Give Me Your Young

As many of you know, I have been accepted to teachers college. That thought alone doesn’t sound all that crazy, but let me rephrase it. One day I might be teaching physics to your little ones. Give that thought a moment to settle in, and if you’re anything like me, you might start feeling awkward.

You see, when I look at my reflection in my television (which is right beside my computer monitor; don’t worry, I don’t make it a habit to stare into the television when it’s off) I see a rather young guy, who finds himself not getting along with the rest of the world in its daily affaires. Is this ‘man’ to be responsible for shaping young minds?

As queasy as this makes me feel, I ‘m actually desperately excited to get a class of my own. I feel like I’ve been on a journey exploring the far reaches of the universe, and now I’ve come back, and there’s so much I have to share. I imagine many future teachers have this feeling, but I assume that most of them that have majored in physics worry that most of their knowledge can never be shared with teenagers. After all, how can I have a meaningful discussion about the use of perturbation theory in quantum mechanics with a high school student.

However, coming to the end of my undergraduate education, I’ve learned that many of the most interesting aspects about our world can be understood with very little formal education. Much of it is still difficult to grasp, but the mathematics is usually not needed.

The significance of this cannot be overstated, as I won’t be able to make it as a teacher if I don’t believe that I’m sharing truly interesting information with my students. Granted, I won’t be able to teach about everything and anything, but I feel that it is my responsibility to motivate people through the beauty of physics.

For now, that’s all I’m going to write about teaching. Clearly I’ve avoided talking about where I’m going to teachers college, but that is a conversation that will need its own post.