Freedom of Science

From Dreams of Calculus - Perspectives on Mathematics Education:1
Classical Greek or Latin formed an important part of secondary education only 50 years ago, with motivations similar to those currently used for mathematics: studies in these subjects would help develop logical thinking and problem solving skills. Today, very few students take Greek and Latin with […]

Academic painting class:
Oh we don’t actually apply paint until high school,” I was told by the students. “In seventh grade we mostly study colors and applicators.” They showed me a worksheet. On one side were swatches of color with blank spaces next to them. They were told to write in the names. “I like painting,” […]

I read all the answers to this year’s question with great interest. I noticed one thing though. How I perceive a statement is greatly influenced by my knowledge of its author. Do you feel the same way?
I thought that if I read the same responses without knowing who said them I could free myself from […]

This is how physics needs to be taught:1
I guess what I tried to do was give him a concept in need of a name, rather than a name in need of a concept.

In physics what is taught are names of ossified doctrines. Students are asked to believe these labels as absolute truths.
This is how physics […]

Doctors of Philosophy are not the enemy. Doctors of Philosophy are the victims. Their arrogance stems from their own realization that they have been fooled by the Newtonist priests into getting into a profession they thought would let them become scientists. Midway through their Newtonist indoctrination they realized that what they taught was science education presented to […]

For decades professional photographers in collusion with big stock photo houses control the market. They establish a monopoly and keep prices as high as they want.
Then comes iStock and sells photos for less than a dollar. It turns out that amateurs take as good photographs as the pros. When amateurs find a distribution channel pro’s […]

In the nineteenth century free thinking painters challenged academic schools and established the modern art. Academic physics has yet to achieve its scientific revolution.
Notice how much academic physics is the same as academic painting had been. In both cases education consists of teaching of the dogma. The academic doctors have reduced Old Masters into immutable […]

[Note: The title of this post does not refer to the other oldest profession as referred in What do astrophysics and the world’s oldest profession have in common? ]  
How primitive were marketing techniques of the Big Media once!
They actually translated the source of their knowledge, the Bible, into a proprietary language, Latin, and kept their constituency […]

I just found this blog called Backreaction which contains one of the best science writing on the web.  Physics education and regulation of academic physics industry mentioned in this post are two issues that I am also interested in.
Physics education wastes the most productive years of a human being for bureaucratic reasons. People who enter the […]

From Academics For Academic Freedom:
We, the undersigned, believe the following two principles to be the foundation of academic freedom:
1. that academics … have unrestricted liberty to question and test received wisdom and to put forward controversial and unpopular opinions, whether or not these are deemed offensive
2. that academic institutions have no right to curb the […]