Re: bad item

["Art Burke" <aburke@vansd.org>]

Thank goodness you left the Naval Academy before you were commissioned
as a Navigator.  Art

>>> rparkany@borg.com 05/06/03 08:44AM >>>
Was I the first and only one who--as a boy being taught this
Copernican
Revolution against Tolomeic Cosmology for the first time--realized for
an
absolute (or is it relative?) FACT that, IF so, THEN the Sun revolves
around
Pluto, as well???

I was never an easy student in class.

When I mentioned later on some decades after that expeience, while
writing a
dissertation in the Philosophy Dept. @ Tulane (right off-Burbon
Street),
that it is up to we more *knowing* to complete this Copernican
Revolution by
returning *The Earth* to the Center of All Things, and our place in it,
as
well...I was mocked by the more ignorant and slothful thinkers in the
seminar and was encouraged to frame my dissertation w/this thesis by
my
mentors.

Oh! and BTW:    I learnt more MATH & SCIENCE, once I got into the
Philosophy
Department, than I EVER did, even while studying Admiral Rickover's
curriculum while @ USNA!

Oh well...YOU do th' philosophy and first principles!    ;-} rap.

Art Burke wrote:

> A child who understands the concept of plantets revolving around the
sun
> should have no trouble with the concept of "none of the above."  Art
>
> >>> PAVURSOL@aol.com 05/05/03 07:51PM >>>
> When my now seventh grader was in third grade, he came home to tell
me
> about
> a bad test item on the science SOL test.  The question was
> (paraphrased) "how
> long does it take the sun to go around pluto?  A.  1 week   b.  1
year
>  c.
> 100 years   d none of the above.
> Evan was scoffing at the silliness of the question (he was a walking
> planet
> factoid machine at that time; he could name all the named moons of
most
> of
> the planets - for fun, mind you).  "Mom," he said.  "Everyone knows
> that the
> sun doesn't go around pluto.  Pluto orbits around the sun (and then
> launched
> into a description of the way it goes around the sun which is
> apparently more
> of an oval)."  I told him that there really was an answer and to
think
> about
> it.  He mouthed the question to himself and then said there was
still
> no
> answer.  I told him the answer the test makers wanted was "none of
the
>
> above."  He looked at me like I was nuts.  "Mom," he said.  "Listen
to
> the
> question:  HOW LONG does it take the sun to go around pluto?  HOW
LONG.
>  How
> long does it take the sun to go around pluto?  None of the above
> doesn't even
> fit with the sentence."
>
> Since I didn't see his test, I don't know what he actually bubbled
but
> I know
> he got it wrong.
>
> Mickey
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--
"Dein Wachstum sei feste und lache vor Lust!
Deines Herzens Trefflichkeit
Hat dir selbst das Feld bereit',
Auf dem du bluehen musst." JS Bach: Bauern Kantata
Richard A. Parkany: SUNY@Albany
Prometheus Educational Services
http://www.borg.com/~rparkany/ 
Upper Hudson & Mohawk Valleys; New York State, USA