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Re: Empiry




On Fri, 9 Jan 1998

And so far, I am not having great success teaching it to them. - Martha
Takats

[A] group of HS teachers under Hestenes et al have been developing
curricula specifically based on modeling as the central philosophical
construct. - Dan MacIsaac

I shall not bore you with a long list of the proponents on computer
modeling. I am a failed teacher and was forced to take a job with twice
the pay, to my great sorrow, honestly. {I am the one guy misrepresented
by Sally Strothers, speaking for ICS, saying [loosely] "Who would like to
make more money! We *all* would." I could imagine no greater honor than
to be a teacher; I don't even need to be a *great* teacher. But, the
students have spoken. I am to be "let go". Despite the simple fact
that I compromised a research career with a very promising beginning
(awards, etc.) to devote hours and hours to my lectures. I videotaped
one lecture and my wife and I, under the most self-effacing scrutiny,
could not find one thing wrong with it. I taught without notes -
committing every formula, proof, quotation to memory. (Actually, I did
what Feynman advises doing: freely constructed proofs spontaneously from
a thorough familiarity with the subject matter and the standard tricks
for proving theorems picked up at the feet of K.O. Frederichs, Paul
Garabedian, Peter Lax, Fritz John, Joe Keller, Donald Ludwig, Jacob T.
Schwartz, and others more or less respected in the field or was it a ring
(and did it commute - actually, some commuted from New Rochelle and
without salts - Stop!) - to drop a few names and do all names drop with
the same acceleration.} Well, I didn't bore you with a long list of
proponents of computer simulations, but I bored you - at least I bored
every tarntupple on the list with no sense of humor - whatever a
tarntupple is. "I don't know if such a thing as a tarntupple exists;
but, if such a thing exists, you are that thing." - William Dukenfield
(Mahatma Kane Jeeves)

I was a proponent and a successful practitioner of computer simulations.
(I discovered an actual phenomena in the operation of distillation
columns that was replicated in a full-size plant.)

I now wish to speak against them with one exception, namely, the
dissection of living things (including humans) or formerly living animals
(not human) should be replaced by computer simulations. This is a
suggestion I would be willing to go to war for.

But, I don't believe computer simulations are a good way to teach
physics, which I shall not defend just yet, but I have already admitted
that I have not been a successful teacher; so, all *ad hominem* attacks
can be considered to have been made *a priori*. I don't believe
computers represent reality well enough for teaching regardless of how
well they succeed in industry and science.

I pause until tomorrow.

Best regards / The Dilettante