nwr writes:
often notice this as an educator. The A students know that they are A students. The B students know that they are B students, and they have some idea on where the weakness is in their knowledge.
As a TA and tutor for physics and math, I too have noticed something similar. Professors send students who are failing to me. Sometimes, I have to spend long periods of time trying to convince them of some stuff that are really trivial to me.
For example, I once had to spend a long time trying to prove to a student that 1km=1000m. Sometime in the past, he had mistaken that 1m=1000km. When he was failing, they sent him to me. Even then, he was so convinced that I was wrong and that he was right. He finally yielded when I pulled out the answer sheet and showed me that indeed 1km=1000m.
Even though they are obviously wrong, it's the hardest thing to show them that they are wrong, especially when they are already convinced that they are right. When they fail, they blame it on their prof or their TA. They don't take the time to think that there's a reason why the profs are profs and the TAs are the TAs.
Creationists need to learn that there's a reason why physicists are physicists and biologists are biologists.
Oh my goodness, I just remember someone I helped in the past. He was failing physics 102 (the lowest physics level course anyone could take). Outside of class, I met him in the lounge so we started talking about physics. He claimed to have read many books and was very well versed in physics. I was like "oh brother..." but I stayed quiet and listened. He then tried to make a case that Quantum Mechanics was "crap". Ok, here's someone that couldn't even grasp the very basics of kinematics was voicing his opinion on the Schrodinger Equation. I mean, what the hell was he thinking?
People need to realize that the world is much bigger than what goes on in their tiny heads.
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