Science is the observation, identification, description,
experimental investigation and theoretical explanation of
physical phenomena using the physical senses. Scientists, by
observing and measuring, try to find order and regularity in
the physical world. If a scientist finds what might be an
explanation for a type of physical behavior, he calls it a
theory. If the theory withstands the tests of universal
application, it becomes a Law. By definition, a scientist
does not believe. Either he knows something to be a fact or
he conjectures what might perhaps be a fact -- but he will
agree that it is only a theory. If someone believes
in science, then it ceases to be a science but becomes a
cult.
This means that no one is obliged to accept anything from
the world of Science if it contradicts what he knows to be
true. However, there have been many scientists who have
believed in theories even though they contradict common
experience.
For example, for hundreds of years, people believed that the
earth was flat, even though common experience demonstrates
that it is curved. In more recent times, when scientists
regarded light to be purely an electromagnetic wave,
scientists held that the universe was full of ether
through which the electromagnetic waves traveled. They held
that this ether was an all pervading, infinitely elastic,
massless medium, transparent and formless, yet had a tensile
strength greater than the strongest steel.
Even though common experience testifies that it is not
possible for there to be such a thing as the ether as they
describe it, nevertheless, it was considered to be true and
they taught and wrote about it in textbooks. And nowadays,
scientists scoff at the very idea that such a notion could
even have been considered...
In our own time, many scientists still believe in the theory
of evolution, even though religious Christian scientists
raised objections to it as soon as the theory was announced
and these objections have never been answered, and the
theory continues to become more incredible as science
advances.
Another problem which discolors the authority of scientific
research is that often, tentative postulations made by
researchers will be presented to the public as established
fact. Suggestions prefaced by expressions of modest surmise,
such as, "It might be possible that..." in the original
research papers become revamped by textbooks into tenets of
belief.
Psychology is the study of the psyche, whatever that means.
Since you cannot isolate the psyche as a physical entity,
measure it or observe it under the microscope, psychology
cannot be regarded as a science. Rather, because it is a
study of human behavior, it is a branch of the Humanities or
Social Studies.
It is pertinent to note two laws of physics which relate to
testing.
The Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty is based on
the fact that the very process of observing affects the
behavior of what is being observed. Therefore, it is
impossible to determine anything with absolute certainty.
The Butterfly Effect shows that in an extremely
complex system, a very small change can eventually cause a
large effect. The classic example given is that a butterfly
flapping its wing in Tokyo can initiate a change in
atmospheric conditions which can eventually cause rain to
fall in Paris.
Therefore, accurate and reliable testing is only possible
when there is a simplistic relationship between the test and
the target of the test and when the procedure is shielded
from all outside influences during the test.
It is not possible now to even begin to describe the power
and complexity of the human brain and the way this power and
complexity manifests itself in issues such as intelligence,
behavior, mood, relationships and any of the other manifold
aspects of personality and human activities. Suffice to say
that it is impossible to relate to any aspect of human
behavior in the simplistic way of physics or chemistry or
any of the natural sciences.
Herein lies the danger of attempting to reduce education to
the level of a science and a technology.
Testing might "prove" that a child has certain limited
capabilites, yet a mother can know from her own experience
with the child that he has much more potential than the
testing shows. Time after time, children and youngsters who
have been declared to be of only minimal potential have
blossomed and developed into regular people once the "right
way" has been found to help them.
People are not machines and education needs to be an art
which never loses sight neither of the foibles of the human
personality nor of the potential of the Jewish
neshoma.
