Robert A. Heinlein quote

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From 101-280 comes a quote from R. A. H.'s Have Space Suit, Will Travel bq. ...Dad was around school a good bit the next few days, which worried me--when parents get overactive they are always up to something. bq. The following Saturday evening Dad called me into his study. He had a stack of textbooks on his desk and a chart of Centerville High School's curriculum, from American Folk Dancing to Life Sciences. Marked on it was my course, not only for that semester but for junior and senior years the way my faculty advisor and I had planned it. bq. Dad stared at me like a gentle grasshopper and said mildly, "Kip, do you intend to go to college?" bq. "Huh? Why, certainly, Dad!" bq. "With what?" bq. I hesitated. I knew it cost money. While there had been times when dollar bills spilled out of the basket onto the floor, usually it wouldn't take long to count what was in it. "Uh, maybe I'll get a scholarship. Or I could work my way..." bq. He nodded. "No doubt...if you want to. Money problems can always be solved by a man not frightened by them. But when I said, 'With what?' I was talking about up here." He tapped his skull. bq. I simply stared. "Why, I'll graduate from high school, Dad. That'll get me into college." bq. "So it will. Into our State University, or the State Aggie, or State Normal. But, Kip, do you know that they are flunking out 40 per cent of each freshman class?" bq. "I wouldn't flunk!" bq. "Perhaps not. But you will if you tackle any serious subject--engineering, or science, or pre-med. You would, that is to say, if your preparation were based on this." bq. I felt shocked. "Why, Dad, Center is a swell school." I remembered things they had told us in P.T.A. Auxiliary. "It's run along the latest, most scientific lines, approved by psychologists, and--" bq. "--and paying excellent salaries," he interrupted, "for a staff highly trained in modern pedagogy. Study projects emphasize practical human problems to orient the child in democratic social living, to fit him for the vital, meaningful tests of adult life in our complex modern culture. Excuse me, son; I've talked with Mr. Hanley. Mr. Hanley is sincere--and to achieve those noble purposes we are spending more per student than is any other state save California and New York." bq. "Well...what's wrong with that?" bq. "What's a dangling participle?" bq. I didn't answer. He went on, "Why did Van Buren fail of re-election? How do you extract the cube root of eighty-seven?" bq. Van Buren had been a president; that was all I remembered. But I could answer the other one. "If you want a cube root, you look in the table in the back of the book." bq. Dad sighed. "Kip, do you think that table was brought down from on high by an archangel?" He shook his head sadly. "It's my fault, not yours. I should have looked into this years ago--but I had assumed, simply because you liked to read and were quick at figures and clever with your hands, that you were getting an education." bq. "You think I'm not?" bq. "I know you are not. Son, Centerville High is a delightful place, well equipped, smoothly administered, beautifully kept. Not a 'blackboard jungle,' oh, no!--I think you kids love the place. You should. But this--" Dad slapped the curriculum chart angrily. "Twaddle! Beetle tracking! Occupational therapy for morons!" bq. [...] bq. Dad switched me to algebra, Spanish, general science, English grammar and composition; the only thing unchanged was gym. I didn't have it too tough catching up; even those courses were watered down. Nevertheless, I started to learn, for Dad threw a lot of books at me and said, "Clifford, you would be studying these if you were not in overgrown kindergarten. If you soak up what is in them, you should be able to pass College Entrance Board Examinations. Possibly." bq. After that he left me alone; he meant it when he said that it was my choice. I almost bogged down--those books were hard, not the predigested pap I got in school. Anybody who thinks that studying Latin by himself is a snap should try it. bq. I got discouraged and nearly quit--then I got mad and leaned into it. After a while I found that Latin was making Spanish easier and vice versa. When Miss Hernandez, my Spanish teacher, found out I was studying Latin, she began tutoring me. I not only worked my way through Virgil, I learned to speak Spanish like a Mexican. bq. Algebra and plane geometry were all the math our school offered; I went ahead on my own with advanced algebra and solid geometry and trigonometry and might have stopped as far as College Boards were concerned--but math is worse than peanuts. Analytical geometry seems pure Greek until you see what they're driving at--then, if you know algebra, it bursts on you and you race through the rest of the book. Glorious! bq. I had to sample calculus and when I got interested in electronics I needed vector analysis. General science was the only science course the school had and pretty general it was, too--about Sunday supplement level. But when you read about chemistry and physics you want to do it, too. The barn was mine and I had a chem lab and a darkroom and an electronics bench and, for awhile, a ham station. Mother was perturbed when I blew out the windows and set fire to the barn--just a small fire--but Dad was not. He simply suggested that I not manufacture explosives in a frame building. Kind of current with today's educational problems...

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Thanks for linking DaybyDay,man!

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This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on January 3, 2004 1:20 AM.

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