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Show and sa Home 7 Dr. Daryl J. McCarty j Executive Secretary j Utah Education Association France gave the world more than Charles de Gaulle, ' the Eiffel Tower and French fries, IT WAS France that created the metric system. Many Americans know more about the French language lan-guage than they do about the metric system. But indications in-dications are that we're picking up information on metrics me-trics quickly. THE NATIONAL Council of Teachers of Mathematics encourages you to learn even more about metrics, beginning May 9. That's the first day of National Metric Week. The United States and Canada have gone a lot of : Kilometers down the road toward adoption of the metric system. Today's youngsters someday will be living in a world of liters and meters and drams translated into ; grams. SO THE MATH teachers are urging everyone "to develop and maintain an awareness of the metric system ' and ... to use the metric system where applicable in all ! phases of daily life." It's human nature to resist any change from familiar patterns, so the conversion to metrics won't happen next Monday morning at the crack of dawn. We're probably ome years away from advising our children that "an ounce of precaution is worth 373.242 grams of cure." ECONOMISTS are telling us that we're the last major ; nation that does not use the metric system, and that unless we convert, we're going to be in 8.810 liters of ! trouble. (That's a peck.) The trouble might come from 1 difficulties in world trade, they say. Your school children are learning about metrics in school. It's a challenge for them to learn how to convert the weights and measures we've been using for centuries to metrics. But more and more information is being published on the subject. I NEED INSTANT assistance? Your home dictionary may have tables that show metric equivalents to the 1 weights and measures customarily used in this country. |