Bryon Daly wrote:
>
> >From: Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >
> >I can memorize equations more easily than that, and can apply them
> >properly. But I ran into a problem in high school, taking physics. The
> >physics teacher we had wasn't qualified to teach physics (in fact,
> >*nobody* in the science department was, pathetically enough), but boy
> >did she know her chemistry. On tests, we were each allowed one 3"X5"
> >file card, and I'd just put the equations on there -- I could tell which
> >one it was by looking at it, but had a hard time memorizing. Then one
> >day, she gave us a standardized test, told us she didn't expect anyone
> >to do well on it, but that we should just do our best. No file card,
> >but no constraints. Use the margins of the question sheet to figure
> >things out. So I used the *calculus* I'd known for 2 years already and
> >could utilize in my sleep, and totally, totally blew the curve.
>
> My "Honors Physics" class in high school was even more pathetic. Whenever
> the teacher presented a new formula to the class, she'd always say something
> like "how the heck did they come up with this wacky formula"? That was the
> running joke for the whole year. As far as we knew, the origin of all those
> formulas was far beyond anything we were capable of. Despite the fact
> everyone in the class had Calculus, she never revealed to us even the
> slightest clue to the connection.
>
> It wasn't until my college physics course 2 years later that I discovered
> the "mysterious" origin of all those formulas. Afterwards, I saw her while
> visiting the high school, and I said "Don't you know that all those formulas
> are derived using calculus?" and she said "Yeah, but I really didn't want
> to get into that". Grrr!
In calculus class, a bunch of the word problems were just physics
problems. So I was familiar with the basics. (I took calculus as a
sophomore.) My husband's experience was the opposite -- he had physics
his junior year, and then AP physics his senior year, and in his junior
year, the teacher taught them some basic calculus that would be handy
for the physics they were doing. When the folks from that class got to
calculus as seniors, as things were being introduced at the beginning of
the year, they came to the conclusion that "it's just physics without
the units". The calculus teacher was NOT amused.
> She was a sweet lady, but a terrible, terrible science teacher. She had
> also taught my "Honors Chemistry" course, which proved to be absolutely zero
> preparation for college chemistry. By contrast, a friend of mine in the
> college chemistry class (who went to a different high school), regularly
> skipped class and pretty much coasted by using his old high school chem
> notes.
Mine, I wouldn't even call "sweet". Not a great teacher, not a terribly
nice person, but she was unhappy, and everyone knew it, and those who
knew a little about her personal life let the rest of us know something
about *why* she was unhappy. Didn't help us with our learning, but it
somehow made it a little easier to deal with *her*.
(And then there was the mistake she made of assuming that since Jeni and
I separately were models of good behavior, that having us sit next to
each other would be fine. She never actually *caught* us at anything,
but we got away with stuff she never suspected. Mostly in the
note-passing department. And the one time she came close to busting us
by calling on me, I was able to look at the problem in question in about
2 seconds, come to the right answer, and then I just had to think out
loud about getting the answer using the approved method.)
> But then, my high school Trig and Calc courses weren't really good prep for
> college level math courses, either. Damn, my high school education almost
> entirely sucked. Actually, on the humanities side, it was pretty decent,
> but that didn't do me much good, getting an engineering degree.
My high school math, English and American history classes were good. My
biology class in 9th grade was good, as well. And the way they graded
in gym was sensible and humane. I think I lucked out on which teachers
I got for all of those, though. (Well, there were only 2 people
teaching gym, and one was my teacher my freshman year and the other was
my teacher my sophomore year, but they were grading under the same
policies, at least.)
But my mother had to fight some to get me all the math I got. (That's
another story entirely, which I can go into on another post another
time.)
Julia
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