference and by the people we have interviewed for the education sector to take a position of leadership in any national program of going metric. This implies that education be given a lead time of a few years and use it effectively, especially for the preparation of instructional materials and to implement a program to prepare the teachers of teachers. We consider next the principal components of our educational system which would be affected by metric conversion: elementary school mathematics and science, secondary school science, undergraduate academic science, and occupational education; and we shall take them up in reverse order. Occupational education, both secondary and post-secondary, is closely linked on a one-to-one basis with the practices of the occupations for which it trains its students; any schedule devised for the latter will perforce be appropriate for the former, and any other schedule devised for occupational education would probably be unrealistic. The undergraduate academic science subjects are more or less metric already, except for engineering and the physics taught in the preparation of engineering students. Engineering education, like occupational education, will follow practice. On a time scale suitable for elementary school mathematics discussed below, elementary and secondary school science would be accommodated with little effort, for metric revisions of the conventional instructional materials in these areas could be made on that time scale, while the new curricula are equally adaptable if not already metric. Turning finally to elementary mathematics education, we find that it is quite independent of other sectors of the U.S. Metric Study. In our view, the chief concerns in this area are intimately connected with the need for some curriculum revision in elementary mathematics, and with the need to find better ways of teaching and learning measurement, estimation, computation with real numbers, and the practical use of the useful parts of mathematics (as distinct from the intellectual and abstract parts of it). An orderly metric conversion would require a lead time for the production of new curriculum materials and for getting them into the classrooms. Three years would be a comfortable length of time. If local planning were to follow national guidelines and adjust its schedules accordingly, then one might hope to achieve significant changes in the mathematics curriculum over a period of 2 or 3 years following the 2- or 3-year lead time. The following recommendations assume the existence of a coordinating body for education, nationally representative of organized education, which can with authority set forth guidelines and recommendations for the effective use of the lead time. The selection of this body is an exercise in educational politics. It should National Education Association, American Council on Education, American Vocational Association, National School Boards Association, American Association of School Administrators, as well as the concerns of the education agencies of the federal government: the U.S. Office of Education, the National Science Foundation; educational publishing: the Education Division of the Association of American Publishers; and others. For advice and implementation this coordinating body should be able to call upon curriculum innovation organizations and national educational organizations, such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Science Teachers Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Regarding textbooks and other instructional and curriculum materials, this body should do the following: (1) Advise school boards and other textbook purchasers, such as city and state agencies, to rearrange their schedules of new adoptions in order to be able to place metric books in the hands of students as soon as possible; and in particular, not to supplant currently held texts other than with metric ones (except of course for the replacement of losses and small expansions already planned). (2) Urge authors, editors, and publishers to make suitably metric (3) Issue guidelines to authors and editors concerning correct SI usage, (5) Promote the publication in the periodicals teachers read of articles (6) Encourage papers and discussion on metrication at conventions and regional and local meetings of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Science Teachers Association, and other teachers' organizations. (7) Issue pamphlets and other short pieces of literature for teachers, concerning the educational implications of the introduction of the metric system, and encourage other organizations to do likewise in order to generate a diversity of styles and views. (A list of British publications, both national and local in origin, is included in the Bibliography.) In the field of teacher training and retraining, the central body should develop teachers-of-teachers programs, including the identification of problems to be faced in training elementary, secondary, and occupational teachers, the production of whatever materials may be needed, and the scheduling of workshops. Special attention should be paid to the problem of reaching isolated teachers. It would be appropriate to call attention to the deficiencies of preservice teacher training in mathematics and science education, and to seek ways to remedy them. The central educational body should develop and proliferate equipment modification schemes for existing equipment, mainly in the instructional shops of occupational education. Plans should be provided for complete conversions to metric units, as well as for provisions for machinery to be useful for both English and metric measurements.' Manufacturers should be encouraged to make conversion kits available at minimum prices and to furnish machine drawings to schools that might want to make their own conversions as student projects. Local, regional, and state systems should be encouraged to coordinate the purchase and redistribution of equipment, so that new (metric) equipment may be placed in existing instructional shops and some of the older (English) gear may be taken into new shops for the transition. The coordinating body should do the following: (1) Establish a clearinghouse to identify and evaluate instructional materials, particularly films and videotapes made for on-the-job training, and to coordinate their use in schools. (2) Establish a role for education in the THINK METRIC campaign. Finally, the coordinating organization should make recommendations for ways to meet any special costs of metric conversion in education. At the moment, we see such costs only in the domains of inservice training and handbook revision, but some other small costs may appear which we have not identified here. 1 See Machine Tools for Metric Production and Measure for Measure, both listed in Bibliography. CHAPTER VI-EDUCATION AND A THINK METRIC CAMPAIGN the tasks of teachers in schools and those engaged in industrial training will be made easier when it is evident that the adoption of metric measurement is not a classroom discipline but a major change affecting every aspect of national life.1 Informing the public of specific measurement changes and the timing of those changes is essential to the success of metric conversion. People must feel that they are a part of the change: potential misunderstandings and apprehensions can be alleviated by a well publicized THINK METRIC campaign. Every sector of society will have a part to play in effecting the change, but the mental hazards and educational "costs" in each sector could be reduced by an effective and imaginative THINK METRIC campaign. A complete campaign should include bus posters, billboards, radio, and TV spots, and long and short TV and film productions including “Sesame Street"-like efforts and animated cartoons based upon the familiar figures of the Roadrunner, the Pink Panther, and Mr. Magoo. It should enlist teacherfigures like Julia Child, the Galloping Gourmet, and Bill Cosby; and an approach should be made to TV talk-show figures such as Joe Garagiola, Dick Cavett, and Johnny Carson. Going metric should be carried as news and for its intrinsic interest, and not as a public service gratuity. 1 Going Metric: the First 5 Years, 1965-69, the first report of the Metrication Board, 1970, London; Her Majesty's Stationery Office, p. 73. 2 The Advertising Council is reported to have undertaken the design of a campaign based upon normal advertising strategy. They propose to survey the "market" and address the messages to the "consumers" via public service advertising so that the only direct cost would be that of production. (“Metrication, the Consumer and Advertising." Theodore F. Dunn, U.S. Metric Study Report, The Consumer, NBS SP 345-7.) The creators of the popular comic strips, such as Li'l Abner and Peanuts, might be persuaded to participate. How is it that the British creator of Andy Capp has not been so engaged? Comic books seem to have become an accepted mode of education, and even the classics of literature now reach a wide audience in this form. The THINK METRIC campaign ought to have more rimes for THINK than just one- perhaps some rimes for METRIC can be invented. The campaign should have some catchy tunes and jingles. Some imaginative thought should be given to WEIGHT and MASS. A THINK METRIC campaign should aim for the early conversion of sportscasters. Perhaps the easiest thing to do is to paint the outfield barriers in baseball stadiums with their metric distances from home plate. Golf courses can be easily converted. Football was discussed above, and early and serious attention should be given to that question. After the 1972 (or 1976) Olympic Games, track and field events should be held over metric courses, with jumps and throws measured in meters. Commemorative postage stamps might be issued to mark the beginning of a metric decade, and perhaps a new one could be issued each year to mark some special metric event, much as a Christmas stamp now appears each winter. The toy industry has suggested that special toys and games might be developed to assist in consumer education.3 In this connection, we have invented a "metric board" which is 1 centimeter thick, 1 decimeter wide, and 1 meter long. It is jointed and can be stacked up to form a cube 10 centimeters on the edge, that is, a liter; and the pieces are loaded to have a mass of exactly 1 kilogram (figs. 1 and 2). Educators and scientists should be assured a role in the THINK METRIC campaign comparable to that of the media specialists in order to be sure that the message that is delivered with punch is the right message. 3 Toy Manufacturers Association, U.S. Metric Study Report, "Testimony of Nationally Representative Groups," NBS SP 345-12. |