the meaning of "elitism"

[Dave Long]

>               The material covered in a physics course can't be dumbed
>         down ad absurdum, as can that in a history or social studies
>         course.

Well, it certainly could be dumbed down, as the parallel of the history 
course might be to stick with "Objects in motion tend to come to rest", 
and be done with it.  But that's not a very good solution.

>                 What is to be done, then, to make physics more
>         "inclusive"?

If physics fails to be inclusive, perhaps it is a little like a 
challenging mountain:

a) The elites-in-waiting may be perfectly able to tackle the subject, 
but those who were expecting to ride in a cabin all the way to the 
mountaintop may complain bitterly about being asked to walk small parts 
of the ascent themselves, no matter how good their guide.

b) Non-elites may be perfectly able to tackle the subject, but come 
unprepared for the ascent and get stuck on technical points that, had 
they had the benefit of a guide's tacit knowledge of the terrain, could 
easily have avoided.

For the first group, there's Euclid: "there is no royal road to 
geometry".

For the second, surely "what one fool can learn, another can", but it 
would help to have an explicit map of the easiest routes up the 
mountain in the textbooks, or, better yet, a guide in the form of a 
competent physics teacher (who, if matters are progressing well, may 
also be able to take their charges up more challenging but more scenic 
lines).  If neither of those resources is commonly available, perhaps 
there ought to be another, stopgap, source (does the APS already have 
something of the sort?).

Feynman's _QED_ caters to the first group; in it he delivers a 
physically accurate exposition without ever asking his audience to 
integrate a bra-ket.

Dunn's _Caveman Chemistry_ (in a different discipline) caters to the 
second; I find the style very off-putting, but the spirit is engaging: 
he assumes little to no background, clearly acknowledges that learning 
the difficult topics requires work yet avoids complicating the easy 
topics, and covers a sequence of syntheses and analyses that are 
motivated by their historical importance in the development of 
humanity.  What does the equivalent look like for physics?

-Dave