Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Why Not?
There is a growing shortage of physics teachers in upper level education in the UK. The article cites some alarming statistics, but doesn't get into any "why's" just calls, of course, for government action. This quote was interesting
The cutting edge of physics is in the astronomical or sub-atomic scale world and is simply not accessible to students below a university level - the math is too complex.
The question is, is this really a problem? I think so, though not for the sake of physics, but for the sake of reasoning. Logic is tool that is largely leaving our culture. We don't take logic classes in philosophy departments anymore, leaving mathematics and science as the only place one learns logic as a discipline.
Mathematics is, to this scientist's mind, sterile. How many of you out there can add, but have trouble with "story problems" -- applying math to the real world? Most people do. Classic physics is the best way I know to bridge that gap.
Once you get past arithmatic, math was largely invented to solve scientific problems. Beyond introductory calculus, all the math I know I learned in science, and calculus was nonsense without my simultaneous physics class. The point is, math teaches you mechanics, but physics teaches you reasoning about the world about you.
If we lose physics teaching, we pretty well lose the basics of thought undergirding western civilization.
Then there is the fact that you simply cannot get through your day without an encounter with classical physics. Everything from operating your car, to shooting a basketball is ruled by the amazing world of Newton and his physics.
I know nothing about education in the UK, but I do here in the US. I wanted to teach high school science. Why don't I? - because the more I looked into it, the less it was about teaching science and the more it was about everything from the teachers union to Lord knows what. The bureacracy alone made me nuts.
We are losing something valuable here, and we need to see to it that we don't, but I think the answer lies in less government, not more.
The authors concluded: "Physics in schools and colleges is at risk through redefinition and lack of teachers with expertise in the subject.I would love to know what "redefinition" is, though I can hazard a guess. Classical physics has largely become utilitarian, a tool, the weapon of the engineer, so what one needs to know of it is studied in other classes, as opposed to physics classes.
The cutting edge of physics is in the astronomical or sub-atomic scale world and is simply not accessible to students below a university level - the math is too complex.
The question is, is this really a problem? I think so, though not for the sake of physics, but for the sake of reasoning. Logic is tool that is largely leaving our culture. We don't take logic classes in philosophy departments anymore, leaving mathematics and science as the only place one learns logic as a discipline.
Mathematics is, to this scientist's mind, sterile. How many of you out there can add, but have trouble with "story problems" -- applying math to the real world? Most people do. Classic physics is the best way I know to bridge that gap.
Once you get past arithmatic, math was largely invented to solve scientific problems. Beyond introductory calculus, all the math I know I learned in science, and calculus was nonsense without my simultaneous physics class. The point is, math teaches you mechanics, but physics teaches you reasoning about the world about you.
If we lose physics teaching, we pretty well lose the basics of thought undergirding western civilization.
Then there is the fact that you simply cannot get through your day without an encounter with classical physics. Everything from operating your car, to shooting a basketball is ruled by the amazing world of Newton and his physics.
I know nothing about education in the UK, but I do here in the US. I wanted to teach high school science. Why don't I? - because the more I looked into it, the less it was about teaching science and the more it was about everything from the teachers union to Lord knows what. The bureacracy alone made me nuts.
We are losing something valuable here, and we need to see to it that we don't, but I think the answer lies in less government, not more.
