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Historical material



Hello to the group--

I came across some very interesting words written by Sir Archibald Geikie
nearly 100 years ago in 1905. In the introductory paragraph to Chapter I of
"The Founders of Geology" he wrote:

"In science, as in all other departments of inquiry, no thorough grasp of a
subject can be gained unless the history of its development is clearly
appreciated. Nevertheless, students of Nature, while eagerly pressing
forward in the search after her secrets, are apt to keep the eye too
constantly fixed on the way that has to be travelled, and to lose sight and
remembrance of the paths already trodden. It is eminently useful, however,
if they will now and then pause in the race, in order to look backward over
the ground that has been traversed, to mark the errors as well as the
successes of the journey, to note the hindrances and the helps which they
and their predecessors have encountered, and to realise what have been the
influences that have more especially tended to retard or quicken the
progress of research."

I am wondering if in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and
mathematics there isn't a failure on the part of the teachers to impart into
the student the value and benefit of reading the historical material
pertaining to a discipline. I find my daughter, who is in high school,
always reading some classical novel for English, but I have yet to see her
reading any of the classical works from chemistry, biology, physics or
mathematics. I do however, see her working innumerable problems from these
disciplines and always asking, "Why do I have to learn to do this?" or "Who
thought this stuff up?" Is it possible that the teachers don't tell the
students where the thoughts and ideas that they are presenting in class came
from. Is it even possible that the teachers don't even know the history of
their specific discipline and are only trained in how to "work problems"?

I have spent the better part of the last six years writing books on
scientific quotations and have found an unbelievable amount of material that
would be most readable for virtually any student from the seventh grade on
up. However, I find that these books frequently aren't in the high school
libraries, the city libraries and are often very infrequently checked out
from the university libraries.

Some of these books would make fantastic reading material for the
classroom. However, I find that teachers of high school math, physics,
chemistry, etc. do not view it appropriate to read book to the students.

I guess what I'm interested in finding out is why the field of literature,
history, art and music find it imperative for the students to be aware of
the classical work along with the contemporary works but we in the sciences
fail to promote the classical works?

Just a thought after reading the paragraph by Geikie.

Carl C. Gaither and Alma E. Cavazos-Gaither
angelfire.com/tx5/speakingseries

Authors of the Speaking Series
Statistically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Probability and
Statistics
Physically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Physics and Astronomy
Mathematically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations
Practically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Engineering and
Technology
Medically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Dentistry, Nursing and
Medicine
Scientifically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations
Naturally Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Biology, Botany and
Zoology
Chemically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations*
Astronomically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotation on Astronomy and Physics*
*To be published in 2002