The story of Ahmed Mohamed in Texas took me back almost 40 years to when I was in elementary school. I, like Ahmed, was enthralled by science and engineering at a young age. I had decided I wanted to be an electrical engineer by the time I was in the 3rd, or 4th grade.
My parents had an old short wave radio in the living room and I would spend hours tuning across the dial listening to all the bizarre sounds, and far away stations. I was mystified by how those voices and sounds were getting into my living room. I started reading books about radio, electronics, amateur radio, and all thing science. I also wondered about the world around me, and read about chemistry and physics. I got my dad to buy me kits to build from the local electronics store, chemistry sets & equipment from the hobby shop, gyroscopes, and other toys from the “Edmunds catalog”.
By the time I was in 5th grade I was getting pretty bored with school. Everything was about getting ready for the next holiday. Drawing pumpkins for Halloween, Turkeys for T-Giving, Ornaments, for Xmas, yadda, yadda. So I toted all my chemistry & electronics “stuff” into my school and set up a “Lab” on the counter at the window. I didn’t ask for permission… I just did it.
During recess I would work on radio kits, or fix items that my schoolmates brought in for me to look at. I would be mixing up some chemical concoction over an alcohol burner to see what the reaction would be. I was sending classmates out to gather plant and water samples, and then we would look at them under the microscope. To be honest, it drove the teachers absolutely NUTS! It got to the point that after a few months they finally made me tear it all down, and take it home. They sent a note along for my parents that said, “MrQA is too distracted, and is distracting others with his side projects, and should spend more time on the class/assigned work”. Yipee, a silhouette of Abe Lincolns head for Presidents Day!
Now, to the point here, after that long preface. If it were today, and not the early 70’s….
I’d probably be sentenced to life in prison!
OMG! Indescribable electronics in school! Unknown chemicals in the classroom!
I SURELY must be a terrorist! In those days I could have been a secret member of the “Weather Underground”, or “Baader-Meinhoff”!
While my teachers were ultimately unhappy with my extracurricular activities, I don’t have a felony rap sheet for the analog of putting Mentos in a soda bottle, or building a digital clock! Not only have we become the bargain basement of ignorant, we have become afraid of our own shadows. But, who can blame people, I suppose, all we get, day in and out, is fear mongering and xenophobia.
Teachers, and police who can’t distinguish a bomb from a clock. This truly tells us something about how educated we are as a society, and how afraid. What have we degenerated into as a country in 40 years? But, science is a bogey man that’s not real, and to be feared, especially in Texas. Plus, everyone, and everything is a danger, especially if we don’t understand it, which is pretty much everything.
I feel bad for Ahmed. I know what it feels like to want knowledge, and to try to explore exciting grounds. But, today if you’re not a sheep taking a standardized test, or stand out in any way, either racially, or the bounds of what the dolt standing next to you recognizes from reality TV. You’re in trouble.
Yes, we are exceptional….. Exceptionally ignorant, and scared.