Comments on: Are our schools entrenching the “very British mess” ?

by: Han Maenen

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:04:36 +0000

The solution that Tabitha favours in in fact the solution that was imposed bij Napoleon in 1812 in France. Resistance to metrication in France was widespread and Napoleon was opposed to the metric system as well. His solution by the decree of 1812-02-12 was the establishment of metric for the professionals and the so-called Systeme Usuel, or Customary system, for the common people in the shop adn the street: ‘Accomodee au besoin du peuple’. It used the metre as standard, but then dividied it the same way as the yard is divided: 1 m = 3 feet, 1 foot = 12 inches. The pound of 500 g was also divided like its British avoirdupois counterpart. France lived through that muddle for 28 years and traders could cheat people at will. In 1840 January 1 France went metric for good, decreed by the metric law of 1837 July 4.

by: George Carty

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:26:56 +0000

In Australia, Canada, South Africa etc, the anti-metric lobby didn’t have the anti-EU card to play…

by: John Frewen-Lord

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:12:06 +0000

Tabitha - that is not a solution, but is perpetuating the problem. Other countries - Australia, Canada, South Africa and many others - have successfully made the transition, particularly on their roads, so why can’t the UK? If children are taught to use metric as part of their everyday living, not just in the laboratory, that will speed up the process for everyone. Yes, there will be a few people who will have trouble making the transition, but I bet they are fewer than you imagine. Why should the country be held to ransom by those few?

by: Robert

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:59:15 +0000

Tabitha, I’m not sure if you have been on any building sites recently or worked with any safety equipment but all modern requirements for safety require metric labelling. Height, weight, safe working load, distance, etc are all provided in metric units. No one seems to have any problems working with this.

by: David Brown

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:38:05 +0000

Tabitha Jones correctly identifies the issue of trying to have two incompatible measurement systems in the same country; but she fails to propose any solution (except that schools waste even more valuable time teaching both systems). As I said in my earlier comment, it is clearly not enough to teach metric measurement in schools and expect the system to “catch on”. Adults have a responsibility to re-educate themselves and to use metric exclusively in their daily lives. The government has key a role to play in leading this, but has, for 40 years, not faced up to its responsibilities.

by: Martin Vlietstra

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:16:32 +0000

Tabitha, we live in a society that practises cultural apartheid – one system of units of measure for professionals and another for the person in the street. Why do you want to perpetuate that system?

by: Tabitha Jones

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:05:05 +0000

It is fine for children to be taught to use metric for maths, physics and other scientific subjects. However they must be taught how to use the imperial system for general living, as it is more widespread in the UK. If kids today are taught their heights in metres only, when they leave school they will be stuck, the same going for road distances and weights.

by: John Frewen-Lord

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:08:17 +0000

On BBC’s Have Your Say this last week, commenting on the CERN experiment, someone corrected the BBC’s Engineering Section that said that the experiment would use 400 000 litres of liquid helium - “enough to fill 1000 swimming pools”. As the person making the correction noted, that would be a mere 400 litres per pool - more of a paddling pool than a swimming pool. Again, another example of journalists’ complete ignorance of measurements in general, and the metric system in particular, all of which is a sad indictment on our education system. Going back to my previous comment, and as others have also commented. if we had just one simple metric system, more time could be spent teaching maths and measurements properly, and then perhaps our journalists, and everybody else, wouldn’t come out with such stupidities.

by: Martin Vlietstra

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:18:01 +0000

I do a certain amount of tutoring - A Level physics and maths - so I am able to tell my students that I don’t do imperial units - but in those circumstances I am doing no more than my job.

by: Ezra Steinberg

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:16:33 +0000

It would be interesting to have more views from current school students on how they perceive the current metric muddle (aka “Very British Mess).