THE BEST OF ONE’S KNOWLEDGE

Unfortunately, Cooperstein . . . tells the reader more of Cooperstein’s views of education than Schaefer’s.

Cooperstein pontificates that the importance of a subject (e.g. history) is to be found in students’ debating and interpreting the subject. Cooperstein, a mathematician, declaims: “Knowledge for knowledge’s sake may appeal to some, but it cannot be accepted as a given in the absence of debate.”

Cooperstein’s prescription may work for graduate students, but has he ever taught freshmen? I pity calculus students who fritter away a semester in debate!

DEVON SHOWLEY, Professor of Physics, Cypress College, CYPRESS