Re: Middle School Physical Science Texts: dishonesty

[Ruth Wolfson <rwolfson@SIU.EDU>]

On Monday, February 26, 2001 10:49 PM, John M. Clement replied



> Welcome to the club.  I detest the way my own children are being taught
> science and math.  I try to help them think about it, but your own
children
> are more resistant the your students.  I have not seen a single school in
> the Houston area that really does a proper job with science and math.
There
> are a few teachers that are OK, but very few that really use the proper
> methods.  Currently my daughter has a fairly incompetent math teacher, who
> is also a bit psychotic.  The teacher did not know that the earth went
> around the sun, and that the moon went around the earth.  She tried to use
> the sun going around the earth as an example of an ellipse!  I don't know
> whether to laugh or cry.
This reminds me of my daughter's high school biology teacher who (for some
unknown reason) was teaching electron configuration to her biology class.
When one of the students asked her "why do they arrange like that?" her
answer was "That's just how it is!"

When my daughter came home and told me about it, I came unglued!  I then sat
her down and tried to explain it to her.  I thought about the majority of
the other students who didn't have a parent who had been trained in science
or math.  Sad situation indeed!

Ruth Wolfson
*****************************************************
Ruth Ann Wolfson
Technical Physics
College of Applied Sciences and Arts
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Carbondale, IL  62901

e-mail: rwolfson@siu.edu
Phone: 618-453-5697
Fax: 618-453-7254