This passage is a quote by Vance that is on page 88, it is a story about why he lost his motivation to participate. “I never liked chemistry or physics or anything, but one day I brought in a Stephen Hawking book on the history of the universe–I asked the teacher about it. He was talking about light, about how it’s in packets, and how you can use light to turn chemicals into certain things. So I asked: “Couldn’t you theoretically turn something into anything?” And he said: “No. That’s science fiction,” and went on with his class. And I’m thinking: “But Stephen Hawking said that – this is the only thing I have to contribute – I practiced all night to say this–” And so I just put my head back down on the desk.”
I just want to take this opportunity to defend Vance. First of all, Stephen Hawking is a BRILLIANT MAN. He knows more about science theory and math theory than twenty five of Vance’s teacher put together and then some; I would put money on it. Why not dabble in a theory for a second? He would have explained something about theories to students, that they are just that, theories. He could have asked Vance to give a context to his statement and then try to prove it. Open the theory up to the class and play devils advocate, ask questions, get them to think, discuss, debate, fight…anything, make them think for themselves and ask them to explain why. Getting students to think for themselves, believe in something and be able to support what they believe in, is more important to me than anything I could teach them about chemistry or physics.
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