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Show School ( and Home e 1 by Dr. Daryl J. McCarty Executive Secretary Utah Education Association U Looks as if the rest of the nation is catching up with some Utah thinking that's been around for decades. It's about the metric system. The Utah State Constitution, adopted Nov. 5, 1895, states: "The Metric System shall be taught in the public schools of the State." Now, 80 years later, there's a flurry of activity directed toward changing measurements in inches in-ches and quarts to centimeters and liters. Federal legislation aimed at switching to metrics is in the mill. The American National Metric Council has been formed. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is busily helping educators bone up on metrics. So is the Utah Education Association's Department of Classroom Teachers. Evidence abounds that metric measurement is a coming thing. Visit any Air Force Recruiting office and a sergeant will give you a handy gadget that converts familiar measurements to metrics. Utah physicians are using the metric system for such purposes as weighing babies and measuring doses of penicillin. Arguments favoring the metric system hold that the metric system is the language of measurement in most of the world, and the metric system is easier to use than the English system, which is commonly used in this country. The Scientific Monthly reported 54 years ago that "While any intelligent child can learn and carry in his mind the , whole metric system in three lessons, and any adult can master the same in one hour or less of serious study, no man ever has, and probably no man ever will, master the United States system of weights and measures." So the idea of a switchover to metrics has been talked about for many years. Even though there's a bit of excitement about making the change, it's not likely to happen soon. The National Bureau . of Standards, the key federal agency responsible for metric affairs, recommended a ten-year period for total conversion. In 1895, Utah was way ahead of most of the country concerning the metric system. Why not accept the challenge in your family and be ahead of the rest -get your family acquainted with metrics. |