Self-education

While I’m a big fan of formalized education (having been in school for 24 years now–yikes), I think it’s equally important to know how to teach yourself about the things that interest you.  Therefore, at any given time, I’m reading one or two non-fiction books about topics that interest me.  Currently, I’m reading two of them:  Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen and Ever Since Darwin by Stephen J. Gould.

Lies is a book about American history.  The author (a historian) surveyed some of the most popular high school American history textbooks and wrote about the many inaccuracies found in those books.  It can be a bit depressing to read, though–not just because kids are being taught inaccurate information about American history–but because inevitably the inaccuracies are centered around sugar-coating events in American history.  So, mostly, I’m reading about the dark side of American history, so to speak.

Ever Since Darwin is a collection of essays about evolution written by Stephen J. Gould.  I have mostly shied away from blogging about evolution because it seems as though no other topic can bring the trolls and fanatics to your blog faster than talking about evolution (unless it’s talking about the need to improve the situation for women in science) and I just don’t need that kind of tsoris.  However, my blog is pretty low traffic, so I’m hoping it won’t be too much of a problem if I talk a little about my impressions while reading this book (this may be ridiculously naive of me, but I’m going to go ahead with it anyway).

I first read Ever Since Darwin about 8 years ago (just before I started grad school) and I’ve pretty much forgotten everything I read with a few exceptions.  This is not so much a statement about the material or the writing, but more of a statement about my ability to remember anything I have not specifically decided to commit to memory or taken notes about.  However, given the current trend of challenging the teaching of evolution in our schools, and being a scientist who is very interested in public science education, it seems to me that I should probably know more about the intricacies of the theory of evolution than I currently do.  Therefore, the last time I was in California (which is where the vast majority of my book collection resides, along with my husband), I tucked Ever Since Darwin in my carry-on and have been reading a bit at a time, making notes in the margins and in the space left at the ends of essays (note to self:  if ever I write a non-fiction book, try to make sure there’s at least half a page of blank space at the end of each chapter for people to make notes–and wide margins).  The fact that the book consists of relatively short essays is a bonus for me at this stage in my life because I rarely have solid chunks of time in which to read.  With this book, whenever my brain doesn’t feel like it’s about to blow a fuse (which, sadly, is not very often), I can read an essay and take a couple of notes without needing to make a huge investment in time.  So far, I have only read the introduction and about three essays in the first section.  Sometime soon, I hope to write a little about what I thought about those essays.  Stay tuned.