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Re: [Phys-L] Corporal punishment





-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-l.org [mailto:phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-
l.org] On Behalf Of John Clement
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 1:53 PM
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Corporal punishment

Unfortunately science can inform social policy which in turn has an effect on
research, education and learning. In turn the social policy is formed by
people who have fixed paradigms. This is similar to the situation of students
who come into classes with strong fixed preconceptions.
Educational progress is then limited by these strong paradigms, but IE has
shown some ways to break through them.

When you see that political groups are promoting policies which have been
shown by evidence to be wrong, it just points to the fact that we have failed
to educate our students.

This impinges on science in general. We may feel that we are isolated in
physics, but that is not true. Our funding, and our ability to teach without
restraint can be limited by the ignorant people. It is already limited in the
pre-college area where teachers are afraid to bring up evolution or
cosmology. It has also produced limitations on the methods that teachers
can use in class. So IE may not be possible.

[LaMontagne, Bob]

This is why voucher systems are so important. Catholic Grammar and High Schools are totally free to teach correct science. The church actively encourages it. For the moment parents can escape the madness of legislated curricula by enrolling their kids in such schools.

Bob at PC




There was more evidence on corporal punishment that just came up as a
news report today. Apparently it increases the incidence of mental disease.
But this should not be surprising. How much this extends to grading and
other negative consequences is not known. But negative consequences are
known to be less influential than positive ones. This has been known for
quite a while from behaviorist research.

It is nice to remain in the ivory tower, until it crumbles because of outside
pressures. The task of education needs to be done by people who are
knowledgeable about cognitive resarch and education research. The
information on corporal punishment is not crap. But it is tangentially related
to education, so it may not be of interest to all.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX



I may indulge in self-flagellation after reading all the crap that's
been posted today.




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