Advice for Parents and Teachers about Teaching from a Berkeley PhD.
"a good scientist needs to cherish the feeling of 'not knowing' as long as possible" "The root cause is that American students, in particular, find it difficult to cope with the state of ``not knowing''. They need to feel they know, even if they can't possibly given the evidence available to them. They are happier feeling they know, and later finding themselves wrong, than in feeling ignorant, and later being enlightened. It's an unfortunate tendency, which tends to hamper their scientific abilities, since a good scientist needs to cherish the feeling of ``not knowing'' as long as possible. It is only in this mental silence, free of unjustifiable hypothesizing, that the truth, which always starts out as a tiny voice indeed, can be heard." Christopher Grayce, PhD, Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science. The above quotes are from an answer to a teacher who was wondering about whether spin creates gravity, as many of her stude...