Great teaching
Written on 25 Aug 2008
Here’s a story, A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash, from the New York Times about a teacher David Campbell doing a first rate job for his students. One of the interesting features of the story for me is how he had to work out how to get students committed to diametrically opposing views to open up to other possibilities, a direct challenge would just have alienated them. I’m not sure I have his skill or patience (actually, I’m sure I don’t).
Reading the background to the story reminds me of a line attributed (I think) to Romani Prodi that a nation can’t stay ignorant and rich for more than a generation.
via Andrew McAfee
Filed in: Grumpy Old Man.
nice link Steve. Thanks.
Yes, cool article. I went to a Catholic elementary school (in Canada) back in the 70’s. We had a Religion class every day, and in those classes we were taught about Creation. We also had science classes, and in the later grades (7-8) we were taught about Darwin and Evolution. I seem to recall someone explaining this paradox as the story of Creation was an explanation of the “unknown”. Evolution was just fine - who do you think started it?
I think the lesson to be learned there is that blind dogmatism, be it for or against agile methods, is not a good thing.
One of the deeper points, made somewhere in the comments, is that this clash is about identity as much as anything else. If everyone around you is deeply Creationist, compounded by the difficult circumstances that Bryce Haas finds himself in, then it takes a huge shift to even consider an alternative. Similarly, the thing that appears to drive David Campbell to make the extra effort is his self-identification as a scientist and teacher.
A common failing of us geeks is to believe that if only we got the facts across, the rest will follow. That’s how (we think) it works in our world, but not in everyone else’s