ZapperZ (at Physics and Physicists) recently had a post about Chad (from Uncertain Principles). It was sort of a review of Chad's book How to Teach Physics to Your Dog.
In this post, ZapperZ makes a very Feynman-like distinction between "teaching physics" and "teaching about physics". This is a really good point - that to learn physics you have to do physics. I completely agree. It is just like riding a bike - you have to ride a bike to learn to ride a bike.
So here is the question. What do I do here on this blog? I don't know. Do I talk about physics? Yes? I do not teach physics - because I don't believe that I ever teach. In class, I like to consider myself a learning facilitator rather than a teacher. Still, what about this blog. First, I write stuff because I enjoy analyzing situations that I see in everyday life and on the interwebs. Could this help people learn? I am sure for some people it can (at least for some people). Could my posts inspire others to learn physics? Again, I hope so.
I guess this is related to why I get so riled up about shows like Sport Science. Are they trying to teach science? (I hope not since they are totally incorrect). Are they trying to inspire? Again - not a good idea to inspire with bad physics. I guess this would be like me trying to inspire kids to be healthy by showing them how to eat junk food.
