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%FOCUS UPON STUDENTS IMPERFECTIONS 850907
Scientists seek to be secure in their publications of
their findings by focusing upon the imperfections in their
findings. They try to prove their theories wrong with as
much diligence as would their most severe critic, to leave
no flaw for their most severe critic to find. Scientists
seek to achieve security by being sure that they have not
overlooked any imperfection. Amazingly often upon the
discovery of an imperfection it is possible to take action
to make improvements. The discovery of the imperfection
is a significant step to correcting it, and the person
making the discovery of an imperfection is honored for
that discovery. Focusing upon imperfections is thus a way
to gain respect and honor within professional scientific
circles.
The scientist who has been trained exclusively in
research activities learns to focus upon imperfections to
fulfill research ideals. In preparation for being college
and university professors such persons are virtually never
trained in regards to complementary personal ideals
appropriate to helping students to learn science with
integrity. Due to this lack scientists carry into their
instructional activities the same ideals and attitudes
which they were trained to have in the contrasting context
of research work. As instructors research scientists tend
to focus upon students imperfections. Because they do not
know how to help students they expect students to perfect
themselves. The professor's responsibility is limited to
defining goals and disclosing imperfections.
The student who respects such a conception of the
professors' responsibilities is trapped in an impossible
situation. The professor defines the goal to be the
acquisition of a comprehensive knowledge of physics to
pass a Ph.D. qualifying exam. The professors have no
responsibility to help students to prepare for the exam.
Since the exam is to be comprehensive the professors have
no responsibility to define the limited range of knowledge
which students must master; nothing is to be excluded.
The professors' only responsibility is to be severe in
discovering what the students failed to learn.
Students who respect their professors are thus lead
condemn themselves for their imperfections and the
impossibility of fulfilling their respected professors'
expectations. Only students who do not respect their
professors are free to transcend the absurdities of their
personally immature professors expectations. The students
who do not respect their professors as instructors manage
to succeed without help from their professors, and become
the next generation of professors who believe that good
students do not need to have help from their professors.
Good students like themselves are able to perfect
themselves. It is the professor's responsibility to focus
upon discovering the imperfections in theories,
experiments, data, equipment, and students.
Students who respect their professors face an
impossible task of learning all the physics that all
professors know. Paralysis is bound to set in. They can
not get started. They can not try to find out what is
that they do not know because they can be sure that there
is an infinity of things that they do not know. To
maintain sanity procrastination is a necessity. Only
fools seriously set themselves to picking up a stone of
infinite mass or to chipping a stone of infinite mass into
an infinite number of stones which might be picked up.
The way research oriented professors teach classes
helps to accentuate the disadvantage imposed upon students
who respect their professors. In classes the professors
affirm the infinity of what is to be learned, but
pointedly refuse to deal with any particular knowledge in
enough detail to help students understand how to solve
real problems such as might appear on a Ph.D. qualifier
examination. Relevance is left for the student to
discover. Lecture is only for the purpose of sketching
the outline of the infinity of theories. Since all
knowledge is equally important and all knowledge is to be
learned it is improper to guide students to focus their
limited time upon some things as more important than other
things.
Only students who do not respect their professors can
succeed and grow up to be physicists who do not respect
other professors and students as persons in search of
personal and communal integrity.
It is easy for scientists to focus upon students'
imperfections because they have been taught to treat
everything objectively, including students. Students are
to be tested objectively, else the testing is not fair and
free of bias. Objectivity is the key to goodness.
Emotional involvement and sympathy is bound to introduce
bias. This makes it natural to be ignorant of the
affective consequences of focusing primarily upon students
imperfections. To fulfill the objective/analytic paradigm
of the research scientist one must keep ignorant of the
affective consequences of treating students objectively
and of trying to help them by pointing out their
imperfections while withholding positive assistance and
encouragement. Thus each generation of research
scientists is less personable than the previous one and
the quality of help offered to each generation of students
is more perverse than was offered to the last generation.
Meanwhile the total amount of knowledge which may be
expected to be known by each generation of Ph.D.
candidates increases and so makes it easier and easier to
find students' imperfections. Each generation of
professors can feel more proud of how successful they are
compared to the previous generation at the task of
discovering students imperfections. They can be
objectively proud of their superiority in this regard.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
www.essayz.com Search for Integrity and Honesty
(On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)
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