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devil's advocate




It was written,

What we *can* say, I suppose, is two things: traditional approaches
(non-watered-down) are a dismal failure any way you wish to measure
them except for the fortunate few who would not have needed us
anyway.

I'm not so sure I agree that the traditional approaches are such an obvious
dismal failure for the introductory course for scientists and engineers.
The proof is simply the fact that these courses have produced more
scientists and engineers then society has been able to find jobs for. Just
sit on a position search committee for a job opening and you'll see what I
mean. You get faced with hundreds of applications, almost all of which are
reasonably qualified and most of whom presumably had a traditional
introductory course.

The above is just something to chew on; I'm not totally sure where I stand,
but I do respect the opinions of people who have been at this for 20-30
years. Reread the many editorials by Clifford Schwartz in "The Physics
Teacher".

That's all for the moment.

Joel