"When I'm not taking things apart, I get antsy," he told me this weekend.
That was right before he started taking Bruce's malfunctioning tape deck apart.
I'm glad he likes his work study job, but I was a little worried about whether he was getting challenged enough at college when he told me about his computer science class this term. It's a required class, and one in which he's learning a new language, C++ (a funny name for a language).
Apparently, it goes so slowly that he has his computer open, and is teaching himself a completely different computer language DURING CLASS, and he's still able to "answer more questions than anyone else."
Hmm.
OK, that part about doing something else during a class really bugged me, but mostly because I teach. I mean, at least he's pushing himself to learn new things when he's bored.
Still, I started wondering, as I have before, if maybe I should have pushed him to apply to places like ISU or UI or CWRU or MIT, where he would be in bigger Comp Sci departments with graduate programs and probably more classes. Programs where he might have been challenged more.
Hard to believe I started thinking that: I'm a big proponent of liberal arts colleges, with their close-knit communities of learners and the connections that they forge--between different disciplines, between students and teachers. But I was worried about my comp sci geek child--I want him to be challenged and have opportunities to develop his skills.
Later, though, he told me more about what he's up to at Luther, and my faith was restored.
He loves his math class, one called Chaotic and Dynamical Systems. Is that even math? Anyway, he told me "It's the math class that I've always wanted to take!" Right now, they (the class is just 6 or so kids) are learning all about the Mandelbrot set, which he thinks is about the coolest thing ever. I guess it's a type of equation that creates images like this.
Apparently, the math teacher is taking them to a math conference this coming weekend to attend sessions and meet the guy who wrote the book. Robbie is beside himself with happiness about that.
A couple of weeks after that trip, he'll be going to a computer programming contest, too--the students who work with him at the IT Help Desk recruited him. He'll be able to use the computer language he learned in high school, Java.
And! They're starting a new Robotics club at Luther, and guess who is one of four students who will be getting it started? Yup, my tinkering computer geek boy: "We'll be building a quad copter," he says.
So OK. This is exactly why I wanted him to go to a place like Luther: so he could have these kinds of special opportunities to pursue his passions and get challenged. So what if his comp sci class is way too easy for him. That's just this term. "I can't wait until I get into the upper-level CS classes," he told me.
He also said, when attempting to unlock the car door from inside the house: "The screen on the window must have enough metal in it to create a Faraday shield."
That's my geeky boy.
