I envy my brother. When I was very little, he was finishing school and I remember his homework. It has been moments that you carry in your memories all your life. It was like going on adventure. Okay, I will try to convey it here.
Once he needed to create a model made of paper of a polyhedron with many faces. Maybe 12, maybe 20. He needed to calculate geometry for that thing because he only had a sketch from geometry book and no other resources. Then also think how to arrange all the faces on flat paper, cut it, fold it and glue it. He did it in one evening and I watched the process, hypnotized.
I believe it was the charm of pre-internet era and that’s my explanation.
Then, they had astronomy classes. They needed to do something about constellations. Maybe just make an observation. So, yeah, we just went outside, it was clear sky and he sketched all the stars he needed. We had many books, encyclopedias, and atlases at home, but what is the point if you can observe the subject with your own eyes.
Oh, that scientific method was mesmerizing. I couldn’t wait to grow up and get this homework in my astronomy class. Guess what, we didn’t have such classes after 10 years (that’s the difference in age between us). We had computers but not smartphones yet, and many essays could be downloaded from the internet. But my work I always did using books and later even going to the library.
But don’t tell my brother that I envy his life back then.