Just relearned the solar system because Pluto was recently classified as “dwarf planet”. And the news flew from newspapers to TV stations quite fast. 

The inner solar system contains the sun（太阳）、Mercury(水星）、Venus（金星）、Earth（地球） and Mars（火星）。

The planets of the outer solar system are Jupiter（木星）、Saturn（土星）、Uranus(冥王星） and Neptune（海王星）。 Pluto is classfied as dwarf planet now.  

The textbooks in China for the coming fall couldn’t reflect this change made by the late August. I heard teachers were worried because probably the first time in the history, the black-and-white prints will no longer be telling the ”truth”. The text-auditing committee claimed they chose not to revise the textbooks because editting textbooks is such a serious thing and it has to be approved by layers of authorities. It makes me wonder why the textbooks in China can only spread doctrines but encourage questioning and exploration. How about just put it as “Whether Pluto is a planet in the solar system is still under debate. Pluto was discovered in 1930 and considered as a planet since. This school of thought has been challenged by many scientists and in Aug 2006, Pluto was classified as a dwarf plant by the International Astronomical Union. However, the new classification also has many dissentents. Some scientists are working very hard to reverse the decision. Thousands of debates are still there about the universe since human being only knows it so little. If you are serious about the Astronomy, the below are the reference books. Welcome to explore the mysterious universe…” When could teachers in China give up the role as the authoritative figure but be a cheer leader among millions of knowledge-seeking kids?           

This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Shanghai Drops, People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.