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Mass Appeal
Dec. 11th, 2006 05:41 pmIn an archeology magazine, a couple of years back, I read an editorial by a college teacher who was wanting suggestions on how to draw more people to the sciences and away from pseudo-science. He gave as an illustration of his frustration a young lady who, in the first class of the semester, when he asked the students to explain why they were there, stated that she wanted to learn more about Atlantis. He scathingly informed her that Atlantis was a fable and that the purpose of this class was to study reality. She dropped the class, of course. He lamented such willful ignorance and wondered how it could be fought.
I wrote a letter in which I suggested that a little diplomacy could have turned the situation around. That he could have politely told her that Atlantis was almost certainly a myth, begun by Plato as a cautionary tale, but that there were indications that it may have been inspired by certain real world events. In other words, he could have corrected her, but in a way which might have piqued her curiosity, instead of dashing it.
My letter wasn't printed, but one very similar was. And the author of the editorial bluntly dismissed this as pandering to the delusions of the masses and refused to even consider it.
The problem here, of course, was not the masses, or even that particular student, but the teacher. Such people don't teach, they proclaim. And then wonder why their every word isn't accepted as gospel.
There are good teachers out there. And they often face pressure from the proclaimers. Who insist on missing the whole point of teaching.
I wrote a letter in which I suggested that a little diplomacy could have turned the situation around. That he could have politely told her that Atlantis was almost certainly a myth, begun by Plato as a cautionary tale, but that there were indications that it may have been inspired by certain real world events. In other words, he could have corrected her, but in a way which might have piqued her curiosity, instead of dashing it.
My letter wasn't printed, but one very similar was. And the author of the editorial bluntly dismissed this as pandering to the delusions of the masses and refused to even consider it.
The problem here, of course, was not the masses, or even that particular student, but the teacher. Such people don't teach, they proclaim. And then wonder why their every word isn't accepted as gospel.
There are good teachers out there. And they often face pressure from the proclaimers. Who insist on missing the whole point of teaching.
