I was thinking about how I often hear my teacher ed students worry about
the veracity of information on the Internet. Often they use this as a
rationale for their reluctance to make use of the Internet. I always
counter that the information on the Internet is no more or less suspect
than information in books. I usually give a science example, to indicate
that timeliness is as crucial as source in making claims about accuracy of
information.
I was recently musing about what it would be like for a child who didn't
have access to the 'Net and had to rely on the public library. In
California, at least in the cities I've lived, prop 13 has decimated the
public library collections. Kids' books are very old, musty, torn,
missing-in-action, and just plain funky.
So, for instance, if a kid were to rely on that collection she might think
atoms were the smallest particle, because at one time they were.
That got me to thinking some more about what the real danger is from this
curricular/assemssment obsession with facts and info. Science is especially
vulnerable as it is largely viewed as being about facts... immutable laws
of nature and all that.
So how does a science-as-fact-oriented kid even begin to question the
library book statement that the atom is the smallest particle. She is at
the mercy of her resources, which she takes as gospel, and which can vary
greatly neighborhood to neighborhood...
A fact-based curriculum is inherently a conservative one, no? It would seem
quite simply to disallow change. For some people that might be very
comforting...For others it can be quite oppressive.
Wow.
Linda P.