Brilliantly Simple

I love Richard Feynman, and I think I love his father even more. If only moreparents took the time to teach their children how to notice things andappreciate them and understand them the way he did maybe there would be lesspressure on teachers to be the ultimate authority on the way we view andperceive the world. Even if more teachers were willing to approach their subjectmatter this way, rather than sticking to a dry, state-mandated curriculum withlittle room to explore and wonder, we could surely reach new levels ofachievement in our fundamentally flawed education system. Teaching a child toappreciate the aesthetic as well as the scientific beauty of a flower, how tofind physics in the simple fun of watching the ball roll back and forth in yourwagon, embracing and promoting the awe and wonder that we carry as a childrather than deeming it a waste of time and encouraging them to look at the blackand white of the matter and grow up already.I really appreciated Feynman's observation of the important difference betweenknowing the name of something and knowing something. What a simply brilliant(and briliiantly simple) way of explaining how education, and life in general,should be approached! There have been so many times in my life when my thirstfor knowledge has gone unquenched because the answers were simply not goodenough. I always wanted to know more, rarely caring if it was what I wanted tohear or not. Feynman's discussion of calculus reminded me of my Senior yearcalculus class when I asked the teacher why a certain formula brought about aparticular result and her answer turned me off to calculus completely, she saidthere is no why, we just memorize the formulas because that is the way to findthe answer. Well, that did it. I just could not grasp the concept of somethingso concrete not having a reason. I understand that some things can never fullybe known but I usually reserve those few exceptions for arguments about theuniverse and life and death and the quest for meaning.