What’s the implication of a story wrongly retold?
You’ve probably heard the motivational story of Einstein, aimed often at inspiring ‘underachievers’. Despite the German’s earnest efforts, we’re told he did not do well in his Mathematics exams and that he struggled desperately with Physics. Turns out Einstein was mathematically astute and was better at arithmetic and calculus at age 12 than most undergraduates. Einstein was so smart that he believed school was constraining him, and so his parents obliged him by buying him advanced textbooks for his personal study. Not only did he pass Mathematics in flying colours, he was actually known to be teaching his colleagues after regular teaching sessions. If Einstein was poor at a subject, it was in languages and other non-science subjects! Continue reading “Keeping in step”