The most precious thing in one's life, to be treasured above all others, is one's relationship with a mentor. It was very difficult to find a true mentor in all times, and it's even more difficult nowadays with the mentoring institute all but gone extinct, no matter what the scientific community is trying to pretend.
Once, I got lucky. As usually with those things, I never realized how lucky I was; I saw it only after the story ended. So, I found a man who could be a mentor to me, as well as to several of my close friends at that time. Or, more accurately, he found us, for, as we discovered lately, he was the one who came up with the idea of an organization scoring SPb schools looking for gifted children and then bringing them together: to teach us something the school would never give us.
We were a proud bunch of geeky kids, mostly introverted and not very sociable. There were not so many of us who were inspired by that man's lectures, but, well, some of us were. We asked him to lecture us a bit more, we were frying our brains trying to invent questions to ask him (for he enjoyed a student asking questions, but not if they were stupid) and we were generally satisfied with the way he described the world to us, I think. I certainly was.
And then it all fell apart. For some of us, at least, for life is about changes and moving on. So I left that place.
Only later I thought through and somewhat grasped the concept of learning being a process of replacing one oversimplifying lies by others, more complicated. Only later I realized I was and still am looking for a mentor.
Now, leafing through my notes of his lectures, I cannot understand what of the things he told us were oversimplified lies he fed to the children who were not ready for something more difficult, more clear, and what were his true ideas about life and things.
I cannot find it in me to try to get in contact with him again; I'm not even sure I want, anyway, for what I am now doesn't need the mentor he was then - and I would never know if he could be the mentor I need now.
I probably will remember him with confused fondness for the rest of my life. Hell, what I know about being a scientist, about critical thinking and admiration for clever and clear thoughts and concepts - it all stemmed from what he taught us. Even if now I would've liked to discuss those concepts again and tell him I think he got it wrong in many instances. Wouldn't in please him, geez. And I even don't know if he's still alive.
Once, I got lucky. As usually with those things, I never realized how lucky I was; I saw it only after the story ended. So, I found a man who could be a mentor to me, as well as to several of my close friends at that time. Or, more accurately, he found us, for, as we discovered lately, he was the one who came up with the idea of an organization scoring SPb schools looking for gifted children and then bringing them together: to teach us something the school would never give us.
We were a proud bunch of geeky kids, mostly introverted and not very sociable. There were not so many of us who were inspired by that man's lectures, but, well, some of us were. We asked him to lecture us a bit more, we were frying our brains trying to invent questions to ask him (for he enjoyed a student asking questions, but not if they were stupid) and we were generally satisfied with the way he described the world to us, I think. I certainly was.
And then it all fell apart. For some of us, at least, for life is about changes and moving on. So I left that place.
Only later I thought through and somewhat grasped the concept of learning being a process of replacing one oversimplifying lies by others, more complicated. Only later I realized I was and still am looking for a mentor.
Now, leafing through my notes of his lectures, I cannot understand what of the things he told us were oversimplified lies he fed to the children who were not ready for something more difficult, more clear, and what were his true ideas about life and things.
I cannot find it in me to try to get in contact with him again; I'm not even sure I want, anyway, for what I am now doesn't need the mentor he was then - and I would never know if he could be the mentor I need now.
I probably will remember him with confused fondness for the rest of my life. Hell, what I know about being a scientist, about critical thinking and admiration for clever and clear thoughts and concepts - it all stemmed from what he taught us. Even if now I would've liked to discuss those concepts again and tell him I think he got it wrong in many instances. Wouldn't in please him, geez. And I even don't know if he's still alive.