Archive for May, 2009

Pierre Curie

Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

Photo from Institut Curie
“Life should be made into a dream and a dream into a reality.” – Pierre Curie

We tend to think of dreamers as the artistic or poetic type but dreaming is important for any creative endeavor, including science.

The Nobel Prize winning scientist Pierre Curie, born in 1859 in Paris, was taught at home because his parents thought the schools would be too harsh for his sensitive nature. He was very intelligent but did not like to arbitrarily skip from one subject to the next. His wife Marie later described his learning as intense and focused. She wrote: “It is clear that a mind of this kind can hold great future possibilities. But it is no less clear that no system of education can be especially provided by the public school for persons of this intellectual type. If, then Pierre’s earliest instruction was irregular and incomplete, it had the advantage of [freeing his mind from] dogmas, prejudices or preconceived ideas. And he was always grateful to his parents for this liberal attitude.”  She also said, “Pierre’s intellectual capacities were not those that would permit the rapid assimilation of a prescribed course of studies. His dreamer’s spirit would not submit itself to the ordering of the intellectual effort imposed by the school.”

His parents taught him biology, chemistry, physics, and geometry and he learned literature and history from the father’s large library. When he was fourteen, his father recognized his gift for mathematics, particularly spatial geometry, and he hired a tutor to teach him advanced mathematics. The tutor moved him up so quickly he was able to enter the prestigious Sorbonne at age sixteen.

Pierre seems to have been an introspective, thoughtful sort of boy. He loved to walk along the Seine River and explore the countryside. Sometimes he would spend all day outside and return home late at night exhausted but happy. He and his older brother Jacques were very close and shared a love for science and nature. Their father encouraged the boys by including them in his work at the laboratory of the Museum of Natural History.

Pierre’s father was a medical doctor, not interested in making lots of money. He was a compassionate idealist more concerned with justice and helping people. Following the Franco-German War in 1871, when a rebel uprising broke out in Paris, Dr. Curie did not join the fighting but converted his family’s quarters into a makeshift emergency room and sent his sons out to bring back the most seriously wounded. It was a time of terrible violence and the experience surely led to Pierre’s lifelong devotion to pacifism.

Pierre’s mother was a cheerful, resourceful woman, whose attentions and interruptions sometimes annoyed her son. She enjoyed conversation and did not seem to understand when he needed time and quiet to pursue his studies.

In his diary, Pierre later described his problem with being easily distracted. To prevent his mind from flying away “on every wind that blows, yielding to the slightest breath it encounters,” everything around him had to be absolutely still or else he had to turn his mind into “a humming top, the movement itself making me insensible to what is happening around me.” He also complained that “Whenever, rotating slowly, I attempt to speed up [my mind], the merest nothing – a word, a story, a newspaper, a visit – stops me from becoming a gyroscope or top, and can postpone or forever delay the time when, with enough speed I might be able to concentrate despite my surroundings.”

His intense focus and preparation allowed Pierre to graduate from the Sorbonne in only two years, with a degree in physics. When he was eighteen, he was able to avoid mandatory military service by agreeing to spend ten years working in public education, which he did as a lab assistant in the physics lab at the Sorbonne.

During this time, he and his brother Jacques worked closely together. They discovered piezoelectricity (creating electricity from pressing on crystals a certain way) in 1881 when Pierre was only 22. He did not meet Marie until 1894. Their work together on radioactivity began around 1897.

Pierre Curies’ unconventional education suited his temperament and interests well. He was able to pursue his own scientific inquiries at his own pace, with little interference from school authorities. His father was sensitive enough to provide Pierre with the resources he needed to succeed in his chosen field: books, laboratory, math tutor. But he also allowed the boy time and space for dreaming and thinking.

Source:

Brian, Denis. The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2005, Hoboken, New Jersey

What Does it Mean to be Successful?

Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

When I started researching famous home schoolers, my idea was to find out how they learned best and discover what their parents did or did not do that helped them. This quickly led me to the problem of what it means to be famous. Some people may be very successful in their careers, but not necessarily in other aspects of life. Thomas Edison is famous for his remarkable tenacity and innovation, but he was a lousy dad. General Douglas MacArthur was an effective leader, but excessively vain. Frank Lloyd Wright was a gifted architect, but also a gifted womanizer. I’m still interested in how these people realized their potential, but I wouldn’t hold up any of them as the perfect model for home schooling parents to follow.

With that in mind, I did find a few who were both successful in their profession and in their lives. Andrew Carnegie, John Burroughs, John Muir, Pearl Buck, Dave Thomas and others were not perfect, they were not deliriously happy, but they had acquired a certain amount of self knowledge and emotional intelligence that helped them make the most of life. I’ll be covering them more in future blogs, but for now I’d like to tell you about someone who was not home schooled.

I recently received the May 2009 issue of “The Costco Connection” (a magazine for Costco members). On the cover is a picture of Bill Gates Sr. and the headline, “Insights from the father of a famous son.” Editor Tim Talevich interviewed the elder Bill Gates about his new book Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime.

Gates claimed that he and his late wife Mary had no great method or philosophy in mind when raising their three remarkable children, but it is clear that the two set a wonderful example in their own lives. Gates was a prominent lawyer who regularly did pro bono law work and served on a number of community boards and committees. Mary Gates was also heavily involved with their Seattle community, volunteering for political campaigns, the local children’s hospital, and especially the United Way.

If the Gates family had any philosophy, it was simply to “show up.” They dedicated their time and energy to the family, community, school and work. The younger Bill remembers his mother always asking him at the dinner table how much of his allowance money he would be giving to the Salvation Army at Christmas. The children remember standing on street corners with their mother on election day, holding signs supporting a school levy.

Bill Gates, Sr. said, “A fair amount of what we did was based on the conviction that, as the expression says, ‘We’re all in this together’ – that we had something to contribute.”

The family had their own rituals and traditions that the grown children continue to this day. They enjoyed reading aloud to each other, playing all types of games, having family dinners on Sunday and wearing matching pajamas on Christmas. On vacations they joined family friends in cabins at a favorite waterfront resort.

Older sister Kristi said, “I don’t think anything that was done can explain my brother in his exceptional success. I think what was done can explain all of our understanding of our place in society and our role in giving back that was modeled a lot through our childhood.”

She remembers Bill Jr. as a bookworm, “He spent a lot of time reading; he spent a lot of time in his room. He was very opinionated about a lot of issues when he was a kid. He was sort of geeky.”

Bill’s younger sister Libby agreed, “I would definitely characterize him as a computer nerd.” As a teenager, Bill and his friend Paul Allen became so obsessed with computers that they would sneak out at night to work on them at the nearby University of Washington campus.

In the magazine’s interview with the younger Bill Gates, he said: “I learned so much from both my parents growing up. My parents were constantly exposing us to new ideas and encouraging us to learn, and, of course, they showed by example a deep commitment to family, work and friends, while giving back in ways that were effective and could make a difference.”

Besides putting their values to work, making volunteerism a family affair taught the kids about their wider world. In the words of Bill Gates: “I’m also very thankful that my parents exposed us to the world of adults from a very early age. This became especially important when I started my first business, and then again with Microsoft, because I was never intimidated. Even if someone was much older or had more experience, I felt comfortable discussing and debating important ideas, and, especially from my dad, learned to look at things from every angle.”

Bill and Mary Gates put their hearts into the things that mattered most to them: family, community, school and work. Their children learned from their example and have continued the family tradition. Kristi and Libby both have been very involved in a variety of philanthropic and civic activities, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which Bill Gates Sr. helped to found) is now the largest private philanthropy in the world.

It is not necessary to become wealthy to be a success. As Henry Ward Beecher said, “No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.” I would consider a strong character the best measure of success, because good character is fundamental to all of life’s pursuits: career, family, friends, community and personal fulfillment.

Building character is a subject for another day, but in the meantime Winston Churchill gives us something to think about: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Perhaps, as home schooling parents, we should be thinking more about what we give – whether in money, time or attention – and the example we set, than worrying about curriculum or test scores.

Robert Frost

Posted on: by Jamie McMillin

Why is it that so many poets seem to have tragic lives plagued with mental illness and misery? Maybe a certain amount of suffering is necessary to truly scour the depths of human experience and give it back to us transformed. Whatever the case, Robert Frost had suffering to spare – a brutish undependable father, a mother worn away from stress and poverty, isolation, irrational fears, mysterious health problems, a tortuous love life, low self esteem, failure and the untimely death of two of his children. It seems a high price to pay for becoming a poet, even a beloved one, but Frost couldn’t deny his calling.

He was born in the rough frontier city of San Francisco in 1874. His father, Will, a brilliant but reckless Harvard graduate, fled to California to get away from his own strict Puritan parents. He became a newspaper reporter with hopes for a career in politics. But Will was unpopular, humorless and a scoundrel. He cheated on his wife, gambled and had constant problems with alcohol and violence.

Young Robert was devoted to his father and often accompanied him on walks around town to cover news stories. Even with his father’s strict discipline and unpredictable bursts of violence, Robert still hoped to win his affections. But it wasn’t long before the son became disillusioned with his unscrupulous and selfish father.

In contrast, Robert’s mother Belle was very sensitive and gentle. She protected, spoiled and pampered Robert as much as she could. She escaped her unhappy circumstances by her devotion to religion. She had been raised a Presbyterian in Scotland, but became a Unitarian, then a Swedenborgian. She was considered queer and dreamy by those who knew her and even her son later questioned her mental health. When his father whipped him, Belle would drop to her knees in the next room to pray for mercy.

She used the poor example of his father’s violence and drunkenness to encourage Robert to control his will and feelings. He did to some extent – he was not reckless, and always avoided smoking and drinking – but he had trouble controlling his emotions.

Belle read lots of Bible stories to Robert and his little sister Jeannie. She loved to read aloud to them: James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown’s Schooldays, George MacDonald’s stories At the Back of the North Wind and The Princess and the Goblin, and Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island. She passed on her Scottish heritage by reading Walter Scott’s The Tale of a Grandfather, Jane Porter’s The Scottish Chiefs, and the poetry of Robert Burns and Walter Scott.

Robert claimed he did not read a book for himself until he was a teen but through his mother’s reading, he acquired an ear for dialect and was especially sensitive to the sounds of words. His mother noticed that he seemed to learn best by ear. He also claims to have heard voices as a child which deeply troubled him. He could not understand the voices and tried to cover his ears and bury his head in a chair to stop them. Later he wondered if those voices could help him with his poetry.

He suffered from numerous health problems as a child and was not very strong, although he often used this excuse to get out of unpleasant duties (even as an adult). The boy was terrified of the dark and had frequent nightmares – another problem that would persist into adulthood.

Unfortunately, his father died of tuberculosis when Robert was 11 and his family was left destitute. Belle decided to move her family back to New England and return her husband’s body to his family in Massachusetts. The austere Frost grandparents temporarily took Belle and the children in, but they were not welcome. They blamed Belle for their son’s failures and resented the children, so Belle wasted no time trying to find work as a teacher.

Robert and his sister began attending his mother’s school of 34 students. Robert was behind the other 12 year olds, so Belle worked hard to get him caught up. This is when he apparently first read a book for himself, The Scottish Chiefs. He seems to have caught the spirit of learning during this time, and in just two and a half years was ready for high school.

When Rob entered Lawrence High School in 1888, he chose the classical curriculum, which would prepare him for college. This entailed Latin, Greek, ancient and European history and mathematics. By the end of the first year he was head of his class of 32 students. He disapproved of his teacher’s methods but was glad to have the thorough grounding. The Latin instructor “taught Homer and Virgil for the grammar merely. She never told us that this was great literature. I used to resent this . . . [But] she taught me at least to read the Latin poets in the original and I could come to them later and discover their greatness for myself.”

Here is where he first started reading and writing poetry – Shelley, Keats, Poe and Arnold. In his senior year he became editor of the High School Bulletin and graduated at the top of his class.

But his promising academic career ended with an early departure from Dartmouth College. Robert was morose, apathetic and lonely without his mother. The other pupils were far more interested in drunken bouts of hazing than study. He had discovered Palgrave’s anthology of poetry, The Golden Treasury, and wanted nothing more than to wander in the woods reading and composing poems. But leaving college meant leaving any hope of a career and the harsh disapproval of his grandparents in Lawrence. He later wrote, “A cloud of puzzlement hung over me as an obstinate, indecisive young fool.”

He had a vague dream of becoming a poet but did not know how to make any money at it. Over the years, he took various jobs farming and teaching, got married, tried college again at Harvard (but didn’t like Harvard any better than Dartmouth), read quantities of books and wrote his poetry.

When a poem came to him he had to drop everything and write it down. When his poem, “My Butterfly” came to him, he locked the kitchen door and refused to let anyone in until he was finished. This was published before he was 20 years old but was not able to publish again until he was 40.

Until that time, and perhaps for the rest of his life, he felt like a failure. Despite his sense of humor and witty conversation, Frost always had problems with his self-esteem. He was very touchy and sensitive to criticism. The poet was very cautious of his own secrets and personal tragedies. He was also a poor loser – he enjoyed playing tennis and baseball but his friends always let him win for fear of his temper.

Frost is noted for teaching his own four children at home. He taught the children botany and astronomy. His wife Elinor taught geography, reading, writing and spelling. Robert did not believe in using textbooks and instead took his children on long walks and read great books to them. Some of his favorites were: The Odyssey, Robinson Crusoe, Walden, Poe’s Tales, The Oxford Book of English Verse, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Jungle Book, and Emerson’s Essays and Poems.

Like his own father, Robert was not good at showing affection, but he did love his children and try to do his best. He did not whip them but enforced discipline by confining the children in closets and pinching them. Perhaps for lack of a better role model, he was overbearing and controlling, and his children were always somewhat afraid of him. They resented him even as adults.

Robert Frost is a famous proponent of h
ome schooling but his life probably offers us more lessons about what not to do as parents. There is no doubt that he was a brilliant, talented poet and a gifted conversationalist. He received many awards and honorary degrees in his later years – which he never tired of. His fragile self esteem craved recognition. One wonders what he might have accomplished if his father had loved him properly – maybe more, maybe less. But then he might have been a happier man and a better father to his own children.

Long walks, great books, life experience and a thorough study of Latin classics may have been Frost’s prescription for a good education. But in his case, a good education did not include the best mental or emotional health. This might be a prerequisite for poets, but not for parents.

Sources:

Gould, Jean. Robert Frost: The Aim Was Song. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company,
1964.

Meyers, Jeffrey. Robert Frost: A Biography. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.