Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Real Genius

George Bernard Shaw once famously stated, “He who can does; he who cannot teaches.” That statement typifies either the height of ignorance or arrogance - possibly both. Here’s a quick list of individuals who both could do and did teach:

Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Archimedes, Pythagoras, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Steven Hawking, Carl Sagan, Robert Oppenheimer, Buckminster Fuller, Richard Feynman, Steven J. Gould, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Hindemith, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Elliot Carter, Max Beckmann, Thomas Hart Benton, Kathe Kollwitz, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Newt Gingrich, Henry Kissinger, Timothy Leary, Noam Chomsky, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Lewis Carol, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, William Falkner, Buddha, Gandhi, and Jesus Christ

Wow, a couple of those teachers actually did a whole lot more than Mr. Shaw. I don’t know what he was thinking when he said it but it wasn’t funny, it wasn’t clever, and it wasn’t even logical… it was just worthless.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find that statement needs the added "zing" that only the "master zingger" woody allen can give- Those who can't do, Teach. And those who can't teach, teach gym. And those who can't teach gym, well, they taught at my school.

Anonymous said...

Reaaalllll Mennnn of Gennnniousss