The Eureka Principle (Relaxation)

Hello everyone,

I'm taking a few days off, and I can't stop thinking about it.

We're making a small vacation out of the trip to pick my son up from college. I'll be back next Monday for those of you C-trackers that might need help with your roll books, for those of you B-trackers that might need help on the first day back, and for those of you A-trackers that are still tracking.

I find that education is a tough business, and when I have the chance to recreate, I'm a better educator.

Sometimes, my holidays give me experiences that I use in the classroom. Sometimes they just give me needed rest.

I think many of you may have read about the "Eureka Principle." Archimedes was laboring over the question of how to measure the amount of gold in a king's crown (he was on commission) and he couldn't come up with the solution, so he gave up and took a bath. While relaxing in the bathtub, with his mind presumably on other topics, he observed how his body displaced the water in the tub. He realized that he could calculate the amount of gold in the crown by measuring the amount of water the crown displaced (volume) against the amount a certain amount of gold should displace. If the gold in the crown was mixed with Zinc, a less dense metal, then the crown would displace more water per weight than a crown of pure gold. (If my science is wrong, forgive my faulty memory; it's the point that follows that really matters.)

Archimedes was so excited by the realization that he is said to have gone running down the street naked, screaming, "Eureka!"

The concept is that, after a long period of working at something, a period of relative relaxation is sometimes necessary for further progress to be made.

For our students, this means that we ought to structure lengthy projects in such a way that the students are forced to have time for reflection. (Have the assignment due in pieces over several weeks.)

For ourselves, this means that an occasional vacation, during which we think of school not at all, will give us just the sort of relaxed mind necessary to come back with fresh ideas and better pedagogy.

By the way, I really do believe in the principle; I'm not only justifying my time off.

Still, even if the Eureka Principle were not true, I'd still need a vacation.

I'll see you next week.

Jeff Combe

PS By the way, the crown was adulterated, and the crown maker was executed for cheating the king.