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Politician Wants Sci-fi To Be Mandatory In School
Avantare writes "The first sci-fi novel I read was A Wrinkle in Time; the next was Dune. Why don't more people read these extraordinarily imaginative books? Delegate Ray Canterbury, who represents Greenbrier County in southern WV, wants to help with that. Canterbury introduced House Bill 2983, which reads, 'To stimulate interest in math and science among students in the public schools of this state, the State Board of Education shall prescribe minimum standards by which samples of grade-appropriate science fiction literature are integrated into the curriculum of existing reading, literature or other required courses for middle school and high school students.' For decades, walking around with a paperback sci-fi novel in your back pocket at school was the quickest way to find yourself permanently excluded from the cool-kid clique. But what if it wasn't just the geeks who read Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke? What if science fiction was mandatory reading for all students?"
When I went to school (I'm 46), "Wrinkle in Time" was on the curriculum.
There's usually a sliding ground between them - if you look at books like the Dragonriders of Pern you have a wide spectra.
It's also possible to look at Science Fiction from the perspective of trying an idea - which Heinlein was doing a lot - take an idea and write a story around it. Not all ideas are realistic, but it can still be a seed for a nice story.
There are also the dystopian stories like Nineteen Eighty-Four, THX 1138 and Kallocain.
Add to it the movie and TV series Max Headroom, which really is interesting since it looks much like the future we are heading to. "This is Edison Carter, Live and Direct...".
Science Fiction is a great package for "Thinking outside the box" stories.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
And you forget Huxley's "Brave New World". That's a classic!
Most people that like reading see science fiction as garbage. It's the geek equivalent of romance novels that are sold at the supermarket for a dollar.
No, not necessarily. There's a lot of good sci-fi that doesn't focus so much on individual characters, but rather social issues, how a new technology affects society, etc.