Re: Understanding and Teaching: Who may teach Ada?

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@attbi.com>]

Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> Robert I. Eachus <rieachus@attbi.com> wrote:
> : John R. Strohm wrote:

> :> The fundamental test of whether one really understands
> :> the topic is whether one CAN prepare a "freshman lecture" (or a "man in the
> :> street" book or article) on it.
> 
> In a better world, this phrase should be put in a frame,
> and teachers should not be employed if they fail.
> Maybe the test should be more flexible, offering a choice
> of audience, but only for the test.

Definitely agree.

> Do you think that Feynman might have succeeded in teaching
> "real" average Freshman, had he been under more pressure?

I guess I didn't do a good job of making my point about the Feynman 
lectures.  They CAN be understood by a college freshman.  But the 
lectures work at several different levels.  You could take them every 
year for a half dozen years and learn a completely new set of 
information each time.

Sort of like "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass." 
Delightful stories for children, but if you reread them in college, you 
find that there is a completely different world of informantion in them. 
  (In fact I almost borrowed from Humpty Dumpty and called the Feynman 
Lectures a portmanteau course.  But I wasn't sure how many readers would 
understand the reference.)  Snap quiz:  There are six (now) common 
English words which appeared for the first time in Jabberwocky.  Name 
them. ;-)  (If you really want to try here is a hint: 
http://tinyurl.com/f34d for what seems to be the hardest neologism to 
recognize today.)