Re: Middle School Physical Science Texts: dishonesty

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 06:54 AM 3/3/01 -0800, Shapiro, Mark wrote:
> it seems to
> me that it would be better to say that "we don't know the answer to that
> question, but you might be the one to find out" rather than to tell the kid
> that "that's just the way it is".

I will come down halfway between Mark's position and the just-the-way-it-is
position espoused by Herb and Robert.

Sometimes the same question calls for different answers, depending on who
is asking, and why.  It requires judgement.

1) A favorite example is this:  Suppose somebody asks "what makes this
light come on?"  If the questioner is a young kid, IMHO the
phenomenological answer is appropriate:  "There's a switch just around the
corner."  The full-blown "scientific" answer in terms of Maxwell's
equations and materials science is not appropriate.  There is nothing
"dishonest" about the phenomenological answer, contrary to what the
Subject: line suggests.

When in doubt, you can ask the kid "Does that answer your question?"

2) If somebody wants a more detailed answer, they can come back with a more
detailed question.  Then, if you can't answer the new question, you have to
be careful.  Saying "I don't know" is honest, but a bit of a cop-out.  It
might be better to say something like "I don't know;  why don't we take a
look in the encyclopedia."

In the light-switch scenario, saying "nobody knows how it works" would be
dishonest.

3) Sometimes the only answer is "it just happened".  For example, if you
toss an ordinary coin and somebody asks why it came up heads this time and
not tails, the usual explanation is "it just happened".  If somebody
doesn't like that answer, they will have to rephrase the question very
substantially.