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Originally Posted by Adam Y.
I have always thought that the problems were very easy to find. It was just a matter of solving them. There are really just too many big problems right now that do need to be solved. Disease, famine, the electrical grid, new fuel sources, and terrorism are just some of the problems that need to be solved. I feel that it is a matter of what you want to do and not what needs to be done.
I think it was Hemingway who said,"Life is a joke. Once you figure it out you die."
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I am not as concerned about my own interest as I am about the direction of the kind of inspiration you can do to the future generation. It's more like a question about education really:
What do you want to teach your students?
1. Teach them to memorize facts and formulas so they know how to apply those knowledge when they grow up.
2. Teach them to be problem solvers, so they can look at a problem, do the necessary research/experiment to gather enough data, analyze the data and make sense out of them, and come up with the best solution for the problem.
3. Teach them to think for themselves, so they can discover their own problem to solve.
Obviously you can't teach students to be independent thinkers without teaching them how to be problem solvers, and you can't teach them to be problem solvers without teaching them facts and formulas. The important part though, is that at each step, you take the time to remind them not to just memorize everything they were taught, but also, understand why they should learn those facts and formulas, and how they can apply them to a problem they've never seen before, and why that problem appear in the first place.
I used to ask my parents why I have to take math, and they responded with "don't ask that; just learn it as you are told to." That didn't really help inspire me to be a better student. I just felt it was unnecessary work. If someone bothered to tell me why there are pages of problem in the math book, and why I have to solve at least 20 of them a night, it would've motivated me a little better.
I grew up in a culture with an education system that's designed to mold students into obedient workers who will do what their bosses tell them to. I am extremely grateful that my experience leaded me to understand that method is not the only way to educate students. It also leaded me to think about the entire point of education, and its role in the society, which is why I asked those questions. I feel that by asking specific questions, it helps me focus my mind into one thing at a time.
I don't know if Life is a joke or not, I've certainly have my share of "interesting" experience that lead me to suspect there is more to life then what you can see with your eyes, but we won't go there in this thread ;-).
P.S. WC, sorry for not noticing your reply inside the quote in your post, I just noticed that. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to this thread.