Student of the Month: November 2011
One of my best friends in high school was a genius. He not only got straight A’s and won the science fair, but he also did all sorts of little extra things that impressed both his teachers and his classmates. His bug collection for science included a prionis beetle the size of a small dog that he somehow, miraculously (!), found in his backyard. His essays for English were not only long and detailed but hysterically funny. Sometimes we teased him for being an egghead, but we admired him, and we were glad to call him our friend.
If I were a student at this school right now, I would be friends with Ryan Merrell. Yes, he gets straight A’s, and, yes, he is a perfect student in class: attentive, cooperative, insightful. But, just like with my friend from high school, the reason I would be friends with Ryan is because of all the little extras. His Honors English blog is the only one I have ever seen that actually includes works cited entries, references about where he learned the stuff he wrote about. And he’s written about all manner of concepts in the scientific and literary worlds: physics, electricity, electromagnetism, and few book reviews to boot. “It is fun to learn about weird things that happen, like reverse gravity, and time going backward. It is amazing how things work in the universe,” he wrote during the first month. I don’t know many ninth graders who would say that, but the next paragraph began, “Another thing I like is playing around with power tools….” That’s more my style!
I guess the reason Ryan seemed like my obvious choice for student of the month was not just because he reminded me of my old friend (who, by the way, is now a researcher with two Ph.Ds working on a cure for cancer) but also because it is so obvious that he is paying attention to the world around him, not just those punctuation lessons and Honors discussions, but also the physical laws that make living on earth what it is. He’s a philosopher, a poet, a scientist, and a thinker. We would all do well to have more friends like Ryan Merrell.
If I were a student at this school right now, I would be friends with Ryan Merrell. Yes, he gets straight A’s, and, yes, he is a perfect student in class: attentive, cooperative, insightful. But, just like with my friend from high school, the reason I would be friends with Ryan is because of all the little extras. His Honors English blog is the only one I have ever seen that actually includes works cited entries, references about where he learned the stuff he wrote about. And he’s written about all manner of concepts in the scientific and literary worlds: physics, electricity, electromagnetism, and few book reviews to boot. “It is fun to learn about weird things that happen, like reverse gravity, and time going backward. It is amazing how things work in the universe,” he wrote during the first month. I don’t know many ninth graders who would say that, but the next paragraph began, “Another thing I like is playing around with power tools….” That’s more my style!
I guess the reason Ryan seemed like my obvious choice for student of the month was not just because he reminded me of my old friend (who, by the way, is now a researcher with two Ph.Ds working on a cure for cancer) but also because it is so obvious that he is paying attention to the world around him, not just those punctuation lessons and Honors discussions, but also the physical laws that make living on earth what it is. He’s a philosopher, a poet, a scientist, and a thinker. We would all do well to have more friends like Ryan Merrell.
posted by MRT at 6:47 AM
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