UK physics teacher says British physics suck

By Cory Doctorow at 4:11 pm Thursday, Jun 7

Wellington Grey -- a British physics teacher whose wonderful comic flowcharts are often featured here on Boing Boing -- is fed up with the quality of physics education in the UK. He's written a scathing open letter to the Board of Education detailing his view of the crisis in British physics.

On topics that are covered by the specification, the exam board has answers that indicate a lack of knowledge on the writer’s part. One questions asks `why would radio stations broadcast digital signals rather than analogue signals?’ An acceptable answer is:

* Can be processed by computer / ipod [sic]

Aside from the stupidity of the answer, (iPods, at the time of this writing, don’t have radio turners and computers can process analogue signals) writing the mark scheme in this way is thoughtless, as teachers can only give marks that exactly match its language. So does the pupil get the mark if they mention any other mp3 player? Technically, no. Wikipedia currently lists 63 different players. Is it safe to assume that the examiner will be familiar with all of them? Doubtful.

Link (Thanks, Wellington!)

See also:
Science and faith: two flowcharts
Slashdot: the flowchart
W.W.G.W.B.D.? flow chart