Holy Curiosity

One day three years ago, white-maned Albert Einstein sat down at his desk in Princeton, N.J., thought a moment and then wrote in careful longhand: "Here I sit in order to write, at the age of 67, something like my own obituary."

Actually, it was the start of Einstein's autobiography, scheduled for publication next fall. This week, as he turned 70, he allowed a few excerpts--on his own education--rto be published.

He had had good teachers at the Polytechnic Academy in Zurich, Switzerland, but somehow, looking back, he was not satisfied. For one thing, he had not grasped the importance of mathematics soon enough: "I saw that mathematics was split into numerous specialties, each one of which could easily absorb the short lifetime granted us. Consequently, I saw myself in the position of Buridan's ass*. . . unable to decide . . ."

Physics was different. "I soon learned to scent out that which was able to lead to fundamentals and to turn aside from everything else." It was only much later, after years of independent scientific work, that he realized "that the approach to a more profound knowledge of the basic principles of physics is tied up with the most precise mathematical methods."

What bothered him even more was the prevailing idea that the important thing in education was preparing to pass exams.

"In justice," Einstein recalls, he might not have suffered so much as others from exams. He had to take only two in his whole time at the Polytechnic, and there were friends who could be counted on to attend all the lectures and keep conscientious record of the lecture points that freer spirits might otherwise have missed. Even so, it was bad enough:

"This coercion had such a deterring effect [upon me] that after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."

Unfortunately, says Einstein, the coercion has not lessened since he was a student. "It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom. Without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail."

*A hypothetical animal, credited to 14th Century French Philosopher Jean Buridan (and others), which suffered from the hypothetical dilemma of perfectly balanced but conflicting desires for two different piles of hay. Hypothetically, he starved to death.

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