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Shocking as it may be, most[ college ][ such as the earth/moon/sun geometric relationship ]
students are intrinsically unable to grasp ... relationships
Well, we can agree that it's shocking. I'm shocked.
In particular, here's where I'm coming from. Please take a moment to
consider the following hypotheses:
1) There is a general skill category called "geometric relationships".
2) Within this skill category, there is a lot of transference. That is,
the ability OR INABILITY to learn one skill in this category is correlated
with other skills in this category.
3) Geometric relationship skills are necessary (but not sufficient) for
learning any of the following activities:
-- playing volleyball or basketball or practically any other team sport,
since it involves visualizing where the ball is going and where other
players are going.
-- playing chess.
-- folk dancing.
-- sewing, macrame, origami, ....
-- riding a bicycle or driving in traffic.
-- et cetera.
4) The assertion that "most" college-age kids are intrinsically
incapable of learning the geometric relationships involved in such tasks is
highly implausible. Some of these tasks are hard, but the geometric
relationships are not the hard part.
Indeed, most !blind! children, well below college age, can learn geometric
relationships.
5) Visualizing the earth/moon/sun geometric relationship is no harder
than any of the other tasks mentioned.
I really don't want to get into a big argument /discussion
Fine. But in the absence of evidence to the contrary, I will continue to
believe that assuming "most" college students are "intrinsically incapable"
of learning basic geometric relationships does the students a disservice.
Others are free to believe whatever they want.