When I was in grade school, probably around 20 years ago, I remember our school trying to teach us the metric system as a new initiative to try to get Americans to adopt the metric system in general. It seemed stupid at the time, because as a bratty little kid I figured that the United States ruled the world and that we could basically do whatever we wanted. While I don't think that resisting the metric system has really held us back as a nation, there is definitely a certain arrogance in our stubbornness. There are only two other countries on the planet who have not officially adopted the metric system: Liberia and Burma. While I'm not particularly eager to start weighing things in kilograms, it kind of seems stupid for the United States to be the only real country (sorry Liberia and Burma) not using it.
Similarly, why do we list dates backwards? I know we are all used to listing the date as 'month/date/year', but doesn't it make a lot more sense to go with 'date/month/year' like the rest of the world? Like the metric system (and it's easy conversions/relations), it just makes more sense. Start with the smallest unit (days) and go toward the largest unit (years), instead of starting in the middle (month) then going with the smallest and then largest. I would love to go ahead and set the example for everyone else to follow, but I have a feeling I would just cause a lot of confusion. Maybe I'll just pass my frustration on a to a future generation and only teach my kids international systems, then they'll go to school and everyone will think they are weird.
1 comment:
I know, put an American across the Canadian border and they can't figure out why their GPS doesn't work : )
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