Walter Bright wrote:
Georg Wrede wrote:
OTOH, to make things really happen, we need the other kind of guys.
Those of us who want to understand. They're the ones who advance the
state of the art, and without that, we'd still be traveling on steam
trains. I just wish there were more schools and pedagogic knowledge
(and good teachers, of course) to make things interesting and fun for
us others. But without that, many students get by with so-so grades,
having invested only 10% of their effort into it. I know I did. What a
waste.
I'm not sure I agree with the idea that a professor should make the
material entertaining. Sometimes I get frustrated with Nova and all its
eye-candy, and want to yell at them to get to the meat.
I was talking about pre-university. That's where the interest in math,
chemistry and physics should come from. I was lucky to spend my
childhood in rural/suburban settings, where machinery, home building,
snow plowing, etc. gave me the opportunity to begin to understand
physics already before school, just by observing. (Kids from really
urban settings are at a disadvantage here. But then they go study law,
political science, medicine, and I guess that's good for them. These
things are important, too.)
I see many efforts to remove the work from learning difficult concepts.
I think they're all failures. You actually have to work to learn things,
and work takes effort and sweat. No pain, no gain.
By the time one gets into university, one should already have both the
passion, and the routine of regularly doing one's homework. Oh, and the
amazing thing, reading your school books even past the page of the day!!
Learning these things when already at the university is time away from
the real meat, while the other students blaze on towards the really
interesting stuff -- where you'll never even get because you become a
drop-out. (Tried it.)
If you need entertainment and inspiration, go watch Star Trek <g>.
Good thing I got kids, gives a perfect excuse to watch SciFi.
