Education and the Advancement of Understanding

According to page 419, Elgin writes: “If teaching is imparting knowledge, we cannot teach magnetism to students who lack the resources to understand what that alignment is and why it matters”. Drawing upon the example of teaching science, this single statement gets to the heart of the entire article about Education and the Advancement of Understanding. However, my only concern is for students who wish to learn more than what is basically necessary in order to squeak by. Too many times, in my experiences in the high school classroom as a substitute teacher, the one thing that I have noticed is how a lot of times teachers simply teach only what they know and not encourage those who thirst for more knowledge to research it on their own which leads to a failure in not fully understanding a subject like American history.

Understanding, like knowledge, does not require truth. Sure, there are some things that not everyone is going to understand. This is why we have a variety of professionals in the world like teachers, doctors, and auto mechanics to name a few. Why not learn something about what you do not already know if understanding does not require truth? This is what baffles me the most. Understanding is not restricted to facts. “We’ve got to grasp a lot more than the established facts to understand a subject. And we’ve got to convey a lot more than established facts to teach a subject” (420). If we spend four years in college earning a degree in a field like History or English, and later earn a master’s in those areas (to name a few), why not impart knowledge on our students so that they can fully understand the subject we teach. I know that with teaching adolescents that is easier said than done.