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Nobel Prize Laureate Offers Kids a Lesson
Ohanian Comment: This article highlights the fact that this chemistry Nobel recipient earned a D in chemistry in high school. Good for them in bringing attention to the so-called late bloomers. But Peter Agre makes another point that's almost buried in the article. He told students, "Whatever it is that captures your interest — you should go for it." These days, schools are too busy instituting pre-Advanced Placement studies for kindergartners to allow students to find what interests them.
Peter Agre reached the pinnacle of science last year when he won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. On Wednesday, the Nobel laureate returned to the Minneapolis high school where he got an inauspicious start — a D in chemistry class.
"I wasn't particularly interested in chemistry, but I didn't give it a chance," Agre told a group of students at Roosevelt High School. "So I have a little message to give to students — take your courses seriously. Learning is essential in life."
The visit marked Agre's first return to his home state since winning the Nobel Prize. His weeklong trip will be packed with events at educational institutions as he uses his stature as a Nobel laureate to speak out on behalf of education and teachers.
"There's nothing we do that's more important than education," he said. "The Nobel Prize sounds nice, but we need schoolteachers more than we need a bunch of old Nobel guys like me."
DISCOVERED WATER CHANNELS
Agre, 55, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, won the 2003 Nobel Prize for the discovery of water channels in cell membranes. He shared the prize with Roderick MacKinnon of Rockefeller University.
He had planned to return to Minnesota last fall, but his trip was scuttled after the American Nobel laureates were invited to the White House to meet President Bush.
On Wednesday, he finally came home. His busy schedule during his week in Minnesota includes a visit to the American Swedish Institute with his mother for genealogical research; a day at the University of Minnesota medical school; a peace forum at St. Olaf College; a speech at St. Olaf; a family gathering; and a series of events at Augsburg College, his alma mater.
"They've got him running all over the place," said his mother, Ellen Agre, who lives in Little Canada. "Everybody wants a chip off the block."
Agre is concerned about a crisis in public education and declining morale of teachers due to budget cuts, criticism from political leaders and the public. He dedicated his Nobel acceptance speech in Stockholm to the men and women who teach science, whom he hailed as "individuals that foster the scientific competence of our society and are the heroes behind past, present and future Nobel Prizes."
"Quite frankly, I'm just a kid from Minnesota who benefited from going to school with some wonderful teachers," he said. "They deserve something above the Nobel Prize because I was something of a handful."
FIRST STOP ROOSEVELT
Thus Agre flew into Minnesota and immediately drove to his first appointment: a talk with about 40 students at Roosevelt who are interested in health careers. He began by opening a crumpled plastic bag, removing a heavy gold medallion and handing it to the nearest student.
"This is the Nobel Medal," he said. "This is what all the commotion is about."
As students passed around the medal, Agre recounted his own days at Roosevelt in the mid-1960s. He fondly recalled several teachers by name and described himself as something of a class clown.
"I wasn't particularly an astonishingly good student," he said. "I had my courses that I liked well and the ones that I think I benefited from most were not even the science courses as much as the humanities."
Agre was a late bloomer as an academic. In high school he was an inconsistent student who was very diligent in some areas, such as the underground newspaper, and disinterested in others such as chemistry, the subject of his future Nobel.
VOTED MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
Even so, he was one of two students voted most likely to succeed. He appears in a photo in the 1967 Roosevelt yearbook with a sign saying "Sub Standard," the name of the underground newspaper that was a spoof of the school newspaper, the Roosevelt Standard.
He began to apply himself more seriously at Augsburg College and later at Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore.
"In 1967 my friends were being shipped off to Vietnam," he said in an interview. "The idea of being a student activist didn't seem to be too rosy a future. So I got serious about studying at Augsburg."
And he discovered his love of research. He told the students that the discovery that eventually led to the Nobel Prize was an accidental result of another experiment. He described himself as a regular guy, husband, father, Scout leader and soccer coach.
"It gives students an idea of what they can aspire to," said Bruce Gilman, Roosevelt's principal. "Seeing that someone from their high school received a Nobel Prize. … It gives them inspiration to see where you can go."
Student Ifrah Jimale was charmed.
"I kind of thought he was a nice guy and humble man," she said. "He joked, laughed and was just delighted to be here. It was absolutely amazing, very cool."
At the end of the talk, Gilman presented Agre with a Roosevelt baseball cap and sweatshirt. Agre immediately put them on and mumbled, "Laureates are real klutzes."
After the applause, Agre clasped his hands together and delivered one final message.
"Whatever it is that captures your interest — you should go for it," he said. "There's no limit in life. You can do whatever you want."
— Kermit Pattison
Pioneer Press
2004-02-19
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/living/education/7985314.htm
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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