Sometimes no matter how much you want it to, you just can't give a bad
lecture wings. I thought I had a pretty good lecture ready to go.
Maybe it was having just gotten off of a plane, maybe the kids were
just not into it or tired, or maybe the lecture was just bad. Whatever
it was, I tried it over and over again for nearly 7 hours and by the
end, I just wanted to crawl away. I was hoping for some small
validation that I was reaching them.

Besides the lecture had all the good stuff in it. Cell phones, death,
smoking, all sorts of things kids normally can't wait to talk about.
But then I got stuff like, "I believe that people can heal themselves.
That just by watching happy TV shows they can make their cancer go
away."

WHAT?! How do people like that get promoted from year to year. Trying
to teach a science class and you get into a metaphysics discussion.
The worst thing is that kind of belief is dangerous. The idea that you
can make something happen if you want it to happen can begin to
permeate people. It may lend hope to dispair, but it also creates a
save me complex and false hope and sanctity. These might be ok notions
for an 18 year old, but I don't want my daughter to believe them and I
certainly don't want to get caught up in this discussion in front of
my students. I'm afraid that with a person like that, you cannot use
reason or logic lead you to a solution.

My biggest concern is when that idea spreads. I can convince most
people of the validity and importance of research and science, but
that person doesn't want to believe in science. They want magic.