Re: Middle School Physical Science Texts: dishonesty

[Herbert H Gottlieb <herbgottlieb@JUNO.COM>]

On Mon, 26 Feb 2001 19:01:44 -0600 Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV> writes:
> Hi all-
>         1. The one middle-school science teacher I've talked to
> said, emphatically, "You can't teach a science course from a textbook."
> She was aware of newspaper publicity concerning the purported
> errors.

There is always an exception to every rule.   You have been very lucky
to find such an exceptional middle school science teacher on your first
attempt.
It certainly would be nice if all middle school science teachers were
as competent as the one that you met.

>         2. I have glanced through the report at www.aapt.org.  It
> does  list some errors such as, for example, a map with the equator too

> far north.  It also seems to contain of nit-picking and opinions
> concerning  sound teaching practices.

Aren't all evaluations done by humans  subject to the prejudices
and backgrounds of the evaluators to some degree? Even the reviews
of  Broadway shows, movies, operas, and works of art are rarely free
from nit picking and the personal hangups of the critics. Is there any
one
College or University Physics textbook that has no detractors.

> There seems to be a lot of highly  subjective
> material in the report.  In other words, it seems straight out
> misleading to characterize the report as a listing of textbook
> errors,  because that is only a part of the report.

The Packard report has never claimed to be a listing of  errors
found in science textbooks. However, during the evaluations by
a team of experienced Physics teachers and professors, many errors
were discovered.  Some of these errors and half-truths can leave their
imprint on young minds for the rest of their lives.

> It is a pity that the report  was not refereed before being
> unloosed on the public.
>                                         Regards,
>                                                 Jack

The Packard report WAS refereed by at least two persons for every
section of the report. The pity is that many of the middle
school science textbooks were not refereed as well as the Packard
report itself.

Herb Gottlieb. (One of the many Packard report referees)







> On Mon, 26 Feb 2001, Robert A Cohen wrote:
>
> > One thing that seems to have been implied by recent posts is that
> teachers
> > are unaware of the errors.  It seems to me that many of the
> teachers I
> > speak with are, indeed, aware of the errors and, as a result,
> hardly use
> > the textbooks.  Is that an accurate reflection of the state of
> things?
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
> > | Robert Cohen               Department of Physics       |
> > |                            East Stroudsburg University |
> > | bbq@esu.edu                East Stroudsburg, PA  18301 |
> > | http://www.esu.edu/~bbq/   (570) 422-3428              |
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
>
> --
> While [Jane] Austen's majestic use of language is surely diminished
> in its
> translation to English, it is hoped that the following translation
> conveys
> at least a sense of her exquisite command of her native tongue.
>                         Greg Nagan from "Sense and Sensibility" in
>                      <The 5-MINUTE ILIAD and Other Classics>