As a kid in public school, not surprisingly, science was a class I enjoyed more than most. However, I hated how it seemed that almost every year, I felt like I was being lied to. It was very common to hear, “Remember when your teacher told you that a force is a push or a pull? Well, that’s not exactly correct.” I would get so frustrated, feeling like I worked so hard to learn something that was not even correct, and I honestly felt that I was wasting so much of my time.
As a high school physics teacher now, I’m the one further complicating simple topics touched on in the past, as well as continuing to pass down lies of oversimplifying certain concepts. At first, it was hard for me as a teacher because of how much I hated it as a student. However, I watched this Ted Talk, “Quantum Physics for 7 Year Olds,” and it made lots of good points, but I especially liked one of the rules the speaker mentioned, “Clarity beats Accuracy.”
I now realize that my job as a teacher is not to teach every single detail about the subject matter. It’s a lot of times to be more of an engaging storyteller where my students get a general understanding of the subject matter and, more importantly, find interest in the subject. Later in the future, if they become a physicist or engineer, they will learn about all those details, and that’s not so important right now. Nowadays, as a teacher, I pride myself on being able to take some of the most complicated concepts and being able to relay that information to audiences of all ages, including my three-year-old 😊.
Wishing all of you the very best as you lie to your students 😊
