His dad encouraged him to drop out of school after the second grade. So he obviously didn’t get the four years of math and three years of science that many folks want Colorado high school students to take.
With the state legislature voting down harder high school graduation requirements, it’s time to remember the lesson Ben Franklin taught: Individual curiosity can be as powerful a tool as institutional edicts.
That’s why the current show at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science is so interesting. “Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World” chronicles the life of a smart guy. But the show also highlights the role of intellectual inquisitiveness, regardless of IQ.
“He had an ordinary beginning and did extraordinary things,” said Page Talbott, the exhibit’s curator. “I’m sure he had a huge intellectual capacity. But he wasn’t a genius who couldn’t talk to others.”
The Franklin show runs until May 20. It’s not whiz-bang technology or weird subject matter. It is, however, worth a long look. With state legislators agonizing over revolutionizing education, this exhibit is an old-school primer on being a Renaissance man or woman.
It takes want-to.
Franklin didn’t just do things; he tried to understand them. He needed to know how things worked.
“He never lost that wide-eyed fascination that little children have and the word that drives it – why?” said Talbott.
A commitment to be inquisitive is the best thing any school kid could take from the Franklin exhibit. It could cure a lot of what ails public education.
Sadly, Generation Xbox will probably be unimpressed with Franklin’s rudimentary inventions. Who cares about wooden swim fins or a foot-
operated chair fan when you’ve got Grand Theft Auto?
Mindless entertainment and conveniences without comprehension are nails in the coffin of any society’s attempt to learn and progress.
The best hook for youngsters in the Ben Franklin exhibit might be the
Sudoku-like Magic Squares game that Franklin played. That and the always-trusty electricity display.
Franklin ran a wire into his house from a lightning rod to conduct electricity and ring bells inside just before thunderstorms. Maybe you don’t want to try that at home. But if you’re going to drain your brain on computer games, you might at least figure out how to replace a hard drive or add random access memory.
What’s killing public education is not a lack of course offerings, it’s intellectual laziness. As he had a line – along with a line of reasoning – for almost everything in his life, Franklin addressed this: “Being ignorant,” he wrote in Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1755, “is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.”
Franklin didn’t wait for other people to create his creature comforts. When he had trouble reading through his glasses, he invented bifocals. When his brother developed kidney stones, Franklin designed a flexible catheter to relieve his brother’s pain. He built a stove to heat homes.
Franklin’s list of accomplishments is instructive and, let’s hope, inspirational. With almost no formal schooling, Franklin built a successful printing business from which he was able to retire at 42 and devote himself to good works. He helped edit and signed the Declaration of Independence. He was the United States’ first postmaster general.
This does not make the case for dropping out of school after second grade. It proves that the why of things is as important as the what.
Franklin’s library of 4,000 books pretty much encapsulated the knowledge of the world 250 years ago, said Talbott. “Today, there are 4,000 books on a single subject. Because information is available, it’s easier to get answers.”
But only if you want them.
Once Colorado has revolutionized its education system, the battle is not won. It is merely joined.
Think of it as Ben Franklin might have if he were writing his almanac today.
Seat a child in any class you like. Until he’s intellectually curious, he won’t learn a thing.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-954-1771, jspencer@denverpost.com or blogs.denverpost.com/spencer.
