Mostly outside of school I started to learn many very different things on my own ...
For example 10 years old I started wondering about electricity - half a year later I had built from scratch my first simple radio for medium wave (just having found somewhere a simple circuit diagram), about one year later I was listening many nights with hot ears under a headphone into the mysterious world of short wave radiotraffic, using a sophisticated self-constructed and self-built (also from scratch, there was no self-assembly kit) receiver ...
I don't want to brag about it, but I had many examples of that kind, and at school I experienced that whenever I was really interested in something then learning speed was much higher as usual in other school themes, at least ten times ... and I was often thinking that something is going terribly wrong in our education system.
There are no average kids, everyone is gifted these days. I'm not impressed by neeraj's story at all. If he'd done it in 1850, maybe, but it's like...who knows who the second guy to climb Everest was? Or who cares about him if they do know his name? Or the fiftieth. Or five hundredth. Ooh, scratch built a receiver! Wow! You're a genius!
I simply enjoy my "creative moments", full of life, in whatever doing ... thats always fresh and new, like never been before. At least I feel like that, my hole life.
If somebody else has done "the same" before, its not MY business, it doesn't change anything in my enjoyment in that moment. BTW its never "the same", even if it looks like that from outside.
And when afterwards somebody says "Oh, thats nothing, somebody else has done it before", it also doesn't change my enjoyment.
How could your feeling about yourself depend on others? Either you feel yourself without hindrance, or you don't ... e.g. because you let somebody else rule over your feelings.
And I agree, in a certain sense there are no average kids.
Most scientists would be a bit bummed if they found out their work had already been done. It mightnot affect their enjoyment in the doing, but most people woudl like to break new ground. When you're a child it's different. Take this from the Wikipedia entry of Blaise Pascal: "One day, however, Étienne found Blaise (now twelve) writing an independent proof that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles with a piece of coal on a wall." He would not have liked retreading old ground when a grown man, but I bet didn't really care much about that when he was 11.
Indeed. We gain strength and intellect growing up, but we loose innocence and freedom. Not necessarily, but typically. Perhaps they are not lost forever though.
Fascinating and wonderful! LOVE what he is doing!
ReplyDeleteMostly outside of school I started to learn many very different things on my own ...
ReplyDeleteFor example 10 years old I started wondering about electricity - half a year later I had built from scratch my first simple radio for medium wave (just having found somewhere a simple circuit diagram), about one year later I was listening many nights with hot ears under a headphone into the mysterious world of short wave radiotraffic, using a sophisticated self-constructed and self-built (also from scratch, there was no self-assembly kit) receiver ...
I don't want to brag about it, but I had many examples of that kind, and at school I experienced that whenever I was really interested in something then learning speed was much higher as usual in other school themes, at least ten times ... and I was often thinking that something is going terribly wrong in our education system.
Bravo to that man!
Yep, the school system is only good for average kids.
ReplyDeleteSilvia Hartman told me that she used to write exams from right to left and such things just to have any challenge at all.
There are no average kids, everyone is gifted these days. I'm not impressed by neeraj's story at all. If he'd done it in 1850, maybe, but it's like...who knows who the second guy to climb Everest was? Or who cares about him if they do know his name? Or the fiftieth. Or five hundredth. Ooh, scratch built a receiver! Wow! You're a genius!
ReplyDeleteI scratch built a nuclear reactor when I was 8. Getting the plutonium was a bit difficult so I managed to scratch build some of that too.
ReplyDeleteI came up with calculus when I was 9. Imagine my disappointment when my million dollar idea had already been done.
ReplyDeleteI simply enjoy my "creative moments", full of life, in whatever doing ... thats always fresh and new, like never been before. At least I feel like that, my hole life.
ReplyDeleteIf somebody else has done "the same" before, its not MY business, it doesn't change anything in my enjoyment in that moment. BTW its never "the same", even if it looks like that from outside.
And when afterwards somebody says "Oh, thats nothing, somebody else has done it before", it also doesn't change my enjoyment.
How could your feeling about yourself depend on others? Either you feel yourself without hindrance, or you don't ... e.g. because you let somebody else rule over your feelings.
And I agree, in a certain sense there are no average kids.
Indeed. It took me a long time to learn that "originality" in form is a fruitless search. That's just a lot of closed roads.
ReplyDeleteMost scientists would be a bit bummed if they found out their work had already been done. It mightnot affect their enjoyment in the doing, but most people woudl like to break new ground. When you're a child it's different. Take this from the Wikipedia entry of Blaise Pascal: "One day, however, Étienne found Blaise (now twelve) writing an independent proof that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles with a piece of coal on a wall." He would not have liked retreading old ground when a grown man, but I bet didn't really care much about that when he was 11.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. We gain strength and intellect growing up, but we loose innocence and freedom. Not necessarily, but typically. Perhaps they are not lost forever though.
ReplyDelete