Re: What Flows?

[palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)]

> If we insist on the students accepting certain language because we know it
> is right, then what kind of critical thinking are we preparing them for.

I'll take that as a genuine question, though the lack of a question mark
seems to make it rhetorical. The answer is simple. We are preparing them
to think rigorously, and that is the kind of thinking we admire most.

As an example, how do you expect a student to understand a mathematician
when he is speaking *ex cathedra* and uses the expression "in general"?
To a mathematician that means "always without exception" in common speech
"in general" means "usually", implying that there exist exceptions! The
two meanings are, if not 360 degrees apart, at least 180*. The student
must be told that; there is no way for the information to reach him
otherwise, and he will never understand what the mathematician is saying
until he knows it.

"Heat" is the same kind of terminology. If used rigorously it leads to an
understanding of entropy. Used sloppily it can prevent the attainment of
that degree of enlightenment.

> What I see is that they are prepared to rely on others for Truth and not
> prepared for any sort of independent thinking at all.  Why else do we pull
> our hair out at the mindlessness of our students, except that teaching by
> transmission of truth from authority trains mindlessness.  Those students
> who think for themselves are branded as troublemakers and the system
> attempts to beat them down.

That's fantasy. Did you think for yourself, Dewey? I did; no one beat me
down. I used to annoy the bejesus out of some of my teachers but they
were quite tolerant. I think I've learned quite a bit of physics, but I
didn't always see The Way. In some cases I had it beat *into* me.

> "Deep down we know what the answer is."  Yes, and it appears we have
> _different_ answers.  ;^)

.... still.

> Pacem, or is it pace?

It's "shalom", or "salaam" if you're right handed.

Leigh

*Yes, I'll explain that for anyone who hasn't studied Fermi statistics.