This is a piece I originally posted to my Instagram story back in November 2023.

Recently a high school student became the center of a small controversy. On a science exam, the question asked them to “describe a way to increase the strength of the current flowing through a solenoid (an electromagnet made by coiling wire).” The student answered, “Wind the coil tightly,” and was given a zero. The “correct” answer, apparently, was “Wind the coil many times.”

Suppose this student somehow ends up in graduate school and writes a paper, and in the course of explaining an electromagnet they reach for the word “tightly.” Would they get a review back saying they’re a zero-point scientist?

What is the purpose of science education, anyway? Is it to single out as excellent only the students who mechanically memorize “wind it many times” and earn good grades, to send those students off to good universities, and to give a zero to the student who wrote “wind it tightly”?

Setting aside which is right and which is wrong between “tightly” and “many times,” what I really wonder is whether this student felt any of the joy of thinking and discovering through this exam at all.

I was lucky enough to be able to drop out of high school. My grades weren’t great, but because I was able to keep some distance from the education system, I never lost the joy of learning—and for that I’m truly grateful.