[roc-chat] Re: Space Camp for today's kids
- From: R Dierking <applerocketry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 10:25:47 -0700
Very busy today with work, but felt compelled to jump back in on this one.
I'm no opponent of reality. In fact, sometimes I dish out too much myself -
even for adults. :-)
However, if you're a parent with kids in school, you've probably seen what I'm
talking about. You get a note from your kid's teacher saying that today they
had the opportunity to learn how a 'No' on some educational proposition or
reduction on teacher salaries will effect their education, and you say, WTF is
this?
So, yeah, I'm not a big fan of things that smell like secret agendas. To me,
it's right in there with special 'student' programs that when you take a closer
look are just things that adults wanted to do and just used kids to get funding
or approval, or whatever.
Richard Dierking
Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 12:57:34 -0400
Subject: [roc-chat] Re: Space Camp for today's kids
From: airplaniac2002@xxxxxxxxx
To: roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Isn't it America's finest news source? Says so right at the top. C=
On May 30, 2014 12:51 PM, "Gregory Lyzenga" <lyzenga@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 30, 2014, at 9:45 AM, R Dierking <applerocketry@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thank you for posting the link David.
This is controversial for sure. For the age of the kids involved, I don't
think this kind of 'simulation' enriches their experience. I've seen schools
and teachers give 'lessons' that seem to me to be more an expression of their
own frustration than a beneficial learning experience for the kids. Kind of
like using children as messengers to their parents.
For example, since we know that space exploration is dangerous, should one of
the children be 'killed' in an accident during the program? They could pick
one of the astronaut kids, suddenly remove them from the program and send them
home saying, "see, it's dangerous, so now your dead." Then, all the other kids
could grieve, and maybe it could be their fault. Wow, what a rewarding
experience that would be! :-/
I just don't think that slamming the kids at a young age is valuable. SLI and
USLI teams learn about budgets and red-tape. Even TARC teams learn about
budget restraints through the process of building, launching, and perhaps
travel expenses. Sometimes dreams come before cold reality and the dreams push
us through the BS. These kids need to develop the momentum of their dreams -
the speed bumps will come.
Or, perhaps I'm being too protective of the children in the space camp program?
Richard Dierking
Uh, Richard… You do know what “The Onion” is, don’t you???
----------------------------------------------------------Gregory A. Lyzenga
<lyzenga@xxxxxxx>
Dept. of Physics, Harvey Mudd College (909) 621-8378Claremont, CA
91711-5990 mobile (626) 808-5314
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