This is a plea to science and math teachers everywhere?Stop being so boring!
There’s an ambient feeling out there that teachers of the more technical, math-based curricula regularly skipped one very important class while they were in school: “Keep-my attention-please 101.” Since they missed this prerequisite, they couldn’t go on to take its sequel, “Why-does-this matter? 102.” Truly, a sad happening.
That generalized feeling of discontent is often made manifest toward the end of the school year, as cries of “I was lost from the first second of class,” to “He speaks in this steady, monotone voice,” ring out around campuses everywhere. Of course there are boring classes out there, but why is it that science and math seemed to get signaled out the most? And why should we care?
Alfred North Whitehead, one of the most cosmopolitan scientists of the 20th century, developed intriguing answers to these questions. And for good reason; Whitehead not only co-wrote one of the greatest works of modern math, Principia Mathematica, but he was also an accomplished teacher and philosopher. That philosophical side often led him to consider, oddly enough, the influence of teaching on mathematics.
Whitehead saw one of the greatest modern tragedies to be the teaching of “inert ideas,” which he defined as “ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations.” Sadly, inert ideas are still a staple of much education (especially in high schools) today. Teachers employ wrote memorization, considering it the best way to engorge the mind with the maximum number of inert ideas in the minimum amount of time. Whitehead made no mistake on his opinion of such concepts: “Education with inert ideas is not only useless; it is, above all things, harmful.”
A bold statement, but considering his credentials, perhaps we should consider his position. Why is such careless education harmful? Inert ideas taught outside of fresh combinations create certain things, and they do not create others. What they create can be seen in the classroom dens of unoriginal teachers across the globe: languid students whose last reserves of willpower are spent struggling to stay awake. What inert ideas fail to create is infinitely more harmful: minds full of facts, figures and statistics that cannot put them together to reach any conclusions. Or worse yet, minds that are so focused on certain ideas that they feign understanding, and attempt to make important decisions based on single theories, ignoring other evidence that doesn’t mesh with their selected facts.
Now we have a problem: How can we expect the population to make informed decisions on today’s most important issues like nuclear power and its associated waste, global warming and economic policy, if the science behind the issues has been revealed in pieces, with no discussion, experiment or debate?
Back to the old, reliable metaphor: Flour, baking powder, chocolate and eggs do not make a cake?they must be mixed and cooked to earn that title. Those “fresh combinations” of ideas that Whitehead alludes to are that final stirring and cooking, the step that takes the ingredient “ideas” and cooks them into a cake called “knowledge.”
Now here is a plea to all students out there who have been bored into submission, who’ve taken a class and left feeling stupider: Demand fresh combinations. Bake the cake, people.
If you accept this challenge, students, remember that it comes with responsibilities. Please refrain from eye rolling when your teacher proposes something new. You are not the only one in the class. To achieve a true learning environment, you must make concessions, as everyone is interested by different things.
Some cherish discussion, others prefer experiments, still other groups prefer problem-solving and brain storming in small groups. An environment like this is what learning is supposed to be, and you can help make it with an open-minded attitude.
As for you, venerable professors, accepting this challenge may be the greatest thrill for those of you who are mired in research, unmoved by your own studies. You may just be reborn into the days when the surprises that your field held came everyday, when the newness of it made its depth seem infinite, when the thrill of discovery was commonplace, like exploring an uncharted continent.
Much like missionaries to a foreign land, you are the ambassadors of science to the adept and novices alike; you are to them the face of science, and your expectations of your field will subconsciously become theirs. You could become a personal legend to your students, and what greater reward is there than to be an inspiration, so that they might follow in your footsteps, led by your example?
Until science teachers and students accept this challenge, the new enlightenment will be a fickle one, and scientific reasoning will remain the cherished prize of a select few.
So, challenged parties, teachers and students, good luck. Go towards the middle and meet there?whatever happens, it will beat the some old lecture any day.
Teachers, a perfect balance of knowledge and inspiration will serve you well. Students, the mixture of high expectations and the urge to explore and learn, not memorize and recite, will make your education all that it was meant to be. For those of you seeking a starting point, some seed to begin with, fear not.
Follow this recipe from Teddy Roosevelt: “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails admit it frankly and try another?but above all try something.”
Good luck.
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