Just Like Marie Curie

      Every winter I teach a unit on researching and writing about Pioneers. Not the covered wagon, American west type of pioneers, but people who went before and prepared the way for others to follow. People who came up with something new or took part in the early development of something. Those type of pioneers.
      Each year I have mixed emotions about the whole teaching process of this unit. In the beginning when I assign their pioneers, I’m excited. I’m fascinated by each of the people I’ve chosen and feel like I’m giving each student a gift. They don’t always agree with the “gift” part, but usually my excitement is contagious. Next, their assignment is just to read the various articles and books about their pioneer. I still like this part. Each morning someone approaches me with some tidbit they learned the night before. I encourage them to become experts on their pioneer. They’re the only one researching that person and it will be their job to teach the class at the end of the project. The next step isn’t my favorite, but it’s not the worst part either. This is the part where I lead them as a class through how to research. I demonstrate and we practice together using my hero, Jackie Robinson as an example. This always seems to go smoothly.
     Then comes the part I dread, the part where they do their own research and write rough drafts. Twenty-four people need me at once. Research requires some independence. Independence and decision making are skills being taught and learned through out this unit. I recognize that. They’re third graders. It is just a very constant, tiring balancing act I perform. Keeping everyone on task, while helping and conferencing with each student, while answering questions. A huge variety of needs have to be met. It takes much patience and endurance.
     There are the rushers, the ones who think they’re done in a day. They don’t use dates, they only use the information from time lines or the index. They’re facts are often random or insignificant. They only use the simplest resource they have to find information. When I ask them specifics or encourage them to find more information, they tell me that isn’t in the books or they can’t find it.
     There are the distracted. Unfortunately research requires wise time management and some organization. These skills are part of our group practice with Jackie Robinson. I give them a variety of tools to help with organization: outlines, folders, pockets. I give reminders and dates for time management. I conference, edit and question throughout the process. However, talking to your neighbor, wandering around the room, staring into space, asking to go to the bathroom or get a drink and sharping your pencil for the tenth time in half an hour, doesn’t get much done.
     There are the perfectionists. These students come in two groups. Those who write down every little detail, afraid to leave out any information. Or those who can’t decide what to write down. They don’t want to be wrong, so they don’t write down anything at all.
     Finally, after much blood, sweat, tears and editing, their written report is done. We are all exhausted and relieved. I am also always amazed. My expectations are high on this assignment. They are required to practice and combine various skills for this project. It is truly a process and the end result is usually all that I expected and more. They do develop as writers and produce informative, interesting final products.
     Yesterday, however, I had one of those positive moments midst the chaos. I remembered why this assignment is so important. I regained some of that joy I get from teaching and learning about the pioneers I’ve chosen to assign.
     While helping a student decide what to include in her Marie Curie report I learned something new. I know many things about each of these people I assign to be researched. I need to know if my students are getting their facts straight. However, there’s always something new to discover.
    Marie Curie was a strong woman. She is an example that I think every woman should read about, especially working women and girls discovering what they can become. Marie Curie did things that women of her time were told they couldn’t do. In Marie’s time women were supposed to be the weaker sex. Luckily, she didn’t believe that and she found other’s who didn’t believe that myth either.
In 1897 Marie Curie gave birth to her oldest daughter Irene. While excited, Marie was also overwhelmed. Besides being a new mother, she was expected to take care of her home. On top of those two things she still had school to complete. How could she do all these things at once?
     I know many women who have asked themselves this question. The difference is that because of women like Marie Curie we have choices. Thinking about continuing her education was unheard of in her day. Getting an education, many didn’t even choose this path, was often just something to do until a woman got married. If she continued her education after marriage, she most certainly stopped after having a baby. However, Marie was smart and surrounded herself with people who thought her education was important. A creative solution was found to her problem. This solution, which is the new fact I learned today, was quite unique for the time.
     Marie Curie’s father-in-law lost his wife a month after his granddaughter was born. Lonely and sad, Dr. Curie offered to move in with the couple and care for his granddaughter. This solution allowed Marie to continue her studies a little less stressfully.
     Why do I find this fact so fascinating? Marie Curie did after all win two Nobel Prizes, one with her husband and one on her own. These facts seem much more important than a childcare issue. For me, it’s the facts about childcare issues, lessons learned from parents and role models, or the struggles that people survive that makes a pioneer. These are the things that often create a person who can lead the way and try new things. I loved discovering that Marie Curie was a pioneer in women’s rights, not just in science. Marie was a woman whose accomplishments were not only great discoveries in science, but also included not allowing poverty to prevent her from getting an education, being a working mother and raising strong daughters. Irene, along with her husband, earned a Nobel Prize of her own in 1935. Discovering that Marie Curie worried about work and motherhood is the most important thing I’ve learned about her. It makes me a little bit like her. It also reminds me of why I teach this long, difficult pioneer research unit. I teach it so that hopefully the student assigned Marie Curie each year learns from her example and dreams of being just like Marie Curie.