A Lesson In Teaching

In a 16th century play, a major character named Friar Bacon creates a huge head of brass, designed to answer any question on any subject, past, present and future. The all-knowing brass head represents one of man’s earliest dreams of a teaching machine-a computer that could be programmed to provide us with easy answers to our most troublesome questions. This is not unlike the child’s early trust in parents and teachers as sources of complete knowledge. The young lad who asked his father, “Dad, is God stronger than Superman?” was not being frivolous. It was the thorniest question on his mind that day, and he just knew that Dad would have the answer because Dad had all the answers. He was like the nervous young man about to set forth on his first date. Fearful that he would falter in making conversation with the young lady, he sought the advice of a teacher he regarded as “all-knowing.” The teacher suggested that if he couldn’t think…