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It's so intriguing to me, Susan, to recognize our divergent interpretations of that little essay you flagged, "At the Drawing Board" (for which many thanks!).

What I learned from reading it was precisely the opposite of what you saw: it seemed to me that it was saying that having students make illustrations can be more instructive than having them write--"If you make them do a picture, you can zero in on things that words might conceal.”

This article was also a particular delight to me because it intersects so nicely w/ a story I like to tell about when my son Sam was fourteen...

"moody, quiet, grumpy. I ask him what is wrong, why he will not talk to me. He growls: 'What is wrong? Why won't I talk to you? Why is the sky not purple?'

Cautioning me about intrusion, this young man reminds me not to push too hard to articulate what is not fully undestood. What he has no desire to understand--even if understood, to speak. What is mystery."

Seems as though these Harvard science profs featured in the NYTimes article are refusing to let their students reside in mystery! (Might that be one answer to Wil's query about the differences between the disciplines? Scientists refuse to...while humanitists just might (sometimes?) revel in mystery?)