was team teaching; now FACTS?

[Jon Monroe]

The fact that we appear to have different opinions on what facts (if 
any?) should go into a botany course cuts right to the heart of what 
Bill Purves said - the instructor should decide what to teach.  If 
David Hershey can weave facts about the architecture of monocot and 
dicot stems into an interesting and relevant story about grafting, 
then that is exactly what he should do and I imagine his students eat 
it up.  If someone else can't make it interesting or relevant, but 
they feel compelled to cover the facts because they are there, then 
those students are probably not going to like it very much nor 
remember them.  Instead, let that instructor talk about another set 
of facts that they CAN make interesting and relevant and their 
students will certainly benefit in the long run.  Both sets of 
students got SOME facts that they might remember but I agree with 
Bill that neither set was essential.

Jon

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  Jonathan D. Monroe           Associate Professor
  Department of Biology       office: 540-568-6649
  MSC 7801                       lab: 540-568-6045
  James Madison University       fax: 540-568-3333
  Harrisonburg, VA 22807   email: monroejd at jmu.edu
  http://csm.jmu.edu/biology/monroejd/jmonroe.html
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