The Chemistry of Learning
One of my favorite high school classes was chemistry. While my academic passions and strengths have favored the humanities (after all I did attend law, not medical school), no course during my senior year could match Mr.Crampton’s chemistry class. My understanding of the complexities of matter and how it interacts, combines, and changes was nurtured thanks to Mr. Crampton’s inspirational instruction and devotion to his subject and students.
He also taught me to appreciate Bob Dylan—stay with me.
I had been reluctant to take chemistry. I had struggled greatly with physics during my junior year. Physics was too complicated (read: mathematical) for my sixteen-year-old simplistic view of the world. In any event, I signed up for chemistry because of peer pressure, college requirements and Mr. Crampton’s stellar reputation.
I knew I was in for a unique year of science on the first day of class. Mr. Crampton let it be known that a chemistry kidnapping of massive proportions had been perpetrated. The class’ mascot, Harry the Mole, had been abducted, and it was our job, through study and experiments, to discover clues as to who abducted the mascot and the means to his return. (While Harry was a paper Mache insectivorous rodent, he also symbolized a unit of measurement in chemistry known as a “mole.”) Throughout the year, Harry would return and then mysteriously disappear causing benign agitation and excitement.
Mr. Crampton would not allow any of his students to fail. He proffered an open invitation for students to come to his classroom outside their scheduled classes to get help, complete unfinished labs or just hang out. Before any lab experiment or test he sat with us to review models, demonstrate procedures, and, through the use of analogies and colorful language, successfully convey chemistry concepts. Furthermore, it was not unusual to find us painting and sculpting quantum mechanic models or cooking tasteful concoctions with chemical compounds.
Mr. Crampton never left his room and could always be seen bouncing around like an errant atom, assisting groups of students. He encouraged students to help each other, sharing their notes and scientific findings. We simply loved hanging out in chemistry lab solving the mysteries of matter and Harry the Mole.
And now the Dylan connection.
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