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In a message dated 10/4/01 8:42:44 PM, jnjstau@... writes:

<< I always thought I just didn't get math or science. The whole physics
thing
threw me......then I watched Bill Nye and went Duh. I understood physics
very well just didn't use the same words to describe things that the text
books did. As soon as I realized that, I realized that could be true of so
many things....that I or the kids understood the concept in the real world,
just not the way that it is dissected in a "curriculum". Now I feel like
the world has opened up to me. >>

I was like that in physics too. I understand the concepts, just not the
notation (or I was so afraid of the notation early on that I blank out, and I
can't tell which). But I've seen homeschooled kids who were NOT made afraid
of such things pick it up the same way they'd pick up a Mario game--it's just
another game to them, another interesting bit of the world.

I've noticed with grammar, too, that when a child is already using 'fancy'
tenses and forms, when/if the question comes up you can give a real-life
example of something they already do or know. (And if the question never
comes up, so? They're already using language in advanced native-speaker
fashion.)

That's also why I don't mind at all the idea of kids having books read to
them that wouldn't have been assigned to them until years later in school, or
watching movies with them with "adult content." (MacBeth, or Hamlet, or the
parts of Othello they can stand are coming to mind.) It doesn't matter what
order things are learned in by an individual. It only (vaguely) matters at
school, since kids are batch-taught in a system which wishes it used Ford's
assembly line principles (so that an American third grader can change schools
and not be behind or ahead, but that part has never worked yet, not even
within the same school oftimes).

So bits and parts of different things is all that individual learners
(unschoolers and newly re-inspired parents thereof) to build a big model of
everything. I keep learning and reviewing things I know from years back in
light of new information. Yesterday a friend asked me about
"afghanistanism" which is an old (hundred year old maybe) term. I didn't
know the meaning until he asked me to find it, and he could have used
google.com too, but I'm glad he asked me because now I know something. It's
a term used in and about politics and journalism to describe distracting
people from local problems by saying "Oh, LOOK!" at something foreign and
interesting. The term has has a new life this month.

Now I wonder what was happening in Afghanistan in the Victorian or pre-WWI
days (IF that's when the term really originated). But I don't have to find
out this week. It will be on my "I wonder..." checkllist and someday I'll
fill it in some or I'll die first. No hurry.

Sandra

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On Fri, 5 Oct 2001 10:38:55 EDT SandraDodd@... writes:
> I was like that in physics too. I understand the concepts, just not
the
> notation (or I was so afraid of the notation early on that I blank
> out, and I can't tell which). But I've seen homeschooled kids who
were NOT
> made afraid of such things pick it up the same way they'd pick up a
Mario
> game--it's just another game to them, another interesting bit of the
world.
>

I never took physics in school, but a few months ago I read a book called
_e=mc� - The Equation Explained_ and it was just so cool. All this stuff
that I had sort of vaguely heard about suddenly made sense, and there
were also a lot of great little stories about various mathematicians,
including a lot of women. And I do understand the equation now, and how
it works...

Daron
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Tia Leschke

>
>I never took physics in school, but a few months ago I read a book called
>_e=mc² - The Equation Explained_ and it was just so cool. All this stuff
>that I had sort of vaguely heard about suddenly made sense, and there
>were also a lot of great little stories about various mathematicians,
>including a lot of women. And I do understand the equation now, and how
>it works...

Thanks for the tip. I'm just reading Six Easy Pieces by Richard
Feynmann. It seems I can understand physics too.....when it's explained in
a way that makes sense to me. <g>

In another one of his books is a great chapter about being on a textbook
committee. He carefully read all the books and picked out the one(s) that
were at least accurate and explained things in a way that was easy to
understand. Nobody else on the committee even read the books. They just
picked the cheapest ones....sigh!
Tia

Tia Leschke leschke@...
On Vancouver Island
**************************************************************************
It is the answers which separate us, the questions which unite us. - Janice
Levy

Tia Leschke

>
>I never took physics in school, but a few months ago I read a book called
>_e=mc² - The Equation Explained_ and it was just so cool. All this stuff
>that I had sort of vaguely heard about suddenly made sense, and there
>were also a lot of great little stories about various mathematicians,
>including a lot of women. And I do understand the equation now, and how
>it works...

The only book I can find in our library catalog is e=mc2: a biography of of
the world's most famous equation by David Bodanis. Is that the same one?
Tia

Tia Leschke leschke@...
On Vancouver Island
**************************************************************************
It is the answers which separate us, the questions which unite us. - Janice
Levy

Diane

I *LOVE* Richard Feynman! Also his bio, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman.

:-) Diane

Tia Leschke wrote:

> Thanks for the tip. I'm just reading Six Easy Pieces by Richard
> Feynmann. It seems I can understand physics too.....when it's explained in
> a way that makes sense to me. <g>
>
> In another one of his books is a great chapter about being on a textbook
> committee. He carefully read all the books and picked out the one(s) that
> were at least accurate and explained things in a way that was easy to
> understand. Nobody else on the committee even read the books. They just
> picked the cheapest ones....sigh!
> Tia
>
> Tia Leschke leschke@...
> On Vancouver Island
> **************************************************************************
> It is the answers which separate us, the questions which unite us. - Janice
> Levy
>
>
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Tia Leschke

At 09:26 PM 10/5/01 -0700, you wrote:
>I *LOVE* Richard Feynman! Also his bio, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman.

That's the one with the chapter about the textbook committee.
Tia

Tia Leschke leschke@...
On Vancouver Island
**************************************************************************
It is the answers which separate us, the questions which unite us. - Janice
Levy

Diane

As you can tell, it's been FAR too long since I read that.

I don't think I've read the six easy pieces you mentioned earlier, but my dh is
teaching physics this year (high school) and ordered the lecture series for the
school, so I'll have the chance to read it.

:-) Diane

Tia Leschke wrote:

> At 09:26 PM 10/5/01 -0700, you wrote:
> >I *LOVE* Richard Feynman! Also his bio, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman.
>
> That's the one with the chapter about the textbook committee.
> Tia
>
> Tia Leschke leschke@...
> On Vancouver Island
> **************************************************************************
> It is the answers which separate us, the questions which unite us. - Janice
> Levy