Richard Feynman shows “how we like to learn”

A fantastic teacher

In my second year of my failing Physics degree, I was fortunate to attend a black & white movie showing of one of Richard Feynman‘s lectures.

Feynman’s lecture was a revelation. I so easily understood him. I thought like he did. He worked everything out from first principles. He was expert at explaining and articulating complex physics concepts. It was the best lecture I had ever seen by a very long mile.

Today, Feynman is widely regarded as one of the foremost minds in science. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.

At the end of the lecture I was however left deeply upset by his amazing lecture. I knew that if he had been my teacher I would have loved my subject and easily succeeded, not be failing as I was having lost all interest in the subject. My lecturers had none of his enthusiasm, none of his insight and none of his ability to teach.

I wonder whether Feynman may have been ADHD himself, with his quest to explain, his eccentric nature (bongo playing etc) and his eloquence. He certainly was a phenomenal teacher. In this short video Bill Gates does an excellent job of introducing Feynman’s unique gifts of teaching.