Light Travels Faster than the Days before Christmas

I don't know if observations like this led to Einstein's quantum theory or his theory of relativity, but I do know that all the observations he made before he bothered to begin talking led to his later work.
At a presentation by James Costa, when he was discussing his new book, Darwin's Backyard; How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory, which includes DIY experiments kids could do, a member of the audience asked him if he thought experiments came before theory or vice versa. Acknowledging, it was a bit like the chicken and the egg, he said he thought observation and curiosity probably came first.

This got me thinking about what has happened in the Middle East since the Arab Spring in 2011. On the nightly news, I well remember seeing a smiling Secretary of State Hillary Clinton surrounded by smiling Egyptian faces in Tahrir Square then. Just as vividly, I remember Mrs. Clinton responding, during her presidential campaign of 2016, to a Congressional committee blaming her for U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens' death in Benghazi, Libya. Curious about what changes took place between 2011 and 2016, I looked for answers in Steven A. Cook's book, False Dawn.

Members of the administration of George W. Bush initially saw the Arab uprisings in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia as confirmation of the wisdom of 2003's invasion, Operation Iraqi Freedom. Historical observation could have predicted the Middle East had not been waiting for a foreign intervention and occupation to bring democracy to the region. Even so, once protesters overthrew the "stable" authoritarian regimes U.S. policy traditionally supported, U.S. administrations continued to believe they should be involved in the democratization of the Middle East. If for no other reason, Washington continued to provide economic, political, diplomatic, and military support to countries allied with its U.S. interests there.

The trouble with trying to bring democracy to the Middle East is, as observation shows, the region has no Magna Carta tradition nor a political-philosophical underpinning of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. What it does have is a legacy of pan-Arabism expansion, the Muslim religion, authoritarian systems supported by fear, and tribal fragmentation. Instead of democracy reaching the Middle East, maybe  observation could have told the world to expect terrorists and social media to push an Arab-Muslim agenda West?

Given the actual situation in the Middle East, how could a New Year's Resolution to use curiosity and new observations come up with ways to satisfy the peaceful desires of people, not only in the Middle East, but throughout the world? In what ways could travel, technologies, new roles of women as entrepreneurs and politicians, education, natural and man-made disasters, and medical advances foster peaceful changes?

How Can Girls and Boys Discover Their Worth?

I was in the elevator with a girl of 4 or 5 years old who asked her mother, "Why is that there?" She was referring to a little board book, about 4" x 4", that I could barely see in the folds of her younger sister's stroller. (Her mother said she forgot to put the book away before they left.)

     This incident reminded me how we all have different strengths and talents. What can help a child in any country, who speaks any language, learn what she or he can contribute to the world probably better than anyone else? Consider the kindergarten teacher who helped her students learn numbers and addition by asking each child to draw a number and either draw or find pictures that made a combination of objects that equaled that number. When the number pictures were hung on the wall in numerical order, the children sat on the floor and talked about what they saw. While one student observed two red scissors and three blue scissors had been used to illustrate the number five, another said the handles of four of the scissors pointed left and the handle of the other scissors pointed right. These keen observers (and future mathematicians) had discovered five could be the sum of 2 + 3 or 4 + 1. Parents can see if their children are keen observers who can add up the number of items that go into a salad, their lunch bags, or a grocery basket at the market.

     Teachers discover keen observers (and students with writing talent), when they ask their classes to write mini-memoirs about significant moments in their pasts. Directing young people to focus on the influences on their lives is a technique that can lead to valuable insights about their personal interests and their future career options.

(An earlier blog post, "Resolve to Help Kids Observe Their World," suggests some of the observations future scientists might make.)

   

Resolve to Help Kids Observe Their World

While I was picking up pine needles in the kitchen this morning, I knew our cat had brought them there on her feet from our Christmas tree in the living room. Observing this phenomena I thought how this kind of observation would illustrate, not just tell, kids how animals and birds around the world help spread seeds and bees provide the necessary function of pollinating the world's crops. (See the earlier blog post, "The Bees and the Birds.")

    Next time we go to an art museum, I mused, I should help kids observe why the light and subject matter in Italian paintings is different from that in British and Japanese ones.

     Watching a nature program on TV and taking a walk present opportunities to ask if Mexican children know what eagles are and if Chinese children have ever seen squirrels. (See the earlier blog post, "Talk with the Animals.")

     While I was waiting to pick up my granddaughter at school, I noticed how it was possible to see different wind currents by watching the way furnace smoke coming out of the school at roof level some times moved forcefully, but, at the same time, about twelve feet lower in front of the school, flags were moving very little. (See the earlier blog post, "Climate Control.")

     Seems there's a great many reasons to LOOK forward to 2015.