Steve Desjardins wrote: > Sorry, but this is how education works. You can't say "believe what I > tell you, Oh untested mind, because I am an expert who knows all while > this other idiot is full of crap". You have to explain why that idiot's > theories are crap.
That's for post grad school. When you're a university freshman, and a couple of levels up from there, you have to be taught or exposed to truth as we know it. Like all well-learned subjects, first get thoroughly grounded in basic facts. Build on them. The name of he subject is unimportant. Grounding, or immersion in fundamental truths as pertains to the subject at hand, is of paramount importance. You most definitely do *not* say, I'm going to teach you how to add 2+1, 2+2 and 2+3. It's up to you to figure out which of the three answers I give you is the correct answer. > We don't have a big book on the shelf that says > "Truth" on the spine. No, neither are we expected to discern what any given truth is, when our analyzing skills are so under-developed. That's what we're in university for. To develop ways ~ tools ~ for separating the wheat from the chaff... Ways to tell who the liar is, who the ignorant one is. Who's the inept "teacher." There are many. I know from experience. Yet, when I was 18 and 19 I sure didn't. That experience came years later... > Actually, that's not true; we have thousands of > them. That's why the students are here to learn how to think, not just > to learn "facts". Here is one simple observation I have made. There > are large groups of people on this planet on the order of billions who > cannot agree on the most basic "facts" of human existence. If I tried > to simply indoctrinate students with my perspective on the "truth" I > would get angry phones calls from parents asking why I am teaching their > kids this "crap". > > This particular example is a bit extreme but that makes it even more > important to say "this is why he is wrong" rather than to say "we're > going to fire this guy becuase we don't like what he says". If I were > 19, I know what I would think about the latter case. >>>> keith_w <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 7/26/2006 11:06:42 AM >>> > Steve Desjardins wrote: >> Hey folks. >> >> Learning comes in many different forms. >> >> Of course you let this idiot teach. Things like this thrive in dark >> corners (even on the internet) where they can go unchallenged. In >> this case this theory is being aired in a public forum where it can be >> challenged. What public forum? I'm missing something! >> Most people don't read the journals where this guy >> publishes. Besides, students MUST be exposed to this kind thing. Not when they are undergraduate Freshmen. >> Life doesn't come in balanced packages. It's typically one side >> expressing their viewpoint supported by convenient facts and >> convenient omissions. Right. First give them the tools to tell the difference. To work out the discrepancies by themselves. But, that comes later. >> There are many "experts" in the world that can make any position >> sound well defended and reasonable and have millions believe them. >> Just look at the middle east. Don't know what this means. The movers and shakers over there use ultra-rabid religious threats and promises to bring their believers to their knees. Using the Middle East as an analogy is not doing it... >> Somebody has to publically debunk this guy in a way that the >≥ students can learn from. Publically? I thought we were taking about a university professor. keith whaley -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
