by: Annie
Do you know the man that dropped out of school and still was one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century? That is Albert Einstein. Albert was a man that thought for himself and changed the world of science and physics. He loved what he did and challenged himself to do and think more. Even though Albert made some mistakes, he was still a man of great praise.
Albert was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. As a child he did many things. Albert didn’t have a good talking experience as a child. He didn’t speak until almost 4 years old, because he didn’t want to talk until he knew how to speak sentence and words. He worked out the sentences in his head and practiced saying them alone. Because of his mother’s, Pauline Koch Einstein, love for music, Albert started playing the violin at the age of 5 years old. Albert took an advantage of learning the violin, and used his violin skills to work equations.
As you know from the first paragraph, Albert Einstein dropped out of school. He actually did go to elementary school, but not in just one school. He was kicked out of many schools and his parents moved him to more strict schools. But this did not stop his bad attitude about school and laziness in completing his work. He only enjoyed activities in school that he felt expanded his imagination. He once said,” Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” As soon as Albert went to high school he hated it. He dropped out at the age of 15. Some think he it was because he had a disability with making friends. His parents got him back in school and Albert applied for Zurich Polytechnic, a college. He failed the foreign language part of the test he took to apply, but did exceptionally well on the other sections. He then went to a foreign language school so he could take the test again and get in. He did and went to the Zurich Polytechnic School. Although he got good grades, Albert didn’t study, but right before a test he would borrow his friend’s notes to cram in some study time. He got a doctorate at that school.
When he got to college he was no longer lonely. He met his first wife, Mileva Maric there. She was the only female in his classes. They fell in love and got married on January 6, 1903. They then had 3 children, Liersel, Hans Albert, and Eduard. After being married for 16 years, they divorced on February 14, 1919. Later that year, Albert got remarried to another woman, Elsa Lowenthal, on June 2, 1919. Albert and Elsa adopted 2 other children.
As you might know, he had some great achievements. He opened the doors to world of vision, lasers, transistors, computer chips, nuclear power, and space exploration. Although he encouraged the creation of atomic bombs, he changed his mind and was against the expansion and spread of nuclear weapons. He also wrote three papers that changed the universe, the first paper being that molecules exist in particles. The second paper was about his light ideas. The third paper was consisting of the E=MC² relativity theory. Albert also got a Nobel Prize for physics in 1921.
Although he had many accomplishments, he also had mistakes. One mistake is, as said before, he dropped out of school. Also, he slacked off in school. Another mistake was that he had two wives at different times. With the first wife he had 3 children and adopted 2 other children with his second wife. He divorced the 1st wife and got married to the 2nd one in the same year.
If you ask me, I would say that Albert was odd and bizarre in a good way. I also think he uses courage and perseverance when he works. He changed how people think about the world of science and physics. I think he could be a role model if you excluded all of his mistakes, just like his mentors: Max Planck, a physicist, and his father, Hermann Einstein. I happen to have done this and consider him a role model.
Sources:
Heinrichs, Ann. Albert Einstein. Milwaukee, WI. World Almanac®.2002.
“Albert Einstein.” Kids InfoBits. Thompson Gale, 2005. Reproduced in Kids InfoBits. Detroit: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/KidsInfoBits
