the problem with herman's pronouncement is mainly ... it is all or nothing
now, in his case, instead of saying that he thinks that students at the
undergraduate level would be BETTER off taking some introductory course in
probability ... RATHER than what he perceives as being the only thing
taught in an intro STATISTICS course ... he takes the position that no one
can benefit from any intro stat courses ... which we know is a silly
position to take
personally, i would prefer that students have some introduction to
statistics ... and, while many of the courses that are offered might not be
the best (just like in any discipline) ... the issue is whether it is
helpful to have ANY introduction to a field ... or no introduction to a
field ...
i opt for some intro ... rather than no intro
we have to assume that some of the students in these intro courses will
gain some perspective as to what is useful knowledge from that which isn't
... and some students wetted with some curuiosity from this first exposure
to the discipline will want to take more and become more "learned" in the
discipline ...
the main purpose of any intro course is to spark some interest in some
students ...
how else would herman propose that we get people interested in statistics?
they have to start somewhere and sometime
==============================================================
dennis roberts, penn state university
educational psychology, 8148632401
http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm
=================================================================
Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about
the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
=================================================================
