Re: [Phys-l] Motivating Students

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

	Well, let's continue that sort of thinking...  I don't get to read  
much Shakespeare any more, so maybe I would have been just as well  
educated if Mr. Mc Ginley hadn't tried to ram MacBeth down my throat  
in 12th grade.  Let's see...hmmm...  the Reformation and Cromwell are  
all a blur right now so maybe World History was a waste also.    On  
the other hand, the Inquistion caused my ancestors much anguish  so I  
guess that was important.  (Funny, too if you include the Python's  
Comfy Chair sketch and Mel Brooks' History of the World.)   What about  
my reading Les Mis. in French and my son performing on stage crew in  
Fiddler as a senior?   Or the various urban cleanup projects I used to  
have my environmental science students do?   I suppose all of this was  
unimportant.     What's left?  Maybe what we used to call *Practical  
Arts*... my book stand and tie rack are still useful, but I can no  
longer remember how to set type in a press.  If all the power goes out  
that will become important again to diseminate ideas and news, except  
everyone will have forgotten how to read because ... who reads *books*  
nowadays?.
	Friedman is right... The World Is Flat.  If we can get someone in  
Outer Mongolia to sew underwear at  third of the price that we can do  
it, then our kids had better learn the Pythagorean Theorem and what- 
not, because what else is there for them to do?

Marty

On May 23, 2008, at 8:53 AM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:

> I am a very politically involved person - especially at the local  
> level. It is a rare thing when my backgroud in Physics informs my  
> political decisions. The one time it did is when some locals were  
> trying to claim that power lines were going to give kids leukemia at  
> a new school that was being proposed. I made measurements around the  
> power lines and showed that the radiation was actually lower than  
> down the middle of the average street. But 99% of political  
> decisions really involve the gain in advantage of one power group  
> over another - not science.
>
> We do physics bacause it is fun and because there are many people  
> out there who are willing to pay us to create things for them and  
> who enable us to buy the fundamentals - food, fuel, shelter, and  
> ammunition. I really don't see how forcing the masses to be deeply  
> educated in something they will never understand or use is going to  
> produce a better world. I doubt if more than 1-2 percent of the  
> population has actually had a practical encounter where they used  
> the kinematic equation - or even the very basic Pythagorean Theorem  
> for that matter.
>
> I think we need to get over ourselves.
>
> Bob at PC
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu on behalf of John  
> Clement
> Sent: Thu 5/22/2008 11:39 PM
> To: 'Forum for Physics Educators'
> Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Motivating Students
>
>
>
> As Richard Hake pointed out, the problem is much more than just  
> breeding
> physicists and engineers.  We need to be teaching students what  
> science is
> about and how to build mental models for physical systems.  We need  
> a well
> educated electorate.  We also need people with good reasoning  
> ability and
> engineers so our society doesn't decay to third world status.  The  
> US is
> falling behind the rest of the world in both education and in the  
> production
> of technical people.
>
>
>
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