[X] My Assistant

[karolp]

Hi all,

I guess that issue may be considered part of space policy as it is often where future astronomers and astronauts may first encounter the topic of what is "out there" and become fond of it. Also, it spreads a general knowledge of basic things like causes of day and night, seasons and other things where astronomy and earthly matters meet. I am very curious what it is like where you live in. In Poland astronomy used to be a regular subject at school around the time of the golden space era of the 1960s, then was degraded to becoming part of physics classes in the 1980s and driven completely out of school curricula around now. So, what are you opinions on that? Is astronomy still taught at school where you live? Should it be taught at school at all?

Regards,

Karol P.

[dvandorn]

You know, I was in grade school 46 to 40 years ago, so I don't have the clearest memories of exactly what kinds of science I was taught way back then. However, I do recall an event...

My brother was in 3rd grade and I was in 1st grade. My brother's class was doing its science lessons, and his teacher, Mrs. Ambrose, asked the class if anyone knew why the Moon had phases. My brother, a bright child and as interested in matters extraterrestrial as I was, raised his hand and proudly explained about how it (the Moon, not his hand) orbits around the Earth, always showing us its same face, and as it went around, its aspect to the Sun changed and so we saw different portions of it in illumination.

Mrs. Ambrose scolded him in front of class, told him he was wrong, and told the class that the Moon shows different phases because its distance from Earth changes as it orbits.

My brother got suspended from school because he stood his ground and told his teacher that she was wrong. In front of the class. The suspension was lifted and the teacher was disciplined (thankfully, was "retired" from her position after that school year) when my parents went to the school's principal and could (and did) demonstrate that even my brother's little kid brother (me), only in first grade, knew the subject better than their teacher did.

All I can really recall in my early space education is that when I was about eight or nine years old, I had read every single book in my school library and every single book in my public library's children's section. My parents went with me to the public library and talked them into giving me an "adult" library card, which you supposedly had to be 16 years old to be granted. I browsed through most of the subjects, but gravitated to the space books. By 1966 or so I had read every single book in my public library on astronomy, geology, meteorology and physics, as well as every scrap of science fiction available... When I entered high school, I was lucky enough to attend the local university's laboratory high school, so I not only gained access to the high school's library, I gained access to the university's library, as well.

Sometime in the middle of high school, I hit puberty really hard and it hit back just as hard -- but the upshot was that my interests widened (read: girls), and I sort of slowed down in my voracious reading. I stopped reading everything just for the sake of reading it, and concentrated more on new materials on space exploration. And, as I grew, got an education, started working and got a "life", even my reading on space topics slowed.

This is partially why I have this vast storehouse of information (some of it quite trivial) about astronomy, geology, and many other subjects, but much of the basis of that knowledge is a little dated. I've kept somewhat up to date in the physical sciences, and very up to date in space exploration (and only somewhat less in geology), but the vast amount of data I acquired as a child, that forms most of my knowledge base, is, admittedly, 40-plus years from when I acquired it and was probably 5 to 50 years old when I first read it.

So, when some of my comments may seem to have outdated concepts, just remember that I'm almost entirely self-educated in science and technology, and much of that is based on the voracious reading I did as a child...

-the other Doug