Re: College nowadays - What "should" students know?

[Cliff Parker <cparker@EMPOWERING.COM>]

> > In my view, high-school physics should not pay any attention to what may
> > help out a student in college. That is not its purpose. Most important,
> > the students need to be stimulated and to feel the beauty of science. It
> > does not matter what you teach, as long as you are stimulated by it, and
> > feel you can transmit this excitement to the students.
>
> I agree with you 100%. You and I, however, do not have bureaucrats
> looking over our shoulders and talking about "accountability" and
> "the crisis in science education" when they have no idea of how to
> assess this kind of learning and no idea of what science is. That,
> I'm afraid, is the conscientious high school teacher's burden.
>
> How can we help?

Shout it from the mountain tops so that more high school teachers will have
the courage to see their job differently!  We need to demonstrate and
hopefully instill a love for scientific thinking.  The topics we cover are of
much less importance and will take care of themselves eventually.  I don't
worry that there may be this topic or that one that I have not given
sufficient emphasis.  I worry that there may be this student or that who has
not changed their way of looking at the world or been inspired to pursue
knowledge rather than chase grades.

Cliff Parker

> Leigh