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To: Carry_Okie
Setting up a science or math department is expensive because it takes more lab equipment, computers, software...

With all do respect, the only thing required to teach math is a math teacher.

Lab time, is helpful, but not crucial for teaching physics.

Critical analyses of scientific research require copies of scientific research papers and the educational background to comprehend the method and results.

(Psst...Only public institutions need computers to teach these classes.)

The core curriculum reading list, Malaspina Books, not only includes works by Jane Austin, Aristotle or DaVinci, but it also includes the great discourses of Einstein, Faraday and Newton.

51 posted on 05/18/2004 4:41:04 PM PDT by TaxRelief (Keep your kids safe; keep W in the White House.)
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To: TaxRelief

It strikes me as a tad peculiar you are taking Patrick Henry to task over a lack of math expertise on the staff when your own post reflects a lack of spelling and grammar expertise ("do respect," "Austin," "lab time, is helpful"). I'm not saying this to be snarky, but simply to point out that perhaps you're not being fair...I'm sure you're very well educated, but perhaps your background in English is as lacking as mine is in mathematics :) :). We each have our strengths and weaknesses. One can do very well in life focusing on particular areas when it comes to higher education -- most people can't or don't have the interest to specialize in everything across the educational menu. I wouldn't suggest Patrick Henry is offering a poor education simply because they have chosen to specialize, in their first years, in strong teaching in particular areas rather than attempting to be all things to all people.

Best wishes --


54 posted on 05/18/2004 5:25:41 PM PDT by GOPrincess
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To: TaxRelief
With all do respect, the only thing required to teach math is a math teacher.

Twenty-five years ago, maybe. Now, without teaching discrete mathematics and computational methods such a department would be incompetent and a degree program deficient. You can't even teach a responsible course in statistics without computers because they are necessary for even the most rudimentary multivariate experiments. Without a degree program, what kind of professors are you going to get? This isn't about high school math or simple calculus, most of which should be done before the college level and IS in many other industrialized countries.

The core curriculum reading list, Malaspina Books, not only includes works by Jane Austin, Aristotle or DaVinci, but it also includes the great discourses of Einstein, Faraday and Newton.

Woopie. There are lots of "great books" lists out there.

63 posted on 05/18/2004 7:11:35 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (There are people in power who are truly evil.)
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