crossing generations

The Culture of Science Education: Its History in Person was edited by Tobin & Wolf (2007) and issued by Sense Publishers. It makes the effort to describe changes within science education research through autobiographies of notable individuals in the field. It arrived through interlibrary loan but it has enough nuggets from various people that it might be worth buying a paperback edition. Although I won't take on the task, it might be interesting for someone to do a content analysis of the editors' sections because they make frequent use of words like "attack" and "violence" -- at least with greater frequency than is common in academic texts.

What was striking was the juxtaposition of stories from the past with a pending talk about challenges and opportunities in the field. For example, Jim Gallagher mentioned a NARST session where he was strongly criticized for his use of qualitative "research" methods. First, it's helpful to know that the field has changed even though one might suggest that they have been almost imperceptibly slow. The other intriguing idea is to wonder how our current times will be viewed in the future. Will future science educators recognize themselves in our works? Or are we going to seem quaint and quirky?

Today I discovered the blues singer Son House who is said to have inspired Robert Johnson of crossroads fame. Through the magic of YouTube, I was able to watch a b&w film of Son House performing "Death Letter Blues". It's really a sad song because the letter tells him his gal is dead and when he finally reaches her she's already laid out on the cooling board. Despite how upsetting the tale, the guitar performance is stunning. With just the audio, it seems rather calm but when you watch him tear at the strings, you can't help but wonder how much physical pain the song caused his fingers. And the music is classic and timeless. In fact, more than I realized.

YouTube provided a link to a more recent rendition -- by the White Stripes! It's an amazing performance and reveals not only the genius of guitarist Jack and drummer-extraordinaire Meg (I am now under her spell). This video echoes the genius of the original blues musician. So while Jack is amazing on the guitar, he clearly owes his performance to Son House. So there it is -- across generations one man can influence others even as they take the earlier efforts to a higher level.