From: "JACK L. URETSKY (C) 1996; HEP DIV., ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB, ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@hep.anl.gov>
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 21:41:32 -0500 (CDT)
Hi all-
TK McCarthy writes:
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An article ran in the newspaper the other day which reported the results
of a study that asked for the answers to some simple science questions.
One of the questions asked to describe the motion of the Earth with
respect to the Sun. 53% questions could not accurately explain that the
Earth orbits the Sun in the space of a year. How, I ask, does something
as important as this become lost in the grand scheme of education? Do
people generally forget nearly everthing that is taught or is it never
taught in the first place, at least in slightly more than of the nation's
classrooms? I find this to a most interesting question since this
knowledge should also have been presented in at least one histroy class
when the scientific revolution is the topic.
This also gets back to what someone else stated about the age
appropriateness of analytical material but I have a hard time accepting
that a heliocentric notion could not be understood by, say, the fifth
grade. It is so troubling to see how little people know about the world
about them and, when they say education is getting worse, the
ramifications are numbing.
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I don't want to be in the position of defending American
education, I believe it is profoundly bad. I do, on the other hand,
want to stress my belief that Physics teachers, above all, should
model critical thinking for their students. So let's examine the above
argument in that light. I propose that you consider the following
questions. Then discuss these, and others that you will think of, with
your class at an appropriate time.
1. What was the population that answered the questions? What
incentive did the people who answered have for answering correctly, if
any? Given the population that answered, and the way that the questions
were proposed, what conclusions can be drawn about the state of knowledge
of the "general" population?
2. Why is it important for John Q. Citizen (or even Joanne W.
Citizen) to know how often the earth orbits the sun? Why is it important
for the chief of police in your residential area to have that knowledge?
3. Why is it "troubling to see how little people know about the
world about them"? Mightn't that fact just mean that we should be much
more selective about the topics that we teach? Maybe "people" know much
better what they need to learn than we know what they should learn?
The difference between US and Chinese/Japanese education, as I
understand it, is that the latter is based upon the student being
responsible for its own education. Your posting seems to make the teacher
responsible for the student's education. Isn't that a "no win" approach?
Regards,
Jack