August 16, 2019 Friday
Bedtime Story
Bowditch got Support of Charles William Eliot
And with all these items in his pocket
Bowditch satisfactorily returned to Harvard to set up the first physiological
laboratory of the United States somewhere in 1872.
It was nothing like a typical laboratory
that you would find today at the Harvard, MIT or Johns Hopkins but a very
modest one in the attic rooms of the Harvard building with the apparatuses that
Bowditch had managed to haul back from Leipzig.
Bowditch with the opening of this
laboratory in the 1870s represented initiation of New Education that was
espoused by the then President of Harvard Charles William Eliot.
Charles William Eliot was scion of the
famous and wealthy Eliot Family of Boston who had their roots in Britain and who
was elected as the President of Harvard in 1869.
Eliot went on to serve this position till
1909 which is a tenure record that no one since has beaten or equaled.
He was truly an exceptional man in one
sense - not that he was talented or mathematically gifted or an exceptionally
bright student – he was obsessed about all aspects of education and how to
deliver it effectively.
It comes as entrancing to my mind to see a
man born with silver spoon in his mouth and who was son of a politician (Samuel
Eliot was the member of Massachusetts House of Representatives and mayor of
Boston) and grandson of a banker (Samuel Eliot was the President of the
Massachusetts Bank) and who received elitist education to be interested in the
nuances of education system and its benefits to the society and nation.
I would expect such a man in today’s world
to be obsessed with his own self indulging in extreme forms of narcissistic
behavior hardly giving two hoots for his society.
At the age of 29 while he was an assistant
professor of mathematics and chemistry at Harvard he left his job and country
and took money left by his father and spent two years studying the educational
system in the European Empires.
In 1863 when he left for Europe he looked
at education systems at all levels from all possible perspectives – not just
confining to the top universities or research-level graduations unlike say Abraham Flexner and Oswald Veblen
the co-founders of Advanced Institute of Mathematics - which would be the usual
way one would go about.
He went to schools, carefully noted their
methods of instructions, the physical and logistical means by which the
Europeans raised and educated their children.
He sought the relationship that existed, if
any, between education and economic growth of society.
There had to be a reason why some European
Empires – notably the French, German and the British – were economic
powerhouses.
Just see what he wrote of his observation
from such a study:
“I have given special attention to the
schools here provided for the education of young men for those arts and trades
which require some knowledge of scientific principles and their applications,
the schools which turn out master workmen, superintendents, and designers for
the numerous French industries which demand taste, skill, and special technical
instruction.”
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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