Re: The Tergiversation of the Trichotomy: A Sermon

["JACK L. URETSKY (C)1998; HEP DIVISION, ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

Hi all-
        Br. Robert Harris comments:
***********************************************************

I suppose Brian's is a valid approach.  It certainly would avoid hurt=
ing
people's feelings.  However, it makes me uneasy.  We speak of how the
students have scientific misconceptions. We lament on how they
compartmentalize their learning, sometimes giving the correct answer =
on
tests while
maintaining naive mental frameworks. You might come to the conclusion=
 that
students
feel (or believe) that the science we are teaching them works on exam=
s --
but the real
world doesn't behave that way! We try to change that view.
Somehow, I think that it is at least intellectually dishonest  DELIBE=
RATELY
to
compartmentalize our thinking in order DELIBERATELY to maintain  beli=
ef in
two
models which are inconsistent.  Shouldn=92t we strive for a consisten=
world view.
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        As long as the operative word is "strive", I suppose that I
not only agree but think that this is an apt description of what
science is all about.  The people who trouble me greatly, on the
other hand, are those who claim posession of such a consistent world
view.  They have stopped striving.
        The ultimate gift that we can give our students would seem
to be an appreciation of the art of striving fruitfully - that is to
ask questions that seem answerable and then to formulate means for
finding answers.  The test of success is that the answers lead to
new and better questions.
                                        Regards,
                                                Jack


"These several facts prove nothing, for one cannot deduce a principle from so
few examples, but they do at least indicate that the ability to learn to spell
correctly is a gift; that it is born in a person, and that it is a sign of
intellectual inferiority.  By parity of reasoning, its absence is a sign of
great mental power."
                Mark Twain, "Extract from Eve's Diary'.