Eclipse is a complicated phenomenon. It is even more complicated to explain the concept of an eclipse to school kids. May be, children these days have access to better resources and perhaps more academically tuned. Back then, we were very raw. To be fair, Mr Lawrence tried his best. It was just that we did not get it.
That there were two types of eclipses was the easy part. We registered their names all right. The problem was recalling which one is solar and which one is lunar. Someone came between someone else. That's all we could decipher. When Mr Lawrence went around the class and questioned each student, he got all sorts of answers. There was no consensus whatsoever. Most students tended to agree with David's explanation for he was widely accepted as the brain of the class. But Sridhar's definition of solar-eclipse was exactly the opposite, which swayed some votes in his favor. In the end, there was a stalemate and a distinct possibility of a hung-parliament in class. As far as a few other students were concerned, this topic of eclipse was the last thing on their minds. They were in their own world- either dreaming away or busy sharpening their pencils or trying to retrieve a lost protractor from the compass box by tunneling their way under the benches! It was a mixed crowd.
Mr Lawrence was irked. He felt a more practical demonstration may clear the cobwebs from our minds. He asked for 3 balls- a football, a cricket-ball and a table-tennis ball! Like a dog that has dozed away...suddenly picks itself up and scampers around, Mr Lawrence's request was just the impetus needed to liven up the class. When was the last time a teacher asked for a ball during class hours? In a jiffy, all sorts of balls lay piled up on the table, resembling a fruit-vendor's cart! The selection was tough- only one football could be the sun, another cricket-ball the earth, and one table-tennis ball...could be the moon. The discarded balls and their owners were equally morose.
The whole class was now at the table...as we curiously observed the proceedings. Mr Lawrence placed the balls in a particular sequence and beamed with pride. "This is a solar eclipse! This is the sun....and the moon comes between the earth...and...." Before Mr Lawrence could complete the sentence, the balls were just as impatient as the rest of us. The table-tennis ball drifted away from its orbit and fell off the table-edge. More hands were pressed to restrain these balls. A seventh-grader's mind is simple. He relates to a football as a football and the necessity to think of these balls as astronomical objects is lost on him. At the end of this exercise, we picked up some additional points about an eclipse. It appeared some hidden hand could make the cricket ball and the table-tennis ball swap places, like we do in class. As for the football, well, it seemed to stay as-is.
Mr Lawrence was not yet done. He felt he had more concepts to convey. Dinesh would be the sun- he was the football. He selected a mid-sized boy as the earth and a tiny-fellow as the moon! He made the tiny fellow go around mid-sized and kept questioning mid-size whether he still saw Dinesh! Of course, he always saw Dinesh. He was the football of the class! The answer did not please Mr Lawrence. As far as Dinesh was concerned, he claimed he still saw tiny-fellow's legs through the mid-sized legs! The class was a riot! We finally understood what eclipses meant.
Sridhar had an elaborate argument with Mr Lawrence on a point too subtle for the rest of us. It had to do with why eclipses couldn't happen more often. After all, the moon was going around the earth all the time. Only Sridhar seemed to grasp Mr Lawrence regarding earth and moon flying on different planes....with a slanted notebook in hand signifying a plane...perhaps in landing mode.
The mid-term exams were over. Mr Lawrence came to class with a sheaf of answer-papers. His face had a pained expression as he shared some of the eclipse diagrams from the answer sheets with the rest of the class. The only common point in all the papers were three circles- standing for the sun, the moon and the earth. Mr Lawrence added a 4th circle to mark a 0 for the answer! In some papers, the circles were of the same size- the student had forgotten to bring 3 separate coins of different denominations and was stuck with only a 25 paise coin. In another paper, the sun also got a chance to swap places. After all, it was at the center of the solar system. It could very well have the moon and the earth on either side! Sridhar tried to be over-smart by drawing the sun as a huge semi-circle spanning the whole page...with the earth and moon as tiny dots because of their relative sizes in space.
Mr Lawrence called out Mehernosh. He was still busy sharpening the pencil that had turned to a tiny stub. Mr Lawrence held him by the ear till his ear and face turned red. Mehernosh had labeled the sun as "Dinesh" and had added "football" in brackets for clarity!
That there were two types of eclipses was the easy part. We registered their names all right. The problem was recalling which one is solar and which one is lunar. Someone came between someone else. That's all we could decipher. When Mr Lawrence went around the class and questioned each student, he got all sorts of answers. There was no consensus whatsoever. Most students tended to agree with David's explanation for he was widely accepted as the brain of the class. But Sridhar's definition of solar-eclipse was exactly the opposite, which swayed some votes in his favor. In the end, there was a stalemate and a distinct possibility of a hung-parliament in class. As far as a few other students were concerned, this topic of eclipse was the last thing on their minds. They were in their own world- either dreaming away or busy sharpening their pencils or trying to retrieve a lost protractor from the compass box by tunneling their way under the benches! It was a mixed crowd.
Mr Lawrence was irked. He felt a more practical demonstration may clear the cobwebs from our minds. He asked for 3 balls- a football, a cricket-ball and a table-tennis ball! Like a dog that has dozed away...suddenly picks itself up and scampers around, Mr Lawrence's request was just the impetus needed to liven up the class. When was the last time a teacher asked for a ball during class hours? In a jiffy, all sorts of balls lay piled up on the table, resembling a fruit-vendor's cart! The selection was tough- only one football could be the sun, another cricket-ball the earth, and one table-tennis ball...could be the moon. The discarded balls and their owners were equally morose.
The whole class was now at the table...as we curiously observed the proceedings. Mr Lawrence placed the balls in a particular sequence and beamed with pride. "This is a solar eclipse! This is the sun....and the moon comes between the earth...and...." Before Mr Lawrence could complete the sentence, the balls were just as impatient as the rest of us. The table-tennis ball drifted away from its orbit and fell off the table-edge. More hands were pressed to restrain these balls. A seventh-grader's mind is simple. He relates to a football as a football and the necessity to think of these balls as astronomical objects is lost on him. At the end of this exercise, we picked up some additional points about an eclipse. It appeared some hidden hand could make the cricket ball and the table-tennis ball swap places, like we do in class. As for the football, well, it seemed to stay as-is.
Mr Lawrence was not yet done. He felt he had more concepts to convey. Dinesh would be the sun- he was the football. He selected a mid-sized boy as the earth and a tiny-fellow as the moon! He made the tiny fellow go around mid-sized and kept questioning mid-size whether he still saw Dinesh! Of course, he always saw Dinesh. He was the football of the class! The answer did not please Mr Lawrence. As far as Dinesh was concerned, he claimed he still saw tiny-fellow's legs through the mid-sized legs! The class was a riot! We finally understood what eclipses meant.
Sridhar had an elaborate argument with Mr Lawrence on a point too subtle for the rest of us. It had to do with why eclipses couldn't happen more often. After all, the moon was going around the earth all the time. Only Sridhar seemed to grasp Mr Lawrence regarding earth and moon flying on different planes....with a slanted notebook in hand signifying a plane...perhaps in landing mode.
The mid-term exams were over. Mr Lawrence came to class with a sheaf of answer-papers. His face had a pained expression as he shared some of the eclipse diagrams from the answer sheets with the rest of the class. The only common point in all the papers were three circles- standing for the sun, the moon and the earth. Mr Lawrence added a 4th circle to mark a 0 for the answer! In some papers, the circles were of the same size- the student had forgotten to bring 3 separate coins of different denominations and was stuck with only a 25 paise coin. In another paper, the sun also got a chance to swap places. After all, it was at the center of the solar system. It could very well have the moon and the earth on either side! Sridhar tried to be over-smart by drawing the sun as a huge semi-circle spanning the whole page...with the earth and moon as tiny dots because of their relative sizes in space.
Mr Lawrence called out Mehernosh. He was still busy sharpening the pencil that had turned to a tiny stub. Mr Lawrence held him by the ear till his ear and face turned red. Mehernosh had labeled the sun as "Dinesh" and had added "football" in brackets for clarity!
