I was thinking about logic today (my personal issues with Aristotle notwithstanding), in particualr the terms "necessary" and "sufficient". My first ever private student (I used to run a tutoring business) was having trouble with truth tables and necessary and sufficient conditions. I rememebr having great difficulty explaining the terms to him, for to me they seemed completely obvious. What is now obvious is that I hadn't at that stage of my teaching career learned or recognised how important language is in our human endeavours. The words (in the context of logic) meant nothing to him, were obvious to me, but yet I didn't see that as the sticking point.
I think we (as teachers, as humans) take language for granted, and assume that everyone is playing by our own personal rules. The writer writes the book with an image in mind; the reader constructs their own.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment