NO COUNTRY CAN MAKE MEANINGFUL PROGRESS IN THE MODERN WORLD WITHOUT UNIVERSAL UNDERSTANDING OF SOME BASIC SCIENCE - Prof. Uchenna Nwosu
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Individuals react differently after listening to the four-year-old Ibeka Nwosu, Jr. recite the 118 elements that comprise the Periodic Table. As a village upstart in bucolic Igboukwu of the immediate post-World War II era, such a feat was completely beyond the scope of what someone like me could have been challenged to do at such a tender age. In our time, pre-kindergarten education was not begun before the age of five. Child’s education came mostly from the immediate homestead and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many fairy tales, including Christian scriptural narratives, took the place of children’s books. For children born in 21st Century America, the exposure to structured learning is certainly a world apart from what obtained in rural Igboukwu, Nigeria, eight decades ago.
It is amazing that a four-year-old can wrap his mind around the concept of the Periodic Table of Elements to the extent of being able to commit all its contents to memory. But that exactly is what the exceptional brilliant Ibeka, Jr. (IJ), did in the YouTube video. Prof. Nwosu must have been wowed just like many before him when he first watched the video. Then his thoughts began to wander. What a difference that exposure can make in the learning experience of a bright kid like IJ. It is a case of opportunity colliding with inborn talent.
Prof. Nwosu grew up as a child in rural Igboukwu, where he lacked all the media accesses that are now available to the California-based IJ. But luck smiled at the young Uchenna when, as a teenager, he secured admission into Govt. Secondary School, Afikpo for his secondary school education. From there, he went for his Higher School Certificate course at Kings College, Lagos and then earned a scholarship to attend Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. Prof. Nwosu was exposed to the Periodic Table of Elements, albeit at a much older age than IJ. What could have happened if Prof. Uchenna Nwosu and his age mates had the opportunity to memorize the Periodic Table as toddlers when they grew up in Igboukwu of the 1940s?
He answered this poser in one of his four remarks republished in this article. Looking back, Prof. Nwosu now believes that “knowing the Periodic Table is the key to freedom from fear of any “ju-ju”/occultic substance on earth”. This thought process then led him to fully explain why the exposure of a child to the fundamentals of scientific knowledge early in life is a sure conduit for escaping a lifetime paralyzed by fear of the unknown, magical and mystical world around us in rural Igboukwu. The Periodic Table epitomizes science. Science means exactitude and reliability. The professor proceeded to declare that no country can develop itself without first imparting the knowledge of science into its citizenry.
Prof. Nwosu certainly puts science on a higher pedestal than other age-old dogma that are steeped in religiosity, be it the traditional or alien variety. He concluded his remarks on the Periodic Table recital by IJ with an audacious proclamation that “science is the “forbidden fruit” that man has ALREADY been punished for eating in the book of Genesis”. He, therefore, enjoins his readers to “enjoy it (the forbidden fruit)”. Paraphrasing the preceding, science is a bona fide embellishment of God’s creation. We should, therefore, embrace science and all its appurtenances as an integral part of God’s creation. Science enhances God’s work, not the other way around.
To read Prof. Uchenna Nwosu’s remarks on science, God’s creation and human ignorance, go to the LNC USA website homepage and scroll toward the bottom. Share widely with your social media contacts as usual.
Okenwa.
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