Education wisdom

Sometimes the internet just sucks you in. Really. In. Yesterday evening I attended a colloquium at LMU on galaxy formation (like, how did the structure of the universe come to look like how it does?). Unforutnately, the speaker gave a talk for experts, of which I am not one, and spent a lot of time on the details, which I'm sure were interesting if I understood the issues, and not very much time on the big picture (for us novices). But I did take some notes, and I was searching on the web trying to understand AGN feedback and star formation in the early universe and why dark matter stays in the halos of galaxies but does not collapse into the core. (Not in a detailed, mathematical, way, but just an overview for a person with some physics background, which I have. I believe it was Fermi who, when asked by a speaker how they should pitch their talk, replied, "as if to a person with infinite intelligence, but zero knowledge." I like this very much, because one of the most common faults of scientific talks, if not THE most common fault, is that they assume too much knowledge of the audience. Even though they use big words and sophisticated language, if you watch closely they are not usually assuming that the audience is smart - although if the audience were infinitely intelligent they could follow anything - but usually that the audience has knowledge that they don't have. Or at least they don't have knowledge that the speaker is assuming that they have - and the speaker should know better.) And I ran across this blog called Rate Your Students. It discusses issues that professors have with their students in a funny way. Now, I've read several of the "best of" posts, which can also be found under "The Ring of DistinKtion" or "Things We Can Do to Improve..." but my favorites (so far) are On Grading and On Evaluations. Both of these (and probably more) should be read out loud for maximum effect. And do you notice what I've done? Since I really have nothing to say, I've pointed you to other sites so that you have hours of reading pleasure while thinking about how much fun you're having on Plasmaphile. I've multiplied your enjoyment with only a little work of my own. Ahhh, the internet.

PS. I've done a little research (i.e., Google, which amazingly, is what students think research is these days - I wonder if RYS has a post on that topic?), and John Baez (excellent math and science website, by the way, claims that it was Leo Szilard who made the statement about intelligence and knowledge. Well, I won't quibble. Both Szilard and Fermi had way more intelligence AND knowledge than I do!

Update: David J. Linden, in The Accidental Mind, claims it was Max Delbrück. I've found many more (unattributed) examples. I'm beginning to think that this quote has entered our collective consciousness and it may well be impossible to determine its origin.