Contempt is what makes one an intellectual snob, and also what makes one unable to learn. Contempt goes all the way from ordinary non-interest in another s feelings, to opening fire on people in a school yard people who represent a disliked world. There is nothing more important in the understanding of mind than Eli Siegel s showing what contempt is. To like the world, he explained, is the purpose of education. Through that principle, an educator, student, person doesn t get some tip or technique in the narrow sense.
Every child is entitled to it.
The following short, musical poems mingle science, mystery, playfulness. They are by the person who made real learning possible for every child, because his own desire to know was passionate and unceasing. The world it is which has taught the cow to Moo. A law Is working in the formation of Thumb, Paw, And claw. I teach science at Fiorello LaGuardia High School in Manhattan to students of diverse ethnic backgrounds.