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At 8:45 AM -0600 10/26/00, Dewey Dykstra, Jr. wrote, inter alia:
Why? Because the result of this failure on our part goes *far deeper* than
the students do not develop a new notion of force. The majority learn from
this failure and the many others we inflict on them that they are not
smart, not good enough, to understand science, physics in particular, and
certain other special people are. I know that this outcome is not intended
by *most* of us, but there it is nonetheless. (I use "most" here instead
of "any" in the previous sentence having explicitly thought about the
choice.)
Dewey, are you suggesting that the majority of your students are
intrinsically capable of understanding physics, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable intellectual facilities,
and that among these is the right to understand Newton's laws *as we
do*?
Yes.
Lets get over the idea that science, especially physics, is for
everybody (or even the majority) just because we know how wonderful
it really is.
That's not why I hold the position I do.