Education and the tellybox

[mrscosmopilite]

A conversation witnessed tonight

Comments

[bellinghman]

Ah, yes.

The cunning bit is, there used to be electrons and protons, but they all got squozen together to make more neutrons.

[mrscosmopilite]

I've been just been listening to Madams not so quiet indignation about what they have been taught in Physics and *Lies to Children*
The trouble is she needs to learn what they want 'em to know for GCSE and not confuse the poor examiners with more complicated answers.

[knowitall_teen]

Well, in that case, they can tell us what we *want* to know about (on top of what we *need* to know about, of course), then tell us what we need to write about in the exam. We aren't stupid.

And anyway, it isn't like there's any room for complicated answers in a multiple choice paper, is it?

[/rant]

[megabitch]

Ah, but they can't do that. To do that they would actually have to have teachers who were trained in that particular discipline. I have been told that "any good practitioner[1] can teach any subject at any school as long as they have access to the curriculum and appropriate texts." So, what you get are people who don't really understand the subject trying to get students to memorise enough to pass exams - which is all most schools are interested in - and unable to answer questions like "But, why?!" from students who really really want to know more because they don't actually know it themselves!

Okay, I know there are some good teachers out there, but this is the system they are working under in state schools now.

[1] And that's the rant I had the other month.

[artela]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star
for neutron stars...

..."main sequence" stars (all the normal ones like ours and red dwarfs and white giants) are, of course, fusing hydrogen atoms.

[bellinghman]

That Wiki article is fun, because it posits an enormously electro-negative body, one with a core of neutrons and electrons, without quite mentioning what happened to the protons that were previously in the mix.

[bellinghman]

Oh, hold on, it does actually sort of mention them.

[artela]

Yes, well, it's a good start on the step up from the "lies to GCSE students" :-)

Of course, I could just lend knowitall_teen my text books, but it's a bit of a step up from GCSE to year 2 degree *G*