Astronaut Dreams: One Man's Quest for Space Exploration

[marlon]

Actually, no. You compared him to a teacher. I've had physics teachers, English teachers, history teachers, psychology teachers - and I'm not a physicst, writer, historian, or psychologist. By your own logic, those are all useless as well.

You missed the point or i don't get your point but what you claim in your last sentence is not at all what i said. All teachers are far more valuable than him for the reasons i gave above.

Your analogy, not mine.

Exactly, but you reacted (incorrectly) to it. You started talking about raising physical awareness and i argued that this concept is meaningless, teaching people to acquire good jobs is NOT. THAT is my point.

And that is setting aside, of course, the fact that Hawking is a teacher. (even if by now he only gives a few lectures a year)

I knew you were going to say this. Well, let me give you some inside information about how Hawking works. As a matter of fact, the guy sitting next to me EVERY DAY is a Cambridge graduate how knows a thing or two about Hawking. He does NOT teach at all, he just gives some lectures about his own work. THAT IS NOT TEACHING. Also, these lectures serve no purpose but giving Hawking the chance to talk about his own work. There is nothing wrong with that but this does NOT equal "helping people to get ahead in life", which isTHE main aim of education.

marlon

 

[Artman]

We are talking about a man who could have let himself be a burden and drain on society, who instead is a physicist, author, lecturer (albeit only occasionally) and overall a valuable contributing member of that society. Have teachers inspired more people to do something useful with their lives? Yeah probably, certainly as a group. Taken individually, I'm not so sure they have inspired more people, most have not reached as many people as he has in some form.

Also, who better to take a space flight than a man who can appreciate and express the intricacies of the experience to others?