Too much to deal with
Do you need help to contemplate the universe?
Last week our tutoring consultant set up his telescope in a park not far from home, the same one he used for the solar eclipse in 2017. This time he intended to show his neighbors some things in the night sky, Jupiter and Mars and the first-quarter Moon, all on display then. While putting parts together and making adjustments, he became aware of a young man nearby sitting on a bollard gazing up at the sky. It came out that our tutor’s companion was contemplating the universe, amazed by its vastness and many things he was not quite articulate enough to express. He was treated to telescopic views of the two planets and the Moon; he described the latter as “the best Christmas present ever.”
This is very gratifying, and we heartily approve of being amazed by the universe. It turned out that he had been led to this view by something on his phone, a feed or an app, describing what was to be seen and something about its background. It was pretty clear he did not understand much of it. He simply lacked the basic tools to make sense of the vast amount of advanced science effortlessly available in his hand.
Later, our tutor was reminded of one of his students, studying (among other things) AP World History. She had immediately gotten on his good side by complaining about the way the course was taught. The textbook dismisses the Renaissance in two pages, and she was not getting anywhere near what she was looking for about the course of art and thought in those years. Of course she could google “Renaissance,” but that would only call down a flood of web pages that she lacked any way of sorting through. Our tutor suggested the old TV series Civilisation, which (as it turns out) is readily available in several forms. It’s a tour through Western history since about Charlemagne, concentrating on art, but using it to illustrate the idea of Civilization more generally. It is the personal view of the originator and narrator, Kenneth Clark, and so does not always match someone else’s ideas on the same subjects. But he is an excellent guide to making some sense of an otherwise confusing mass of information.
We concluded that what each learner needs, in this age of overwhelming information, is a guide. Classroom teachers are, of course, the primary set of guides for their subjects; as are tutors like ours. But the restraints imposed by AP courses, standardized tests and syllabus requirements restrict what can be covered and left out, and it’s hard to make clear what is a personal opinion and not testable. In addition, what can we do about learners outside the classroom?
Maybe a guide isn’t necessary if one only wants to contemplate the universe. And, unfortunately, an hour in the darkness at a riverside park isn’t going to give a young man enough to make sense of modern astronomy. But we can hope he does find a guide somewhere.
