Subject: K-12 List Purpose

Posted by Prof. Dr. Niall Palfreyman on 2/25/2006
In Reply To:K-12 List Purpose Posted by Lees Stuntz on 2/17/2006

Message:

I'm glad this question has come out into the open. I have two brief thoughts. The first simply echos Bill Braun:


> My mental model is that such discussions are necessary, even if their
> content is not readily portable to the classroom. It is part of the
> development of the educators.
>

My second thought relates to my personal interest in this list. I am an educator, although immediately post-K-12, and I am very interested in SD/ST, so I throughly enjoy the posts on this list. I also have interests in the biochemical area which have different emphasis from those of the management and financial world which get so much coverage on the SD-list. Consequently I always found it difficult to relate to the information I read on that list, and was greatly relieved to find this one. However I do enjoy questioning fundamentals - like the issue of processes I brought into the feedback loop discussion. And I've never been sure whether that was a valid thing to do on the K-12 list, so I tried every now and again, sometimes enjoying the results and sometimes burning my fingers.

I guess what I'm saying is this: this is clearly a K-12 list, and as such I'm aware that I need to keep my posts on the straight and narrow of what is clearly K-12/SD relevant. But I do have an oddball sort of way of thinking about things, and if questioning fundamental issues in the way SD is presently formulated is not a useful thing to do on this list, then it's probably best I'm made aware of it straight away.

Best wishes, and with some trepidation,
Niall.