“Why do
I have to go to school?”
Hermann
Einstein tall and severe looking looked down at his eight-year old son. “Do you
want to grow up to be an ignoramus, Albert?
“What’s
an ignoramus?”
A burst
of laughter came from a corner of the large comfortably furnished living room.
Father and son turned quickly toward Mrs. Einstein who was seated at the large
black piano.
“Oh Hermann,”
Mrs. Einstein explained her voice still bubbling with laughter, “you’ll never
beat Albert at that game!”
“I’m
sure I don’t know what you mean,”
“There’s
no use in pretending,” Mrs. Einstein replied, as her she went on playing an old
Hungarian folk song. “I heard you and your brother deciding that the only way
to keep Albert from asking so many questions was to answer him by asking him question.
But you see—it didn’t work. He can always outlast you!”
Albert crossed the room and stood
beside his mother for a moment. Her fingers fascinate him. They are such
stubby, soft little fingers, and yet they danced and fluttered across the keys
with the speed of a robin running across the lawn. They hit the keys firmly without
fumbling or hesitation so that they made the piano fairly sings. They leaped
and pounced upon crashing cords. She looked over the top of his dark, curly
head and smiled up at her husband.
“You see,
there is a way to make Albert stop asking question. My music will do it.”
Before he had a chance to answered, “Is it
wrong to ask questions?”
Now it
was Mr. Einstein’s turn to laugh.
“There he goes again,” he chuckled. “Can you music can’t sop
him for long.”
She gave Albert a small hug.
“There’s
nothing wrong in asking question, Lichen,” she said fondly, “as long as you don’t
do it just to tease or embarrass people or to make them seem foolish.”
I don’t
do it like that; I do it because there is so much I don’t know so much I want
to know. I want to know all about everything—right away”
His
father drew his heavy eyebrows together,
“If you
really mean that, Albert how is it that you could ask why you must go to school”
School is the place where questions are to be answered.”
“But they’re
not! They don’t even let anybody ask question and they’d never think of answering
them. I hate school. It's like being in prison. The teacher is like prison
guard marching up and down between the rows desks.”
Mr.
Einstein and his wife exchanged a look that was full of meaning. What could
they say in answered to their son’s charges?
This
was in the year 1889 in Munich, Germany. Less than five years before, Bismarck,
the great German militarist had conquered all of Bavaria along with several
other small counties that had always been free and independent and former them
all into one country which he called Prussia.
The Einstein’s
had moved from the little city of Foul, in Bavaria in 1880, a year after Albert
was born. Mr. Einstein and his brother Jacob who had foreseen what would happen
to Bavaria had packed up and brought the family of Munich. The two brothers set
up a small chemist’s shop. They had been there a year when Alberts little
sister, Muja was born, and the family moved into a large, comfortable house
just outside the town.
It was
not long before the Einstein House as people called it became one of the most popular
places in the whole city of Munich. Often when permanent residents had guests
from out of town they took them to the Einstein House for an evening of
conversation and music and poetry reading. These evenings were so much
discussed that often visitor to Munich would upon arrival ask their hosts if
they could possibly arrange for an invitation to the Einstein’s”. An invitation was scarcely necessary. There was
nothing formal about these affairs. Sometimes Mrs. Einstein would play Mozart or
Brahms composition or sings the folk ballads of Germany and Austria. On some evenings
the guests gathered around the piano and sang old songs they knew. Mr. Einstein
and his brother Jacob had deep pleasant voices and could lead the guests in these
familiar melodies. Albert hated to go to bed on these occasions. He listened wide-eyed
to the talk of new inventions like the electric light and telephone. His father
and Uncle Jacob were well posted on all the latest scientific developments
particularly those which might affect the sale of the electrochemical apparatus.
Their shop was far ahead their competitors in such matters.
There were
times when Alberts father would decide to read aloud from the works of great
German writer such a Goethe chiller and Heinrich Heine. Certainly there was a
great contrast between learning in the friendly atmosphere of his own home and
the austere school classrooms where the pupils were punished for failure but
never give praise or encouragement for accomplishments.
The Einstein’s
spent a good deal of thought in the selection of a school for Albert. He had been
backward as a child slow to learn to talk and read and very shy. The had
selected a Catholic school considered the very best in Munich. They were
dismayed when the government took over the operation of all schools and be gang
installing military rules and regulation.
“There
true culture of Germany is being submerged my militaries,” Mr. Einstein sadly
stated. Neither parent realized the extent to which the Prussian army had taken
over the public school system until Alberts very real unhappiness became
apparent.
“They
make us memorize the days “Lesson,” They don’t tell us what it says or what it
means, but we must learn every single word. And I can’t. Unless I know what a
thing means I just can’t remember it,
and so they open the
drawer and take out the ruler...
His
mother kissed the palm of his hand still red from the strokes of the steel
ruler.
“There’s
nothing we can do they will question our loyalty if we complain of the principal.”
Albert
you mother and I don’t like this any more than you do, but we must all face it,
the army is becoming more and more important in Germany and Austria. It will
not be long before the army rules the country. Even now, army officers are
buying up big businesses. So far they buy but only the larger stores, but soon
they will see that Mr. So-and-so has an ice little candy store on the corner.
They will buy the store across the street.
To be continued…
Dr. KARL
WALLACE D.D.S
To read
more go to:
www.karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
