Monday, October 15, 2012

From the Annals of Longest Gramatically Correct Sentence


... that made a spectacularly wrong assessment.
"I believe he has ideas about becoming a scientist; on his present showing this is quite ridiculous. If he can't learn simple Biological facts, he would have no chance of doing the work of a Specialist, and it would be sheer waste of time both on his part, and of those who have to teach him."
From the 1949 school report card of Sir John Gurdon, 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, when he was 15.

Here is an image of part of that report card.

Read more from this Telegraph article.

2 Comments:

  1. Venkat said...

    Abi, do we see objective assessments from teachers any longer. At least, we don't, here in Canada. See, http://domesticatedonion.net/eng/2012/perils-of-assessing-a-future-nobel-laureate/

  2. Abi said...

    @Venkat: The report cards here in India too appear to be loaded with positive terms. "Needs improvement" is about as negative as it gets!

    BTW, this post is not mine; it's by my co-blogger Arunn Narasimhan.