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Re: grades, pass/fail etc.



-----Original Message-----
From: John S. Denker [mailto:jsd@MONMOUTH.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 9:07 AM
[snip]
The worse-case scenario is where requirements are set,
textbooks are written, and courses are taught, all by
people who have no idea what's really important. That
happens all too often. I remember in high school we
had a substitute geometry teacher who actually made
light of his own subject, saying in all candor that
he didn't know what the geometry formulas were useful
for. He said he'd never needed to paint a
parallelogram-shaped wall, nor ever bought a
parallelogram-shaped carpet. That shocked me. I'm
still shocked. IMHO a teacher's first duty is to
explain why the subject is important.

Oh - I forgot to mention another change I made to my course this semester.
I spent a day discussing why students were taking the course (it was
actually part of the homework). This may also have something to do with the
increased level of participation in the homework this semester.

____________________________________________
Robert Cohen; rcohen@po-box.esu.edu; 570-422-3428; http://www.esu.edu/~bbq
Physics, East Stroudsburg Univ., E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.