Newsgroups: comp.lang.logo Path: news.media.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!munnari.oz.au!metro!frost!barry From: barry@frost.bain.oz.au (Barry Allebone) Subject: Re: Brian Harveys text Message-ID: <1993Dec15.063754.6748@frost.bain.oz.au> Organization: Bain & Company X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] References: <1993Dec12.140639.87@magill.unisa.edu.au> <2eefgh$9n1@agate.berkeley.edu> <2ejol8$gd5@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 06:37:54 GMT Lines: 44 Matt Wright (matt@volga.EECS.Berkeley.EDU) wrote: > This issue about "ad hoc techniques" versus understanding the underlying > rules is really a big one for me. I think there's a very direct link > between that issue and the fact that Brian's books and Larry's articles are > difficult for many. [ text deleted ] > Sorry for the long message and the weird examples; this issue really pushes > my button... > -Matt ... and mine. In fact I think it is a fundamental educational issue in life never mind school. I am always urging my wife, my kids, my friends and my colleagues towards this view. In many senses it is all pervading. My kids loose things because they have no sense of structure. Things aren't really lost - they just don't have a home. Why can I always find my jacket - because I hang it up on the same hangar at the end of the day. My wife on the other hand sees an empty hangar on which she can deposit freshly ironed shirts !! The kids borrow my hair brush and then drop it where they used it even though they understand that they borrowed mine because it can be found reliably and with minimal effort as opposed to trying to find their own ... The real problem for me is that people seem to get through life anyway. I mean who would use an 8088 when there is a 6809 or an 8086 in preference to the highly orthogonal 68000. Answer - almost everybody. This particular problem has dogged me for years from Elliot automation days when one had to learn more about side effects of particular instructions than about the principal effect of the instruction. Whilst I'm with you Matt, people at large don't seem to value our view. And I, at least, seem to be no better off by espousing your view and trying to live by learning principles as opposed to facts. Perhaps I'm with you just because I am hopeless at the alternative. I was useless at history, which I still view largely as a collection of unrelated facts and chemistry was likewise, at least up to the level at which I gave it up (aged 17). Having said that, I have always been struck by the ability of some teachers to bring a subject alive and almost always its due to being able to give a context or structure by which otherwise unrelated facts can be related - even in history lessons.