They Should Have Sent a Poet

Golf is a challenging game, but the perfectly hit shot, one that causes the ball to explode from the sweet spot of the club face, is one of the most satisfying and exhilarating of feelings.  No one needs to write one more piece about how challenging teaching is.  The internet is filled with such articles.  But when everything comes together in a day of stunning academic experience and student ability on display, that needs to be shared and celebrated.

To The Stars Through Antiquity

Apollo 1 Exhibit at Kennedy Space Center

Ad astra per aspera.  To the stars through difficulties.  The path to the stars has indeed been a difficult and a long one, perhaps longer than many realize, stretching back as it does to the age of classical antiquity.  We recently completed a unit in our Latin II classes that saw our high school students reading selections from Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero about space, along with parts of the first science fiction novel, True History, written by Lucian of Samosata in the second century A.D.  To get the full story on this unit, which saw students translating and discussing ancient works on outer space, being introduced to ancient technology through the Antikythera Mechanism and ancient mathematics through the calculation of the earth's circumference by Eratosthenes, and exploring the music of the spheres with NASA's discovery of the sound of black holes and the classical music of Gustav Holst, check out our short documentary.

One part of the unit about which I was particularly excited came at the end.  After three weeks of deep study in ancient readings on space, our students met a friend of mine via Zoom.  Neil Jenkins and I go back to first grade in our friendship, but I did not bring him in for us to discuss our fondness for '80s music and Miami Vice.  He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Alabama and is an amateur astrophotographer, although you should not let the title "amateur" mislead you into thinking his work is second rate.  

IC 1805 The Heart Nebula in the Constellation Cassiopeia
Event Horizon Astrophotography (c) 2021

The Great Orion Nebula M42
Event Horizon Astrophotography (c) 2022

He talked with the students about quantum physics, laser physics, and astrophotography, along with how his Christian faith and work as a scientist fit perfectly together.  When students were asking for his email, asking me for copies of his slides, and staying after class to discuss further the wonders of space, I knew this had been a meaningful event.

Duces Discipuli Facti

As soon as the last bell of the day had rung, another small group of students came to the room for a leadership meeting about a Latin club event.  My intent was to let them handle everything, and I doubt I could have added much that afternoon anyway.  My mind and heart were already too full from the Zoom class with Dr. Jenkins.  As it turned out, I was not needed.  These student officers led with such efficiency they could have given a lesson to many adults.  They worked together, listened to each other's ideas, yet did not become stuck in the mire of indecision.  Just when I thought my heart could take no more of being impressed with students, I was overwhelmed by their display of leadership skills.  In Book 1 of the Aeneid, Vergil describes Queen Dido by saying, dux femina facti, the leader of the deed was a woman.  In this case, the leaders of the deed were students, and I could have offered nothing that would have made their work better.  On the drive home, I called my wife and more or less babbled.  I could not find the words to describe these extraordinary young people and was reminded of the a scene in Contact, the 1997 movie featuring Jodie Foster as Dr. Ellie Arroway, who takes a trip through a wormhole to another part of the universe.  Stupefied at what she sees, all she can say is that instead of a scientist, they should have sent a poet.

Life's Rich Pageant

For many people, the phrase "life's rich pageant" is familiar because it is the title of R.E.M.'s fourth album, although it has a much longer history.  I reach for that phrase often, for it captures perfectly what is my typical experience of the academic and educational life.  Have I known the sorts of stories that are driving so many people out of the education profession?  I have, but they have never been the norm.  When given the opportunity, young people will astonish with the depth of their thought and their ability to do something with it, and I saw that once again just the other day.

Update

Two weeks after publishing this post, I came across an amazing, new discovery.  The star catalogue of Hipparchus, long thought to have been lost, has been discovered, in part, as a palimpsest at an Egyptian monastery.  The following images are from the article about this amazing find in the Journal for the History of Astronomy.

Detail of f. 53v, beginning of the first column of undertext (Syriac overtext in dark brown, and faint traces of a few letters of the undertext).

Courtesy Museum of the Bible Collection. All rights reserved. © Museum of the Bible, 2021.

Detail of f. 53v (multispectral image, by the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library and the Lazarus Project of the University of Rochester processed by Keith T. Knox: the enhanced Greek undertext appears in red below the Syriac overtext in black).

Courtesy Museum of the Bible Collection. All rights reserved. © Museum of the Bible, 2021.

Detail of f. 53v (yellow tracings based on full set of multispectral images).

Courtesy Museum of the Bible Collection. All rights reserved. © Museum of the Bible, 2021.

An excellent article in Nature puts this amazing discovery into context.  As we continue to learn more about the ancient world, we also find new ways to combine modern technology with fields of study such as archaeology, linguistics, philology, science, and more.  Putting together a passion for classical studies, computer imaging, and astronomy, for example, can lead to an exciting career, and as the Roman playwright Terence once wrote, "Homo sum:  humani nil a me alienum puto."  "I am a human being:  I think nothing human alien to me."  (Heuton Timorumenos, 77)

The Human Desire To Know

Elisha Ballantine was a professor of mathematics, modern languages, and ancient Greek at Indiana University and was its acting president in 1884.

I have countless times passed the plaque that honors him in the building that bears his name, but was struck when I saw it again on a recent visit.  He was a professor of mathematics and Greek.  In today's age of specialization, this would be an oddity to say the least.  A professor of Greek and Latin, of course.  A professor of mathematics and computer science, quite possibly.  But mathematics and Greek?

This put me in mind of a former teacher at New Albany High School, my alma mater.  You have no doubt heard of Edwin Hubble and the telescope that bears his name, but did you know that he taught high school physics, mathematics, and Spanish...yes, Spanish...in 1913?  He also coached the boys' basketball team.

And speaking of sports, these men reminded me of famed golfer Bobby Jones.  In 1922 he earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, in 1924 his A.B. in English literature, and after only three semesters of law school begun in 1926 passed the Georgia bar exam and practiced law in Atlanta.

Mathematics and Greek.  Spanish and physics.  Engineering and literature.  There was a time when people pursued a variety of studies.  This not to say that everyone of a bygone era was a polymath, but I do find a certain kinship with those academic souls of yesteryear.  The world is vast, history is long, creation is complex, and humans have both discovered and contributed much to the unfolding wonder of it all.

When we make education nothing more than training for gainful employment, we miss a great deal.  In fact, we miss almost everything.  Yes, a stick in a forest can help make the fire that keeps me warm through the night, but the forest itself, with its symphony of sounds and the towering columns of its arboreal cathedral that seem to support its stellar dome, is worth beholding in its own right.  And while it is true that the quiet contemplation of the evening nature scene now in your head could inspire you toward an act of creativity, the composition of a poem, perhaps, or a work of painting or photography, there is something more to be gained from the experience.  Simply put, it nourishes the soul.

So it is with true education.  It may equip students for a task or an occupation.  It may provide them with the skills necessary to produce any manner of art, both for service and for art's sake itself.  At its core, however, it need serve no other purpose than fulfilling the human desire to know.