Current read: Hidden Figures

 I'm finally reading Hidden Figures, the story of African-American women mathematicians who were involved in the space program. One thing that strikes me is how different the attitudes towards excellence were. Or, for that matter, how different they actually are even today, if you step beyond the academic world. To wit, the author (Margot Lee Shetterly) has spent her career in media and publishing, mostly, not academia, so she hasn't drunk our anti-excellence kool-aid. Consider this passage from page 73, describing a professor who taught mathematician Katherine Johnson:

On staff in the math department was William Waldron Shieffelin Claytor, move-star handsome with nut-brown skin and intense eyes fringed by long eyelashes. Just twenty-seven years old, Claytor played Rachmaninoff with finesse and a mean game of tennis. He drove a sports car and piloted his own plane, which he once famously flew so low over the house of the school's president that the machine's wheels made a racket rolling over the roof. Math majors marveled to hear Dr. Claytor, originally from Norfolk, advancing sophisticated mathematical proofs in his drawling "country" accent.

Claytor's brusque manner intimidated most of his students, who couldn't keep up as the professor furiously scribbled mathematical formulas on the chalkboard with one hand and just as quickly erased them with the other. He moved from one topic to the next, making no concession to their bewildered expressions. But Katherine, serious and bespectacled with fine curly hair, made such quick work of the course catalog that Claytor had to create advanced classes just for her.

I cannot imagine progressive educators eagerly lauding him today, given the highlighted parts. Yet we know that this polished, demanding genius trained an accomplished woman who did important technical work for American victory in WW2 and then contributed to the greatest of human achievements: The moon landing. Even his hobbies, bespeaking a Renaissance flair for exotic and edgy pursuits, would be deemed a bit out of place; far better to show enthusiasm for pop culture and stuff like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObvxPSQNMGc

Not that there's anything wrong with enjoying pop culture, but it should be equally fine to enjoy Rachmaninoff and other decomposing composers.