Re: filk -- incomplete, so far: SCHOOLTEACHER'S LAMENT

Re:

So what do you propose to teach youngsters about the structure
of the atom?

Hmmmm ... if the facts on a given topic aren't suitable for/
comprehensible by youngsters,
why not delay that topic until they are mature enough to comprehend
the facts?

(Analogy: six-year-olds may have a hard time understanding how
televisions work -- we wouldn't use that fact as a reason to teach six-
year-olds that "TVs work because there are tiny people inside." If
someone argued that we should teach six-year-olds the "tiny people"
explanation of TV technology because science education needs to begin
early and because how televisions work is very important, so we can't
possibly leave the six-year-olds without any explanation whatsoever
just because they can't yet understand that topic: "so what do you
propose to teach youngsters about television, if we're not going to
teach the 'tiny people' model?" ... well, I think we'd laugh.)

Is the choice really only two-pronged
(/a/ teach a misleading theory vs. /b/ try to teach what they can't
yet comprehend),
or could one make a case that there is a choice /c/?
(if they can't comprehend the facts on some topic yet, teach them to
investigate the topics they *can* comprehend -- and introduce the
other topics later on when the students finally do have sufficient
mental furniture to understand them?)

Or is teaching a topic when it *can* be taught honestly (and not
before)
somehow a Really Bad Idea in education? (If so, please explain why --
I'm not a science teacher, so I don't know what, if anything, would
make /c/ a bad idea.)

No matter how important atomic structure really is
(and I agree that it is very important),
how does the vast importance of understanding the atom's structure
justify misrepresenting the atom's structure?
(An age/stage of mental development that cannot understand a
particular topic
is, arguably, an age/stage at which that topic should not yet be
taught --
because at that age/stage the topic could not be taught honestly
but the students would have to merely take it on faith.)


Kate Gladstone -- http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com
.

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