4 ms·
I am reminded of my chemistry professor's lament. "I can't count how many students I've failed for not knowing things that were later proven to be untrue"
by quirkot 9y ago
I am reminded of my chemistry professor's lament. "I can't count how many students I've failed for not knowing things that were later proven to be untrue"
- thrownblown 9y agoYou had a chemistry classes in a public school? You're lucky. No English teacher would write that sentence.
- Nihilartikel 9y agoI can understand the spirit and frustration of the lament, but it presents the hazard of the unhelpful and fallacious interpretation that "I might as well not teach them any of this in the first place since some of it might end up just being wrong!" Science is not about always being right. It is about knowing and building upon the best knowledge available, while maintaining the intellectual humility and curiosity to continually challenge the best available knowledge and revise it towards a measurably better state. That is how the mountain is climbed.