I somehow missed this, but it's a wonderful story. When he was fifteen, John Gurdon's Science teacher wrote on his school report:
"...he will not listen, but will insist on doing his work in his own way. I believe he has ideas about becoming a Scientist; on his present showing this is quite ridiculous..."
Last week, Prof John Gurdon was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine, along with Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka, for their work on stem cells. As the Telegraph pointed out, it's like the Munich schoolmaster who in 1895 said of his student “He will never amount to anything”. Who was he talking about? Albert Einstein.
Image courtesy
You inspired me to have a look at my old school reports. The general gist was that I was good at thinking, understanding other people's point of view, analysing and communicating (which are all rather handy for a Planner), but fairly rubbish at spelling and handwriting.
Thank god for spellcheck.
Posted by: gemma | October 19, 2012 at 06:46 PM