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Re: Re: AAPT Vision Process



At 7:12 AM -0700 8/2/00, Michael Lach wrote:

I'm pretty sure that diversity doesn't mean opening things to creationists,
but I'll defer to the original authors for their interpretation. Increasing
the diversity of physics students and teachers means that the physics
community will have an easier time negotiating the unavoidable cultural
differences that exist between members of our society--and that will help
physics teaching and learning. Increasing the number of physics students and
teachers brings more people to AAPT, and increases the knowledge from which
our organization can draw upon.

Michael, you claim to be unsure of what "diversity" means in this
statement, but then you go on to claim a benefit for it. Please tell
us just what you think diversity means, and in particular why is it
felt that physics students and teachers are now insufficiently
diverse?

I do encounter cultural differences in my physics teaching. The one
that has always bothered me most is the large segment of the student
community which feels physics courses are to be taken as punishment,
and that the goal is to get a good grade in the course rather than
to learn something. Pursuit of a good grade may, in some extreme
instances, involve *culturally acceptable* intellectual dishonesty.
I have no desire to embrace these students and to help their culture
become included in my community of scholars. I insist upon turning
them into honest seekers of knowledge (my culture) or rejecting them
entirely.

If I have anything valuable to give my students (and I do get paid
for what I do) it is to show them the way I think is best. If my
best efforts are seen by some as elitist and intolerant I will plead
guilty to both charges, and I claim that any physics teacher who is
not similarly proselytizing is stealing his wages.

Leigh