Counting Stars

So, tonight I was letting my dog out together with my dad and it was a beautiful clear (and cold, brrrr) night. Thousands of stars were clearly visible and we started talking about the fact that most of the stars we could see had 'died' millions of years ago, though for us they were still there, a kind of creepy idea when thinking more about it. Actually we were looking at the past, we saw things that ceased to exist ages ago and it brought us to the famous question (one that I have been wondering about since I was just a mini-Louise): will we ever be able to time travel and if so, how? We found one theory that sounds pretty reliable. here it comes:

So in the first place, astronauts will have to travel to a place millions of kilometers away from here. One must: they should travel with an even higher speed than the speed of light, only then  They land and look at the earth. At this point they are in the same situation as dad and me, but then reversed: they look at the sky and see a minuscule little dot (the earth) and the great thing is: they are looking at the earth's past! It is because the light has not traveled fast enough to bring the present on earth to this place, so there is a bit of delay. In order to also actually see something they should bring a giant telescope with them, one strong and powerful enough to see what's going on at planet earth (some day scientists will succeed to make one like these, I hope). Who knows what they might see! They might see dinosaurs passing by or witness the famous battles between the Romans and the Germans. It would be absolutely amazing! The idea is so simple, it might be a little difficult to put it into practice, though. Even if humanity ever succeeds to make something (other than protons) travel with the speed of light, it will be a real challenge to make it go even faster than that. And even if it in someway would be possible, than I don't quite think the astronauts would survive the trip due to its high speed. Maybe super-high-tech robots would, but I'm afraid it will provisionally stay a little-girl's-dream,.

School

As a child I always loved to learn: I read a thousand books and was curious to know everything about history, our universe and nature. No surprise maybe that I skipped the fourth grade at the primary school and I could not wait to go to the seventh and eight to learn even more about my favorite topics. Just imagine how happy I must have been when I went to secondary school (where the real work begins). It was all I could think of during my summer holidays and I had been looking forward to all the homework I would get. It just seemed like one big feast. However, this feeling melted abruptly away as soon as the first sign of pressure appeared. At my primary school, we use to have a geography test twice a year, one presentation plus a project, and in very rare cases also a bit of homework. I was absolutely not used to the feeling of stress and due to my lacking planning skills, it did not get any better. The first few weeks of the year were terrible: I was what you can call a bit of depressed and my motivation was at its lowest, it just all seemed so hard and I could not imagine I had to keep my head up for another six years.

So this was my first experience with secondary school, not what you can call a fresh start, but thankfully this changed when met new people and made friends. I am not telling this mini-biography just for fun, I want to make a point. Always have I enjoyed learning, until there was someone who told me I had to, school. School takes the joy of learning away and I believe it is because of our curriculum. Students learn because they have to, not because they want to. This realization came when I saw a friend copying someone else's homework (can't deny I haven't done it myself) and then I found the problem of our school system: grades. We copy our homework because the teacher might punish us if we don't, but we forget the goal of homework is actually to practice and not meant to be something that has to be done, just to keep you busy. We start the day before a test with learning and cheat on a test because we want to have a high mark, not because we want to learn more about the subject. When you subsequently get your test beck and it is insufficient, what happens? Well, nothing. In most cases you won't get a second chance and this means you won't have the required knowledge. With the consequence that you might fail again on your exams at the specific subject. I believe everyone should have the right to re-examine their test so they can see what their weaknesses are and do some extra work for that or ask their teacher for more explanation. This should be possible until they get a sufficient on their test, because then, only then, you can say they've really learned something. Then the marks play a less major role, because in this case it only is an indicator to see whether you understand the theory well enough or should try and do it again. This will hopefully also reduce the stress for a test ad it might even make school fun again!