Rebuilt

This is just a vent about the lamentable downward spiral of the educational process in the country today.

I taught 8th grade science class and had approximately 100 students through the day. They had been studying motion and acceleration for the past week.

To make the lesson interesting, I showed each class the video of Apollo 15 astronaut Dave Scott dropping a hammer and feather simultaneously that both landed on the surface at the same time. It was a demonstration of forces, gravity, acceleration, and mass.

I also discussed the gravitational forces on the earth, moon, asteroids, and the Space Shuttle. Escape velocities for each of these was talked about and how on the smaller objects a student could easily launch themselves into space.

Forces required cause an airplane to takeoff and reach high altitudes and great speeds along with requirements of rockets to leave earth were talked about and shown with pictures and models.

I might as well have been talking to the fire extinguisher on the wall. No response, feedback, questions, or signs of interest on their faces. Their only interest was completing the assignment because that is what they are suppose to do in school. What in the heck is the teacher talking about? Being excited or intrigued about a subject is not in the curriculum.

Given the interest I see causes me to wonder that if this same group were around along time ago, we would still be living in caves hitting each other over the head with clubs to take what we want, or we would still believe the earth is flat.