Serendipity and Learning

What is the role of a teacher? And I do not mean, a teacher who stands and delivers sermons, but more like a guru who teaches a craft, inspires, motivates and takes her students forward. The role of a teacher is to let the student explore. The easiest thing for a teacher to do is to reject a student. But that is like the greats who rejected Amitabh Bachchans voice. But a real teacher will explore with a student - the path. If the student has discipline and interest, the rest will follow. Notice that I dont mention talent - because talent is but a small part. Without discipline and interest, talent is useless. And I recall this favorite clipping of mine from the Kung-Fu Panda: The role of a teacher is to not judge, but the student find her own path. And if the teacher cannot help the student, most likely, the problem is of the teacher, not the student! Evolving thought, as always...

As I read "The Most Powerful Idea in the World" by William Rosen, I had a bunch of thoughts (as you may have guessed, this is the 3rd post after reading the book). The first is of course that science as we learn in schools and colleges is mostly a linear narrative. Somebody worked on something, they invented it. Of course, narratives are not as simple as that - there are problems, opportunities, passions, networks, geniuses, unsung assistants and unglorified tries along the way, until it all falls in place. The fact that we miss the story behind the invention or the discovery is actually an exponential degree of enthusiasm lost. In reading a linear narrative, any reader is hardly ever going to be inspired. Perhaps knowing the story and the person behind the science or the invention or the discovery is as useful as learning the fact of the matter.  Perhaps the history of technologies needs to be an important course in any engineering or science syllabus. And perhaps it i...

During my random survey with my friends on the teachers they have encountered through school or college, my findings have generally been similar. Over the course of the entire school and college, we would have typically encountered no less than 100 teachers, if not more. The real figure is closer to 200, if you were among those who went to coaching classes and tuitions. And yet if you ask them how many teachers they remember from their school or college days (for what they taught), most of the answers are in single digits. Think about it. Barely 5-10 percent of your teachers are "good" - that you remember them 15-20 years later. It's a travesty is it not? That the nearly 15 to 18 odd years we spend studying, we barely remember a few teachers. So, here is the story of one such teacher who has left an everlasting impression in my mind. Metallurgy, as a subject, to those who do not know about it, can be interesting as watching paint dry. And that in essence is what gre...