The Golden Projector
At last night’s presidential debate (or, as I like to call it, Sleepy Time 2008), McCain called out Obama for earmarking $3 million dollars to buy an overhead projector for a planetarium in Chicago.
As a former High School Algebra I teacher, I am very familiar with overhead projectors. I know, for a fact. that they do not cost $3 million dollars. Mainly because I broke one once. It happened one day when I was trying to give a lesson using the projector. I liked using it from time to time because it let me turn out the lights so the students couldn’t see when I gave them the finger.
But this one time the class just would not shut the hell up. Whisper, whisper, whisper. Talking about who likes who, what’s for lunch, who are you going to ask to the big dance, why is Mr. Genoa giving me the finger…you know, normal teenager stuff. But it was driving me NUTS.
At one point, I gave up. I stopped talking, took my glasses off, and leaned against the projector to give myself a minute to calm down before I killed someone.
Kind of like this, but with my head on the projector.
And of course the projector slid off the little mobile cart thingy and smashed onto the floor. It sounded like a bomb exploded. Teachers from other classes came running in, most likely assuming that I had gone off the deep end and was stomping the students to pieces, a la Godzilla.
Later, I was told by the janitor, as he helped me clean up the broken glass, that the projectors cost about $100. Not $3 million.
So what was McCain talking about last night? Some sort of overhead projector dipped in gold? Well, it turns out that he was referring to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, who released this statement earlier today.
“To clarify, the Adler Planetarium requested federal support – which was not funded – to replace the projector in its historic Sky Theater, the first planetarium theater in the Western Hemisphere. The Adler’s Zeiss Mark VI projector – not an overhead projector – is the instrument that re-creates the night sky in a dome theater, the quintessential planetarium experience. The Adler’s projector is nearly 40 years old and is no longer supported with parts or service by the manufacturer. It is only the second planetarium projector in the Adler’s 78 years of operation.
Science literacy is an urgent issue in the United States. To remain competitive and ensure national security, it is vital that we educate and inspire the next generation of explorers to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.”
To give you an idea of what this projector looks like, here’s the model that the planetarium was likely trying to get funding for:
Just a taaaaaaaaaaaad bit different from what I used to teach Algebra I to a bunch of monsters.
The lesson here is that McCain appparently doesn’t think too highly of science education for our children. Many of the kids who would go to this planetarium in Chicago do not get to see much of the night sky very well due to light pollution.
What kids in Chicago get to see when they look up at night, is this:
As opposed to this:
I wonder which one would do a better job at inspiring the next generation of scientists?
(Via TPM)
