My view is that we, as professors, provide more education that what appears in a text. We, I hope, pay attention to whether the student can write, can reason, and can adapt what he or she learns to other situations. Part of that education includes learning about the world in which we live. I certainly think that the role that an eminent statistician, such as Fisher, played in the Eugenics movement is important. Fisher certainly thought so! We don't have to judge Fisher by the standards of our own time, but are students do deserve to understand how the world became the way it is.
To go a bit less far afield, we could equally ask if students need to know the debate between Fisher and Neyman/Pearson. That probably is not going to be on the test, but it is important in understanding much that goes on in statistics today, including competing views of hypothesis testing.
You might turn the question around and ask your students why they should not be offered a broad view of statistics. In fact, they would have a much better understanding of what statistics is all about if you assigned Salzburg's "The lady tasting tea," which is an excellent book.
Dave Howell
At 09:19 AM 10/22/2002 -0700, Warren wrote:
Hello,
I've been reading a little about Fisher and the Eugenics movement. In
talking to my class about Gossett's t and Fisher's F distribution, I
presented a little bit of the controversy surrounding Fisher and
Eugenics. I assigned one of Fisher's papers in which he talks a
little about Social Darwinism.
It bombed, but quietly. The question "Is this going to be on the
test?" seems to be the only motivator for taking in information. I
was probably that way too.
What are your opinions about including a little of the History of
Statistics? If so, should we test these areas in a first year
graduate course? Should we include a little bit of discussion on
Ethics in these courses? Especially the Ethics of using Statistics?
Warren May
University of Mississippi Medical Center
.
.
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