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Re: Is competence in physics as a requirement for teachers of



Hugh Haskell writes:

But someone who knows nothing of a subject, regardless
of their ability at pedagogy, is doomed. They won't be able to
answer questions, and it will be obvious to the students that
they don't know the subject.

But there are exceptions to every rule ..... especially in the art of
teaching. After returning from a summer institute learning atomic
and nuclear physics, I started teaching the subject to a freshman
class of bright youngsters. After the first few minutes, I was convinced
that all of the students knew much more about the subject than I did.

It seems that their former science teacher was COMPLETELY
incompetent in his knowledge of science as well as in pedagogy.
To embarrass this teacher, the students would go to the library
after school hours and read all of the physics and technical books
that they could find on the subject. Then, in class the next day they
would ask the teacher to explain some of the phenomena that they
did not understand. Of course he was completely dumbfounded and
could only stutter. Immediately the other students would volunteer to
offer explanations ..... one better than the other.

It was a really cruel trick to play on the teacher ..... but the
students
seemed to have learned more about atomic and nuclear physics
in a few weeks than I had learned in an intensive college course.

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where some of our students learn best from our worst teachers)

So here we have it! The ultimate pedagogical method! Just be totally
incompetent (or appear to be) in both subject and method. Why haven't we
all thought of that sooner. We could have saved ourselves one hell of a lot
of work.

Hugh from North Carolina
(Where our students are far too courteous to try that method of
learning-maybe lazy, too)

************************************************************
Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

The box said "Requires Windows 95 or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
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