Grandson Hooked on Astronomy

[Baddad (Marty)]

Grandson David, 11yr is about to change schools because of uncontrolled bullying in his current school.
This maybe a change for the better more than he had hoped for.
At the new school they have astro nights. A 14" Celestron CS housed in a 4.5M dome.
Also a 13M radio telescope.
Viewings are held once a week and David's immediate question was, "Will Pappy take me?" Pappy is of-course me.

I introduced David to astronomy when he was 5yr old. He was able to recite the planets of the Solar System and often corrected the teacher on the subject of the Universe.
We have had meteor spotting nights on top of telescope viewing. As he has aged to 11yr his interest has intensified.
I gave him a small scope earlier this year. He has amazed his parents who were fascinated to see the moon craters.

The other hobby I taught him is chess. He says that no one at school is any challenge, in his different words, .
He has well above average rated intelligence. He will do well in the science subjects. Perhaps a young candidate as a IIS member as well.

I did not intentionally groom him in any way. I simply asked him at times if he wanted to join me and now he is hooked.

Cheers

[PeterM]

Marty this is such a fantastic good news story indeed.
Congrats on being a really good grandad and being there to make a difference in his life.
Perhaps you could bring him to Leyburn in the future, not only great skies with so much knowledge available but also a good place for some bonding and geez if he is keen he can help me blink some galaxy images and who knows maybe share in a discovery.

[sjastro]

On the surface a good news story but sad a change of schools is the result of bullying.

Regards

Steven

[inline_online (Dan)]

I hope the school can sort out the bullying issue for the sake of those kids who are unable to move.

Great news about the new school though. It sounds fantastic. Hopefully they can nurture your budding wee scientist to his full potential.

Cheers,
Dan

[Baddad (Marty)]

Hi Peter, Steve, Dan and Stu,
I feel like a kid about the whole new thing. It starts next year.
I PM'd Stu more details about Dave's current school.

The issue that annoys me is that this young fella compiled a petition to bring the problem to the attention of the teaching staff. They refused to act and hardly responded. It makes me think that its something too far beyond their duties. Who will bear the consequences if a student is seriously hurt?
Maintaining the fact that the teaching staff had been informed prior to a nasty incident.

That indicates that the staff are blase, lazy and unprofessional. Which means that the bullying problem will not go away. I have not poked my nose into it its the parents job. David's parents are acting on it. That is good enough.

Next year will open a whole new chapter for David and me.

Re: Being a good grand dad. Notice my pen name? I like "Baddad".
I assume I could have done better as a parent. Although one son is a Blackhawk pilot with an Hon in psychology, next son is the manager for Apple for South Asia and daughter is a research officer for a university. She was teaching and was awarded the Apple Educator of the Year. Has Hons English and History.

Thanks for the invite Peter, Once David and I have time and the permission of his parents I will PM you for details.

Cheers

[Suzy]

Oh Marty I think you've just managed to out-do Jen & I with all those emoticons!

That was such a good news story (well, except for the part about bullying), but it sounds like a change for the better esp. as it will feed his science interest .

Yep, you've got to wonder about some schools...
When my daughter was in her last year at primary school there was a groundsman there who was very suspicious- always hanging around the bus stop outside the school with the girls, kept trying to come on to me & there were other parents there who were suspicious of him too. It was enough of an issue for hubby to take it up with the police, but they wouldn't give out any information on him . He also approached the principal. But as it was getting towards the end of the year and the principal was retiring, he told hubby that he wanted to finish the year off quietly- so nothing got done. Go figure.
The school had zero bullying tolerance, so was good in that respect, but suspect pedophiles were apparently okay.
I think it falls in the lap of the principal to make sure the bullying rules stay enforced.

[simmo]

It sounds like everything is going well. Wish I had that sort of thing at my school when I was young. Sounds cool.

And as for being a good father as long as they still talk to you then your doing a good job regardless of where they end up.

[Baddad (Marty)]

Hi Suzy,
That's quite unsettling and of much more significance than bullying.

However on a lighter note; I was contemplating out doing you and Jen on the insertion of emoticons.
I like to use them as they do reinforce the meaning of the written word.

Had more schools invested in astro gear there would be a much better understanding of our Universe. In conjunction with that governments would finance research more heavily. Which in due course would benefit us all.

I envy David as he is entering the field at a time when good quality scopes are readily available. Most of us missed out in the early days.

Hi Simmo, Scopes in our school days were too expensive, I think.

Re: Good father, Well I must have done something right. All my kids are happy to talk to me. Even though they are spread through Singapore, Albury and Germany.


Thanks for the nice comment Suzy and others. If anything interesting occurs in David's progress I'll keep you informed.

Cheers

[Ric]

Hi Marty

Good to see the next generation of amateur astronomers coming through.

I agree with simmo, it would have nice to have a scope at school when I was a kid.