26 Feb 2006
A Diamond on the Net

I use the Net pretty extensively: looking for information, reading the news, getting directions and generally finding things of interest. One of my favorite pastimes, while sitting in the Comfy Chair in the library, is to go to Wikipedia and select a random page. Google has also provided hours of amusement - try searching for 'Images' on a search term you've entered while seeking text. You'll be surprised at what's out there ...

Anyway, I was just randomly surfing about last evening, looking for a fish graphic I could use to illustrate an article I've got growing in my head, when I stumbled across this, a graduation speech to the class of 1998 by George Gollin, a physics professor at UIUC. Not only it it a fine piece of writing, I daresay that if I'd made it to college on a regular basis, and had a physics prof like Dr. Gollin, I would've ended up as a physicist. Some people are natural teachers, and from this bit, I think it's obvious that Gollin is among them.

He seems to be a couple of years older than I am, and his litany of problems from the sixties and seventies are the same as I remember: we were certain to die in a radioactive cloud of nuclear annihilation, after all. The perspective he gives to these "Gordian knots" is inspiring, to say the least. The true object of education is to provide some rudimentary experience to the student, and then to provide the student with the tools to use that and other life experience to fully engage with the world in a meaningful way. Gollin accomplishes this goal with positive style. Read the whole thnig - you won't be disappointed.

And if I'd not been searching for a fish picture, I never would've found it ...

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