Re: Supporting vs stifling curiosity

[Chuck Britton <britton@NCSSM.EDU>]

While NONE of us (well, maybe not ALL of us) think that the abuse was
not necessary, I also think that YOUR eventual finding of 'the'
answer was important to your education and philosophy thereof.

Abuse indicates that the 'instructor' is overly defensive re his ignorance.


At  7:48 AM -0500  on  2/10/02,  Cooper John N   wrote
>    All thanks to Brian Whatcott for a civil and productive response to a
> reasonable, if 'poorly posed', query.
>    Decades ago when I was an undergrad at a 'small trade school in
> Pasadena', the grad student (yes!) who taught frosh physics became
> infuriated when I asked, in questioning equal and opposite reaction, how
> the floor 'knew' just how much force to exert on my foot such that I
> neither sank into said floor nor flew up from it.  He could not answer the
> question and abused me for asking it.
>    It was years later, in thinking about the stretching mode of vibrations
> in chemical bonds and arrays of bedsprings that I came on a mental picture
> that would then have rewarded my freshman curiosity and encouraged my
> further, more thoughtful analysis.
>    Well done, Brian.

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Chuck Britton                                   Education is what is left when
britton@ncssm.edu                               you have forgotten everything
North Carolina School of Science & Math         you learned in school.
(919) 286-3366  x224                            Albert Einstein,        1936