Who Is Afraid of Botany?

Published by

Clarissa

May 31, 2015

Botany is dying as a field of learning. Nobody is studying and teaching it any longer:

Fewer students are taking botany classes and herbaria are shuttering their doors. What this means is that fewer and fewer people have the skill and experience to identify plants.

This problem has existed for a while and the results are not good:

Botany has always been a ill-treated

stepchild in the field of biology in the USA, always in the minority, and never having the financial support of bio-medicine.

People who know plants might find an alternative to pills. This is the same thing that happened with psychoanalysis. Anything that might conceivably compete with pill – popping is stomped out.

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8 responses to “Who Is Afraid of Botany?”

leahladygrey

May 31, 2015

One of my first passions in life was marine botany, and I intended on studying kelp and other forms of plant life in the Salish Sea when I was younger. But the math requirements for a biology degree defeated me, and I switched to theory.
This makes me incredibly sad.

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 31, 2015
  
  I believe that botany is a great subject to teach kids between the ages of 7 and 10. It’s fun, it happens outside, the kids don’t have to be cooped up in a classroom all the time. There’s really no downside.
  
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  1. Evelina Anville
    
    May 31, 2015
    
    I agree. And with so much testing drilling, every type of nonclassroom based educational experience is dying. I grew up by the ocean and our whole grammar school would make 2-3 trips to the beach per year to study the tidepools, the marine life, the ocean-growing plants. It was such a great experience and I know the grammar school beach visits have mostly been cut to make more room for more test drilling. It’s horrible.
    
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    1. Evelina Anville
      
      May 31, 2015
      
      Argh. The above comment is lined to my RL ID again. Can you “delink” again? Sorry. On the plus side, I just discovered what it causing the issue so this should be that lat time I ask you. 🙂
      
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el

May 31, 2015

Life is weird sometimes. I read this post and then saw this:

Государственная Дума готовит к рассмотрению во втором чтении законопроект, фактически вводящий частичный запрет на науку ботанику под видом борьбы с пропагандой и рекламой наркотических средств (законопроект № 108866-6). Законопроект, уже принятый в первом чтении в марте 2015 года, предусматривает запрет на распространение изображений или названий наркосодержащих растений или их частей. Если такой законопроект станет законом, то незаконной станет деятельность, например, по подготовке, изданию и распространению определителей растений по большинству регионов нашей страны, обзоров флоры и тому подобных публикаций, в том числе по переизданию старых научных изданий по ботанике. Большинство определителей растений после выхода этого закона нельзя будет хранить в библиотеках и иных местах общего доступа, нельзя будет размещать (внутри России) в сети Интернет, по ним нельзя будет учить студентов и т.д. Фактически значительная часть ботанической литературы, ранее изданной в России или ввезенной в Россию, в случае принятия такого закона окажется незаконной.
http://www.forestforum.ru/viewtopic.php?p=127515#p127515

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 31, 2015
  
  Wow, this is really crazy.
  
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n8chz

May 31, 2015

I remember when you informed us that botanist=nerd

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 31, 2015
  “I remember when you informed us that botanist=nerd”
  
  According to Russians. I, however, have nothing but respect for botanist. And nerds. 🙂
  
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