Mad Scientists

My son Wolfe just returned to school this fall. I asked him how it went.

"We had to do a group project, but no one listened to my idea. So I just sat around." He told me.

"Who made all the decisions?" I asked.

"The senior."

It's annoying that schools call this a "group" project. I used to be a part of group projects in school just like this one. I really wish that the schools would teach children how to work together instead of just assuming that they know how. Actually, they probably can't teach it, because they don't know either.

What a tragedy, don't you think? To lose the very thing that makes humans so brilliant. We may not be brilliant swimmers like dolphins, or able to fly like cranes, or able to run like a Cheetah, but we are brilliantly creative together. Now I know we are always fed this silly notion that the mad scientist works alone in his or her lone castle in the deep forest. Well, OK, that's Hollywood's image. But we are told this story so often, we actually believe it.

If there are any mad scientists working alone out there, we don't know about them. And probably never will. All famous people, whether they are artists or scientists get where they are because of a brilliant posse of people. First they have to be born into a family in which there are enough sane people to raise them. They must have access to other brilliant people either in a school or by chance. They need someone to help them stay organized, someone who helps publicize their idea, people who aid them in the studio or lab, other people who make the things required for their work, keep house for them and so on. All inventions are group inventions. All art is group art, if you count everything required to get the science or the art out to the rest of us. I have known plenty of amazing artists who have no group to help them and they are unknown. Until they have a group, they will remain unknown. The ability to work with other people makes all the difference.