Thought for the Day (Sept 23)

Subject: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: Peter T.
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 08:41 AM

Sept 23 -- Almost all environmental studies is pretty depressing, but there is one class I try and give as often as possible that cheers everyone up. The students all come alive, and one year a student came up to me and said: "I was in bliss the whole class." Nothing to do with the instructor. This is the class where we build a planet from scratch, which you could call Earth. The big, blissful moments come twice: first when the bits and pieces all come together and somehow cells get going -- LIFE!; and second, when another miracle occurs a billion years later, and some smart cell invents photosynthesis, and boom, we are off and running!AIR! What students love is that this whole enterprise is utterly magical, because it seems to have happened without anyone else's help (except God's, depending on your taste), because it was a bunch of the lowest form of life (even pre-life) doing it, and because no one has the slightest idea how they did miracle No. 1, and we are still not completely sure how they did, and keep doing miracle No. 2 every day. And yet everything depends on it: life, stock transactions, Kraft dinners. Students love the mixture of real science and the admission of humble stupidity in the face of a bunch of dumb one-celled plants -- algae for God's sake -- doing something not even the smartest human beings can figure up. Then we build the rest of the Earth, which is the easy part. Everyone gets happy, and you can see them bounce off, charged up to go out and proclaim this big event, 5 billion years and counting!

And, to tell the truth, it always blisses out the teacher. It always does, and did yesterday too. (p.t.)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: Bert
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 09:53 AM

Peter T, take a load of that algae over to the tavern, they're in dire need of some culture at the moment.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: Tony Burns
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 10:25 AM

Very cool lesson Peter. Do you ever do it for adults? Maybe some Sunday at Mel's? (Or do we all have to get take-out and meet in a lab somewhere?)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 11:00 AM

Very neat Pete!!! Great story...really! Makes the teaching gig worthwhile.

So at what point in this evolution does the Waylon Heron come in? (Mandatory Heron Joke)

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 11:02 AM

Yeah, I know.........Somewhere a lot later than the catspaw!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 11:03 AM

Lovely, Peter. Lucky students to have gotten you for the instructor!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: Bert
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 11:08 AM

Gotta agree with you there Kat,and HE SAYS 'Nothing to do with the instructor.' Huh, like we beleive that.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 11:24 AM

Yeah, that's really the point isn't it? Peter, no matter how grinding or tiresome it becomes at times, I gotta' believe you are one helluva' teacher.......your protestations to the contrary.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: Neil Lowe
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 12:16 PM

ditto all the above....sadly there are too few teachers of such calibre. When I as a student was lucky enough to encounter such a teacher, the results were simply astonishing. Good teachers ultimately draw more out of their students than the students realize they have in them, and that, IMHO, is the essence and goal of teaching (I think I am repeating myself...sounds like something I said in a thread about favorite teachers some weeks back, anyway....).

I wish my kids had the benefit of your instruction...hell, I wish I did....building a planet sounds like fun.

Regards, Neil

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 01:09 PM

Well, you could do Sim City on the pewter at least.*G*

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Sept 23)
From: Peter T.
Date: 23 Sep 99 - 02:25 PM

No false modesty, I actually teach it O.K., but the real secret I think is that if you tie real information to a story about their origins, people just eat it up. You get this whenever grandparents can be persuaded to tell their grandchildren the history of their family in detail. It seems to go straight into the soul: the craving for some real hard factual truth about where we came from: not bullshit, the real thing, with the gaps left in if there are true gaps, and so on. And coherently: a story whose end is here today. The Earth Story is just one of those.
yours, Peter T.