First, this: overhead conversation between college professors talking about Career Counselors on campus: “Why don’t they understand our job is not to find our students jobs, or even prepare them for a specific industry, but open their minds and imaginations. We are not about career counseling.”
And then there was this– from Einstein, a new book now in bookstores.
“Near the end of his life, Einstein was asked by the New York State Education Department what schools should emphasize. “In teaching history,” he replied, “there should be extensive discussion of personalities who benefited mankind through independence of character and judgement.” Einstein fits into that category.
“At a time when there is new emphasis, in the face of global competition, on science and math education, we should also note the other part of Einstein’s answer. “Critical comments by students should be taken in a friendly spirit,” he said. “Accumulation of material should not stifle the student’s independence.” A society’s competitive advantage will come not from how well its schools teach the multiplication and periodic tables, but from how well they stimulate imagination and creativity.”
~from Einstein, by Walter Isaacson
I am thinking there is a connection here.
Because after Einstein gave the above well reported advice, the teaching of math and science was replaced by social studies, communication arts programs, and spell-however-uwanna-Inglish classes…all in the name of fostering imagination and creativity. After all, Einstein said it was about imagination and creativity. It’s so bad now, that elementary school teachers brag about their math and science stupidity. Whole generations of kids can’t make change, much less do algebra, nevermind physics.
Me thinks Einstein should have kept to the practice of physics, and not so much the teaching of it. Sure, he was imaginative and creative. But before that, he stayed home for days, for fun, proving geometry theories. What he meant to say, I think, to the American educational elite—and can you imagine the impact of Einstein himself giving educational advice—was that the we needed more imaginative, creative and motivated math and science teachers so that kids had fun learning the basics. He correctly forecast that, if math and science teaching methods were not packaged and presented more creatively, they wouldn’t.
Think I’m wrong? Ask anyone under the age of 50 what “e” means in E=mc squared.
Update, May 4, 2007. “The US Senate just passed the “America Competes Act” which authorizes another $16 billion as part of a $60 billion effort to doubles spending for physical sciences research and recruit 10,000 new math and science teachers, and retrain 250,000 more. Despite the size of the accomplishment, the passage was barely noticed by the nation’s news media.” ~from published sources.
(I hope some of the money is spent on new presentation techniques and teaching teachers how to motivate, rather than de-motivate.?
3 users commented in " Even Einstein Was No Einstein "
Well … you pretty much redeemed yourself on this one, but for just a bit there I was afraid I was going to have to take you to the mat! LOL
Einstein was a confident man and outspoken, but he had the humility of a true scientist (most of the time). He gave a lecture to top level physics students at Princeton one week and laid out an understanding for them. The very next week, he gave another lecture in which part of it contradicted part of the first one. One of the grad students challenged him and said this was wrong. Einstein asked him where he got the information that he was using in the argument and the student said, “From Einstein.” to everyone’s great delight. Einstein responded to him with a smile and told him that “Einstein was wrong!” He then proceeded to inform them what new knowledge he had gained in the intervening week.
I think Einstein would have liked your arguments because you are seeking the truth and not just the comfort of a position – you know, that never in doubt thing
– but he would have engaged you in a dialogue and both of you would have emerged richer for the experience. I think the problem isn’t that Einstein should have stuck to physics, I think the problem is the uncritical and unbalanced adherence we as a society and as individuals give to the viewpoints of our cultural icons. Sometimes Einstein is wrong – but almost always worth considering.
How did I redeem myself? I was simply thinking that the teachers and administrators took Einstein too much at his word. I imagine he would be spinning in his grave at the speed of light, no doubt, if he could see how uninspiring math and science is today.
I thought you were essentially blaming Einstein for releasing liberal ideology from Pandora’s box. You weren’t and I was kidding myself probably more than you about my knee-jerk reaction to where I thought you were going. I have a growing distaste for ideological prejudice and diatribe because that is the level I see so much public discourse descending to, but recognize my own human failings here. At the Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance, the start of the tour presents two doorways to enter, one for prejudiced people and one for unprejudiced. The door for unprejudiced people simply can’t be opened, of course, since they don’t exist. In other words, I was prejudiced, recognized it, and allowed myself a good-humored return to a more balanced viewpoint.
Actually, I should rephrase the claim that you redeemed yourself. It appears that I redeemed myself. The bottom line is that both of us came to a very similar vantage point following different paths. Education is in crisis and I feel that creativity and disciplined thinking are not contradictory. I also think Einstein would modify his advice a bit at this point.
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