For Mary, who is discovering the wondrous mind of the Engineer:
An Engineer asks “How does it work?”
A Scientist asks “Why does it work?”
A Liberal Arts major asks “Do you want fries with that?” - Anon
I tried to come up with something sage to add about Educators, but I’m not educated enough to do that… Perhaps Mary can suggest something…
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Winston, my recent adventure with engineers continues to open the world of my teaching to new angles on writing and pedagogy. I might not have “gotten” the joke before the last week or so of time in an “other” world. Still, in defense of the value of a good liberal arts education, I offer the following amended punch line:
A liberal arts major asks, “What good book are you reading when you get home tonight from making things work?” This thought goes, too, for the play you’ll see on stage this evening, the concert you’ll attend tomorrow, or the particular nuance you’ll appreciate when reading Leibnitz in the original German.
And after all this, what does the educator ask? (Here’s my best shot at “sage”) “Is there any chance we could get through the coming school year without another state and/or federal budget cut?” Three cheers for the folks who work to equip engineers, the scientists, and the liberal arts folks to do what each one of them does best - though I’m more than happy to leave my own horn in the corner until one of my students feels moved to toot it. …best atcha, Winston. -mg
btw… what kind of engineer are you?
What kind of engineer am I? A very good one, of course!
Or an obsolete engineer. Actually an Electrical Engineer from University of Tennessee. As fast as the technology is changing, plus the lag between commercial application college courses, EEs are almost obsolete by the time we graduate, at least in terms of content and knowledge base. From the end of formal education to the end of our engineering careers, we must be in a constant process of learning, a continuous process of becoming.
The most valuable thing we learn in college is a logical approach to problem solving, based on what was, maybe still is, called “the scientific method”. With a good grasp of that and a slide rule, er…make that a calculator, and a good body of reference knowledge, any problem can be solved. Except relationships with the other gender, of course…
You give a piece of yourself away with the mention of a “slide rule.” Many of my students might guess that a slide rule had something to do with playing nice at the park.
Your mention of the scientific method is of interest to me: I incorporate a modification of this model in teaching composition to my students. Beginning with observation (through reading, listening, observation), then proposing a thesis (hypothesis, point of view, arguable position), composing a structure of reason/rationale/thinking to (real)ize “self” in the writer’s contribution, and then “testing” that contribution in the public forum (finding those who agree, those who disagree, those who contribute more information). …something on this order. Of course, if it works, the students continue to repeat the process, modifying and honing their thinking as accountable to others in the greater community of thinkers, and somewhere along the line they are reminded that democracies are made of such stuff.
An electrical engineer, huh? U of Tennessee? Interesting. -mg
Yep, a “sly drool”. They were required equipment back in the day, and when electronic calculators first hit the scene, they were banned from classroom because not everyone could afford one and they were seen as an unfair advantage.
I still have 3 “slip sticks”, as they were also called, around here somewhere. Not sure I could remember how to do even simple things on one, since I haven’t used one since…well, since the earth cooled.
interesting comments