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[RC] Learning at School (was: Physics) - k s swigartBruce Weary said: I didn't know that engineering was a family trade. Probably because he doesn't come from a family of engineers (I don't know this for sure, but suspect it is the case, since people who do come from a family of engineers know that it can be a family trade, even if they aren't engineers themselves). I always thought you had to go to school for that. Every engineer _I_ have ever met (and there have been a lot of them), myself included, learned engineering long before ever going to school. In my family it was dinner table conversation, but it is also something you start learning with your first set of building blocks or Lincoln Logs. I got my first chemistry set at the age of six (long before I ever studied it in school) and promptly started using it to make explosives (which is what every self-respecting genetically determined engineer does with the first chemistry set), and not very far into these efforts I got hurt and made the switch to electronics (which is what most genetically determined engineers do when they get hurt playing with explosives) after which I started making cattle prods or other shocking devices :). For the nascent engineer, EVERY toy is an engineering experiment because the first thing you do with ANY new toy is take it apart to see how it works (and then try to put it back together again, and after you've had some experience with taking things apart and putting them back together again, you make improvements...or use the parts to make something else, preferably something that explodes :)). And if your parents are engineers too, they help you in this endeavor (by providing the tools...and explanations if you ask questions or help you put it back together again if you screw up). If the nascent engineer waits until getting to school to learn engineering, s/he will be WAAAAAAY behind on the first day of class because I guarantee you, every other kid in the class will have deconstructed and reconstructed just about everything that has come into his possession. He will, like me, have built tree houses (and so will have figured out how to lift heavy things without expending too much energy) and forts, and booby traps and windmills and...you get my drift (or maybe, if you aren't an engineer by family trade, you don't???) "Let's take it apart and see how it works." Are the first words out of the mouth of any born and bred engineer. Whether it is because it is encoded in the DNA or because it is the most common set of words to be heard in the household gets back to that old nature v. nurture argument, but whichever the case may be--No, engineering most definitely isn't something you have to go to school for. In fact, I am not even sure it is something you CAN learn in school if you haven't already deconstructed and reconstructed everything in your environment before you get there. None of the engineers I know did. Personally, despite the fact that I earned a living as an engineer, I learned very little engineering in school. Most of the engineering I know I learned before I went to school at play or after I got out at work (or at play:)). I learned physics in school, but only to gain a better theoretical understanding of the physical world so I could go out in the real world and be an engineer. You don't have to go to school to be an engineer. You just have to have an insatiable curiosity about how things work. And yes, in my experience, that insatiable curiosity runs in families. Both my parents were engineers, both my grandfathers were engineers, my brother is an engineer (as is my brother-in-law but I don't know if he counts completely since we aren't related by blood, but suggests that "like attracts like"), both my uncles are engineers (but I don't know if they count either since am only related by blood to their wives, my blood-relative aunts), my sister was an engineer, three of my four cousins are engineers, two of their three children (those would be my first cousins once removed if anybody cares) are engineers, and two of my three nephews who are old enough to be in college are studying engineering. Learn somethin' every day. What?!?!? Even though you are no longer in school? Presumably this means you fully understand the concept that school is not the only place to learn. :) Actually, you don't have to go to school to learn anything (presumably that is one of the reasons many people participate in RideCamp, so they can learn something new...and not at school). School is a good place to learn some basic building blocks and even to learn how to learn, but otherwise, real world experience is a much better teacher, all you have to do is pay attention. Which is why when it comes to things like horses, the best teacher is your horse. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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