Erin Blevins, 17,
Senior
Albemarle High School, Earlysville, Virginia
I leaned back against the warm glass, glancing out the window at the tenuous clusters of red-gold leaves still clinging to the tree outside.
"It is our intention to preserve in these pages what scant biographical information we have been able to collect concerning Joseph Knecht, or Ludi Magister Josephus III, as he is called in the Archives of the Glass Bead Game."
The light pouring over my shoulder illuminated even the textures of the book, the fuzzy paper and soft-edged pages framed with yellow. I closed it briefly, settling myself further, and the sunlight caught at the cover painting. Wrinkle lines of wear threaded through the picture, aging a red-haired man with a fantastic blue hat and one piercing blue eye-- the other, like the fairytale background of arches and spires, was out of focus, dreamily indistinct.
"Hermann Hesse," the words read. "Magister Ludi."
Opening the book again with cautious fingers-- some of the pages were loose-- I kept reading.
My eyes flew over the heavy black print and I fell in. Magister Ludi speaks openly of something I have held in my mind for years, of "the dream of capturing the beauty of the universe in concentric systems, and pairing the living beauty of thought and art with the magical expressiveness of the exact sciences."
Since the beginning of my "formal" education I have almost perpetually been asked to choose between the two worlds of the mind that many people seem to find so mutually exclusive.
Science or English
"Which do you like," they ask, "science or English?"
"Which do you like"--such a simple question--"writing or math?"
"Both" seems too perplexing an answer. The world of Joseph Knecht, though, is a place where such thoughts are understood; the mysterious Glass Bead Game that he and his fellow students learn to play encompasses "the entire intellectual content of the universe."
For each player in each game the entire (literally universal) range of possibilities exists, without limits. That is what I wish for myself and for others like me--possibilities for everything, and the chance to create and grow into my own perspective, a synthesis of both worlds.
I want to be-- and think I am-- a scientist and poet, researcher and artist. This is despite the many specialized "tracks" various well-meaning adults have tried to set me on. Of course, it is easier to plod down one of those tracks, but it is more than intellectually detrimental-- it does not make sense. Science and the arts together can accomplish things that neither can alone. A fully-rounded education teaches people to view problems from new and different angles, revealing new solutions. Also, learning about issues and concepts from different perspectives gives a more complete understanding. Most importantly, by educating people fully, we will not ignore one side of them in favor of the other.
Impoverished Whole
Though I intend to go into medicine, getting a one-sided education in science would ignore half my abilities, impoverishing the whole. An education in both sciences and the arts makes students better people, benefiting them and anything they do. With a fully rounded education, each student will respond differently and make different connections between the not-so-delineated disciplines. Each will be better able to contribute something unique to the world, scientific and spiritual.
As a doctor I will directly impact, even save, people's lives. As a medical researcher, a new discovery could improve everyone's quality of life. However, I want to be more than a doctor or researcher. My dream is Hesse's: to combine art and science to reach remarkable new heights. It is a dream I can achieve, one I grow towards every day. I have interests and aptitudes in many areas; to be true to myself, to reach my potential as scientist, artist, writer and person, I need to develop and combine them all into something unique. I want to be able to share the beauty of art and the knowledge of science to help other people. I want to learn and experience everything I can, to be an intelligent, compassionate, trustworthy human being, able to contribute something in every area of life.
Demand Greater Things
". . . there came over him, with a premonitionary shudder of awe, a sense that this . . . would utterly change him and his life, and would demand greater things of him than he had ever before demanded of himself." ~Hermann Hesse, Magister Ludi Poems...