Yesterday's post was a bit heavy on the science side, so I'm going lighter today.
Let me begin today's rant by pointing out I have two stories published in today's edition of SLAC Today. The first is about remote participation, which was a good exercise in having to write carefully for political reasons. The second is a profile about a SLAC researcher who is a nationally renowned player of a Russian quiz game called What? Where? When? This brings me today's point.
I love profiles.
I don't know why. It could be that I think I'm good at them. It could be getting to see a different side of scientists you don't usually glimpse. You get to talk to people about their passion, which may be different than their work. Maybe that's why I find the interviews are much smoother and the stories are much easier to write.
In any case, today I spoke to a SLAC employee who has been volunteering his time to teach music classes for kindergartners at his son's elementary school through Music for Minors. Three or four times a week he is there making sure the children are getting a well-rounded education. He and a couple of colleagues have even trained four new volunteers in the past year to teach the other grades. Talk about an amazing guy.
And, by the way, I learned that California gives the least amount of money to its schools for music and art education out of any state. I guess the government is too busy spending it on fixing global warming or something. Not to say that isn't important and all, but I think it's sad that children today are not getting music or art classes.
On an unrelated note, I found through my journalism studies at Indiana that I enjoy taking pictures. So I am going to periodically include some of my shots in my blog for your enjoyment.
On a completely unrelated note, on my bike ride home from work today I passed the fountain in the middle of Stanford's campus shown above (photo taken by myself) only to find a few dozen students playing in it in bathing suits (it was the first truly hot day of the summer here). What's more it appeared that there was a couple of empty cases of Coors Light. Now I don't know if there really was any drinking of beer going on during the festivities, but if there was, my opinion of Stanford's students has just gone up a notch. Maybe some of them do actually know how to have some fun.
My hat's off to you.
3 comments:
How dare you mock California's global warming iniatives... art and music will be worthless if children have no earth to serve as inspiration. Mother Earth has a fever and ... just kidding, I'm only acting like a typical liberal nut-case. It is ironic, though, that Cali, with all those lib actors and tortured artist types, would have the lowest public funding for the arts in schools. The problem as I see it? We see stagnant or falling test scores and think throwing money at the problem is the solution. So we have desperate pleas to get a computer and high-speed internet for every inner-city kid. And we have to get the kids "involved... we have to make learning fun..." No, we don't. For thousands of years teachers lectured, students listened and took notes, and parents made sure there would be consequences. A strict teacher who lectures to a kid with an abacus and good parenting can run circles around a teacher who "makes learning fun" for a kid with a laptop, DSL, and bad parents. Learning is not fun- it's work; learning can be gratifying, it can be satisfying, it can be life-affirming, but it's not "fun." Mocking liberals is fun.
Ken, I like profiles a lot too. It shows the "human" side of the faculty. The one you mention here sounds particularly interesting. Most people do not care as much about the nitty gritty science details (see my eyes are glazing over just thinking about it). Keep up the good work!
One cartoon I saw on a teacher's door has always stuck with me. I think it was Mother Goose and Grimm, but in any case, it depicted two young children in a classroom, one tinkering with a piano and the other with clay. The teacher is in the doorway scolding them for not working on their math/science/history assignment or something like that, and the caption reads "Beethoven and Michelangelo in today's school system." People seem to have forgotten there are more ways to be "smart" than by scoring well on standardized tests. I believe the key to education is finding what a child is good at and enjoys and encouraging them in that direction instead of shoving algebra or writing down their throats. When you truly like what you're learning about, school can be fun (which is in disagreement with your statement) and the student will achieve more. Maybe that's why everyone I've ever talked to likes college so much better than high school. You get to choose what you learn. Well, that and the drinking, no parents, no curfew, Fridays off and only four hours of class a day thing.
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