provocative opinion On the Importance of Being Passionate Rubin Battho Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435 The public image of a scientist involves two incompatible views. In the first, a scientist is a cold, calculating, sane, rational, systematic, skeptical, and exacting person who behaves as unemotionally as possible. In the second view, we have the "mad" scientist who is irrational, hyperemotional, eccentric, brilliant (of course!), and yet somehow also includes most of the characteristics of the sane scientist. "Serious" scientisrs like to project the first image, and scriptwriters the second. A serious scientist is just not as interesting as a "mad" one. There is one element of the mad scientist's makeup that all really serious scientists possess, and that is passion. The intent of this essay is to convince you to show that passion in ways that will enhance your teaching and the nrofession. Two autobiographical/anecdotalbooks by the late physicist Richard P. F e ~ n m a n ' ,are ~ now on the best seller lists. He certainly was a serious scientishafter all, he won the Nobel ~ r i z efor his research. BY all accounts, he was a remarkably effective and popular~lecturer.I maintain that he was so good a lecturer because he was willing to share his passion for physics. He got emotional publicly about the suhject (which is something no really serious scientist would do!). His lectures were personal and involved his feelings and his life. If you want a dry presentation, then read the textbook. But, you object, I am not Richard Feynman. I am only .lai in.. old. ~ l o d d i n eme. I get aid to "cover" the syllabus, not t o h a v i a public catharsis. just leave me alone. Think hack over those teachers who had an impact on your life. Were they the ones who drily recited that day's chemical catechism, or were they willing to risk showing their passions for the subject? Teachers are models. If you model dust, then that is what your students will taste. If you model a passionate excitement about your suhject, life, the
world around you, students as individual and unique people, then those emotions, feelings, and views will be transmitted. Why are youateacher? Why are youachemist? Why are you a teacher of chemistry? If the answers do not involve a passionate attachment t o the subject and the vocation, then you should resign and go work in some dusty laboratory by yourself. Think back. What turned you on to chemistry and ;hat caught your imagination? ~ e l i v your e personal eicitement and share it. If this did not occur for you, then imagine i t occurring now, and let your passion expand to match your imagination. Share your passion. Still. vou obiect. I've never done this before. I know I will feel fodiish a d awkward. Thatbright. You will. Think hack to the confusion and awkwardness of learnine to drive a car. Do you even think consciously about drivingnow? The road t o feeling comfortable about passionate teaching goes through some awkward and difficult turns. Practice. Not only will you like it, but your students will, too. You will be a more effective teacher since you will be dealing with both the cognitive and affective aspects of chemistry. Demonstrations are an effective and safe vehicle for demonstrating your involvement with the subject as well as illustrating the material. It is my personal hope that this essay printed in such a "respectahle"journa1 will give you the permission to teach passionately. Besides, passionate teachers and their students have more fun.
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Feynman, R. P. Surely You're Joklng, Mr. Feynman: Norton: New York. 1984. ~eynman,R. P. What Do You Care What Giher People Thlnk Norton: New York, 1988.
Volume 87
Number 11 November 1990
945
