Books
Einstein: His Life and Universe
A number of 8th grade boys in our recent focus groups on algebra education told us that Albert Einstein was an intriguing historical figure, someone they’d like to know better.
We understand why Einstein has such enduring charisma and appeal for middle-school math students today – more than half a century after his death.
First of all, it’s true – he was a genius. When he was in school, Einstein could actually visualize equations. The German-born physicist could look at complex numbers and variables, for example, and immediately understand what it felt like to ride alongside a light wave.
But Einstein was also an intellectual rebel as a young man – an independent thinker who refused to cram his brains and scientific creativity inside a box. As a result, he constantly defied teachers and school authorities by thumbing his nose at conventional technical wisdom. Obviously, he saw what others could not see on the blackboard. He also skipped formal classes to study on his own. He barely passed his exams, and this came back to haunt him when he was initially denied teaching jobs.
None of us is an Einstein – so we don’t endorse this learning style. But in retrospect, it was Einstein’s contempt for established thinking that allowed him to challenge Isaac Newton’s long-held concept of space and time and come up with his path-breaking theories of relativity.
The lesson for 8th grade students today, though, is that thinking your own thoughts is a good thing; inventing and creating are healthy, constructive and purposeful; and questioning (respectfully) helps gain valuable insight and knowledge. In short, the sky is the limit – we just have to stretch our minds to get there and, like Einstein, go where others haven’t yet been.
Many books talk about Einstein’s extraordinary scientific theorems. But Einstein – the man – has been elusive. That is changing, thanks to the recent publication of Walter Isaacson’s wonderful biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe. Based on Einstein’s previously unavailable personal correspondence, this richly textured book portrays the genius as a real person – as a husband, father and friend – as well as a thinker.
After reading Isaacson, you realize that even the most exceptional minds have hearts. More importantly, you recognize that being the smartest person in the world doesn’t necessarily make you the best person in the world. Yes, Isaacson is open and objective about Einstein’s all-too-human emotional limitations. And that gives this biography a sense of greatness – greatness that a towering figure like Einstein surely deserves.
There is also a DVD on Einstein that is well worth watching. NOVA: Einstein’s Big Idea, starring John Lithgow, guides us through the scientist’s life as reflected in his private papers and shows us a gentle man of turbulent emotions and strong feelings. NOVA’s two-hour documentary is the perfect complement to the Isaacson book because it shows Einstein’s extraordinary rise from a student who flunked his engineering exams to the world’s most venerated physicist.
Both Isaacson and the NOVA DVD make it clear that Einstein’s ultimate and overriding passion was to “glimpse the order that lies hidden in nature.” This single-minded and lifelong quest defined the scientist; it also inspired him to exceptional intellectual heights.
In the end, there is much in Einstein’s brilliant life that can instruct us as we go about our business and try to make sense of things in our own personal universe. The 8th grade boys in our focus groups were right.
Author Walter Isaacson
