Re: what is understanding

["Fred Bucheit" <fbucheit@oak.kcsd.k12.pa.us>]

 Hugh Haskell said:
> If my own experience is any indication, understanding came very late in
the
> process. Much of what I now understand about physics I gained after I
> started teaching. Perhaps understanding is more than we should reasonably
> expect of students, esp. at the introductory level. A successful teacher
> friend of mine, Pat Canaan of Corvallis, OR, has, for many years held
that
> students should learn how to solve the problems first, understanding will
> come later. While I don't teach based on that proposition, I often think
> that I ought to. Every year, it seems to me that I end up understanding
> more new things than my students ever do, and maybe that is the way it
> should be.

We, who teach the subject and deal with the theory every day, ought to
"understand" more as time goes by. But what about those who  will never
take another course. Should we write them off as unworthy of our time? 
We keep telling students that "some day they may need this knowledge" when,
in fact, for the majority of them that day will never come. 
Understanding is not a black or white matter; it is only shades of gray. 


Fred Bucheit
       Nothing has meaning except in relation to something else.