Re: #6: WOMEN'S WAYS OF KNOWING (final excerpt!)

["JACK L. URETSKY (C) 1996; HEP DIV., ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB, ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@hep.anl.gov>]

Well, Dewey, I'm trying very hard to understand your argument.  I guess
the nub, if I can pin you down to a nub, is contained in:
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> 	We should help all students to celebrate and appreciate the
> achievements of the "elites" of science, just as we try to help all
> students to celebrate and appreciate the "elites" in other fields.

Do we?  Should we?  Why?  Who does this serve?  What have such practices
gotten us?

This 'celebration and appreciation' carries us way beyond merely getting
the 'brightest and best' into the profession.  It impresses a rigid, and I
think ultimately destructive, class system on our society.  I'm not against
the competition for the brightest and best into our profession.  What I am
against is what we do to everyone else along the way.
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	What evidence supports your contention that "it impresses a rigid,
and I think ultimately destructive, class system on our society"?  And
what is it that "we do to everyone else along the way"?
	I am experiencing students trying to learn physics (calculus based)
who are frustrated because they are unable to do elementary algebra after
having passed a year of calculus.  I am discovering students in my physics
and (I recently taught a) calculus course who had no understanding of the
concept of proof, and were enjoying the challenge of Euclid's proofs.
	My view, which I think is consistent with Mark's and also, perhaps
with yours,  is that modern day K-8 teachers are failing to challenge
students' intellects.  This failure, I think, is a modern phenomenon.
	Perhaps, if we can CONCISELY state the differences in our views,
we can seek evidence that will resolve those differences.
				Regards,
					Jack
ps  The kilt and bagpipe are relatively modern incursions into Scottish
culture.