Re: [Phys-L] Economist Kern Alexander Explains the Problem with School Choice

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Physics education is part of our overall school system.  The school system
was setup to benefit our society.  Notice that there are politician, some
even are MDS, who come out and say that standard cosmology, evolution... are
frauds perpetrated by liberals.  I just saw a recent article about one of
these.  We must not allow this social force to gain control of the
educational system.  One thing we have to realize is that the people who go
out and commit horrible deads such as suicide bombing are actually usually
fairly well educated.  When MDs, dentists, engineers express anti-science
attitudes we know our educational system is not doing that good a job.

But beyond this, cooperation vs competition is an important factor in
getting students to learn physics.  The successful PER programs rely on
students cooperating rather than just competing.  Each group works to come
to a consensus and in the process they learn physics and science better.
True, within the group there is a competition of ideas, but there is not
necessarily a competition for who gets the best grade.

To understand how people learn and how they are being taught we need to be
aware of how society works and the psychology behind it.  Physics is not
divorced from society, but is a pursuit which is currently blessed by
society and is seen as a social good.  If we want to keep that, we should be
working towards dampening the anti-science rhetoric, and improving the
educational system for all.  Society has the choice of rejecting schools
which teach anti-science attitudes and not supporting them, or we can
continue to support them and reap the consequences.  Part of the
anti-science attitude stems from how schools teach science and math as if it
were a received TRUTH, rather than something we designed based on
observation and logical thought.  Part of the problem of a fragmented school
system is that we lose a common culture, and with less social cohesion, our
society is more prone to violence.  

So yes, it is not directly physics, but it is ultimately important to our
continuing ability to do physics.  So far the university system seems to be
holding the line, with a few exceptions which often can not give accredited
degrees in science.  But the universities do need to reform the science
courses in the direction of the research based methods.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> With all due respect to all participants, what has this 
> thread to do with Physics?
>
> Fouad Ajami