Learning is Fun

People have said (more often than I would like to hear, maybe?) that I would make a great teacher. I think part of that is because I strongly believe that learning should be fun and that any subject can be presented as fun and engaging by the right person doing the right things. Living by that philosophy, I always try to inject some humor into my presentations -- and I always manage, completely by accident, to interject a lot of passion. (So I am told, anyway. I always feel like my presentations are pretty crappy.)

So it's always nice to see a fellow "learning is fun!" thinker in the textbook industry ... and who should I happen to find but, of course, that he's the Biochemistry textbook author for the course I'm currently studying for. Here's a sample I'm sure you'll enjoy:

"In ancient Rome, urine was a valuable commodity. Vessels were placed on street corners for passers-by to urinate into. Bacteria would degrade the urea, releasing ammonium ion, which would act as a bleach to brighten togas."

Reader, rest assured: these random bits of trivia are (1) found on the margins of the pages and complement the real biochemistry being taught and (2) are not the focus of my memorative studies.

Speaking of which, I feel I am (as before) doing very well and thorough but the going is slow. I'm currently 2 days behind schedule. Trying to pick up the pace a bit! (I studied for 5 hours yesterday but 1 hour was reviewing the now-large amount of knowledge I've gathered and 2 hours were spent pondering some heavy-duty [with major implications] material which occupied only 2 pages in the text. I didn't even fully figure them out until an additional 1-2 hours spent pondering about it here and there today. Now I feel like I own it, because I truly worked it out for myself and didn't just take the guy's word for it at face value ... but at the cost of 3-4 hours.)