Re: Physics--Honing the Intellect

[Joel Rauber <Joel_Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU>]

Michael,

You have very elegantly expressed the increasing frustrations I have with
the educational enterprise at the College level.

> . . .That is clearly true at Bluffton College.  I think the Science
> Department is indeed "the last bastion of the kind of logic
> and applied
> quantitative reasoning..."

Its not just Bluffton College, be assured.  I have no decent ideas as to
what to do. I think the problem is at root political.  Faculty must, in the
main, be willing to have standards and enforce them (no UCLA physics 10
courses).  This takes academic integrity on the faculties part; but such
integrity is impossible to maintain if the polity, as expressed by
administrative policies and the laws of the land, do not allow it;  (except
for martyrs, a status for which I'm not willing to strive.)

Let me put this another way; the polity in the US will not allow for a
higher education system that is not very close to universal; nor will it
allow for a system that fails a large percentage of the students in it. This
is exasperated by the business model of education (and its
mis-identification of who the customer is and what the customer wants).

And until we are willing to have the above, I suspect we will have the
frustrations you mention.  I just read Jim's post:

"Michael, this was an interesting post.  It gives me something to think
about re some of the classes I have taught.  I use a Socratic Method of
teaching (I started this way and only after ten years I found that I was
the only one doing this) -- by the third or fourth week the students see
that the only way to get a grade in the class is to come prepared and to
join the discussion -- they must show _me_ how to solve a problem, they
must explain the material to _me_ by answering _my_ questions -- phrased as
a student might ask them."

I assume this means Jim is in the position to flunk half his class if they
refuse to enter into the discussions.  Jim, is that the case??

Joel