as per usual... WELL STATED. Your ideas about science and education seem to me to be exactly correct. And thanks so much for your vote of confidence. I know I often sound like an arrogant jackass here but...it is the internet. In class I treat the students with a lot of dignity and always tell them I am not telling them facts... only informing them of the "best" current opinions of which I am aware.Mister Moose wrote:Sgt, some of your verbiage sounds less than technical (I don't know what "reading science" is) but that's probably a speaking/writing style. Given your resume, your independent nature and your outspoken style, you just might be one of the best high school teachers out there. Very few High School teachers have had a significant career in their field with a wide variety of experience* prior to teaching. That gives you a perspective few teachers bring to the classroom. That together with empathy and ability to communicate well produces exceptional teaching.Sgt Eddy Brewers wrote: ...<snip> So when I had children I quit to have more time with them. I was offered a job in pharmaceutical industry but considered that too unstable (that proved to be true) and instead took a job teaching high school science. (chemistry / AP Biology). NONE of this matters. I can read science and analyze arguments.
I was fortunate enough to have studied briefly with Julius Sumner Miller, better known as "Professor Wonderful" on the Mickey Mouse Show. He was a rare combination of entertainment in teaching, strict taskmaster and gifted scientist. (He won a Carnegie grant to study with Einstein, he was no slouch)
You would appreciate an outburst of his one day as he asked a professor sitting in on his class, who had just volunteered an answer lacking in basic Physics. "Tell me sir, what is your field?" "Political Science" was the answer. "YOU CALL POLITICS A SCIENCE?", he bellowed.
He understood he had to keep your attention, he had to get you to ask questions, and he had to get you to learn to be able to answer your own questions.
This thread can be distilled down to establishing the difference between opinion and provable fact. Many opinions aren't presenting themselves as opinions.
* A completely anecdotal and un-researched unscientific assertion
I ask them to ALWAYS challenge the opinions they are given...theories need jerks (like them and me) to challenge them. I always use the phrases "not sure if that is bulletproof" and "make sure you write that in pencil." As a result...(I think?) I turn out a lot of high quality scientists (researchers, MDs, etc). Have had lots of alumni tell me I had a big impact in the way they think about the world. I guess I'm trying to be like Mr. Miller.
Someone clearly taught you how to think critically and the world is a better place because of that.