I used to think I was stupid. I really loved exploring and being outside, but I didn't seem to do well in my science classes. I could easily get a good grade in my English courses by reading the homework, but even if I tried to read the Chemistry textbook, I didn't necessarily do well on the test.
But, now that I look back on it, perhaps it wasn't my own incapability that hindered me from being proficient in my science courses. Maybe I wasn't being taught science in the way I needed to be taught. My freshman biology class was taught at 9am by my freshmen basketball coach, a woman who I feared. We spent most of our time sleepily memorizing diagrams from an overhead projector and never truly understood the relationship between all these unrecognizable words we memorized. My chemistry class was taught by a kind and intelligent woman who had previously retired and was rehired due to a lack of available teachers. I was in an on-level science class in a public school despite the fact that all my other classes were AP or Honors, and it showed. Every day there was a group of boys who would disrupt our class and make the teacher cry, so we would read from the unreadable dense and confusing Chemistry textbook instead of working through labs, hearing our teacher's explanations as she writes on the board or discussing in groups what it all meant. I never even took a Physics class because I was too scared. I instead took an Aquatic Science course where we watched Finding Nemo and our field trip to the beach was cancelled since most of the class was failing. Needless to say, I thought I was merely right brained and wasn't supposed to be good at science.
Yet, I loved science. My brother and I's dream is to have a lifetime subscription to National Geographic. I ride my bike at night just to hear the calls of toads, I became scuba certified and literally giggle when I see pictures of fish. I volunteered at a local aquarium, took science classes despite the fact that I was an English major in college. I suddenly found myself in love with ecology--our field trip for Ecology and Evolution consisted of canoeing out into the swamp at night, and I loved every minute of it. I began to realize that learning science is a lot different than learning history or understanding literature; it's not harder. I felt somewhat cheated that I never learned about Evolution until I was a Junior in college, but I was also glad that I finally faced my fear of science and worked hard enough to make sense of it.
Though I am just now beginning to challenge myself, I've noticed how many kids in high school are just as scared, if not more, of science as I was. To raise a generation of kids to be afraid of science in a society that already struggles with understanding the world is a dangerous thing. To think--we use words like "believe" with scientific realities like global warming and evolution. We cannot let ourselves become disillusioned with science and understanding how the world works. If anything, we should learn how to make science easier to understand. Just as I needed the right teacher and experience to appreciate science, the general public can become more acquainted with science if we learn how to more legibly express it. Had that chemistry book I read been more legible, maybe I would've actually comprehended those exams. I actually wanted to be a scientist when I was a little kid but was far too afraid to pursue the dream when I couldn't understand my science textbooks.
I guess that's why I'm so dedicated to merging my passion for writing and my passion for ecology--the world is far too interesting for people to limit themselves to being merely right or left brained.
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