Antennae vs. antennas

Phil Schappert philjs at mail.utexas.edu
Wed Oct 21 08:41:46 EDT 1998


On Tue, 20 Oct 1998 17:29:22 GMT, ae779 at lafn.org (Pierre A Plauzoles)
wrote:

>
>In a previous article, philjs at mail.utexas.edu (Phil Schappert) says:
>
>>On 18 Oct 1998 13:40:12 -0700, fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu (Kenelm Philip)
>>wrote:
>>>	With exquisite timing, Jeffrey Glassberg (head of NABA) has just
>>>produced an editorial in the fall '98 issue of 'American Butterflies'
>>>entitled 'To Communicate or To Intimidate: That is the Question'. He
>>>suggests that the Latin-derived terminology of entomology exists, in
>>>part, to "set up entry barriers to outsiders."
>>
>>Ken, et al.
>>
>>I, too, found this editorial to be "objectionable" (for lack of a
>>better word) and agree whole-heartedly with your assessment. I wrote a
>>response, "To Communicate or To Intimidate: Is this a Question?", in
>>my editorial column of the News of the Lepidopterists' Society. For
>>those non-members reading this (why are you still a non-member?) I'll
>>put a copy of it up on the NEWS website, look under contents of Vol.
>>40(4), at http://www.esb.utexas.edu/philjs/News/news.html
>>
>>Phil
>
>You are asking Ken?  He can answer for himself, but I would appreciate 

Pierre,

I am asking Ken what? Ken is a long-time member of the Lep. Soc. My
rhetorical question was directed at "those non-members reading this".
Or is there some other inferred question that I'm missing here? What
exactly are you objecting to? I AGREE WITH YOU (and Ken). At least
that's what I thought it said.

>the opportunity to give you my own answer as well.  As things stand, you 
>have the answer in your paragraph quoted above.  I strongly object to 
>such an attitude.  It caters to those interests whose desires include the 

What attitude? Is this directed at me or at Mr. Glassberg?

>reduction of the educational level of the public.  I, personally, would 
>**much** rather see people learn as much as they need to feel comfortable 
>using what scientific names they need to use.  Time spent on education is 
>never time wasted.  Not only that, but it also says that people are 
>stupid or too lazy to learn, something that I am not willing to accept as 
>true.  I started out as a teenager learning about entomological taxonomy, 
>and began learning about scientific nomenclature in college.

...snip...

This is, along with the infamous "names debate", obviously a sore
subject with a lot of people. My point, and part of Ken's (if I
remember what I read of his response), is not to underestimate the
intelligence of people. Dumbing down the subject is insulting to the
listener/reader. If the interest in the subject is there, people will
learn. To ask "teachers" (in the largest sense of the word) to cater
to the lowest denominator insults both the teacher and the majority of
those who wish to learn...

Phil

--
Dr. Phil Schappert
Zoology, University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712-1064
Office: 512-471-8240; Fax: 512-471-9651
Stengl - Lost Pines Biological Station: 512-237-3864
mailto:philjs at mail.utexas.edu
http://www.esb.utexas.edu/philjs


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