The Butterfly Effect
In 1961, when MIT meteorology professor Edward Lorenz walked away from his weather simulation to fill a cup of coffee, he didn't know that he would disrupt the understanding of determinism in science. A miniscule change in a calculation created vastly different results. If the theory transfers to my context, teaching English in an international school, a slight shift in content will alter the trajectories of my students. The butterflies I unleash in my classroom will become the revolutionary storms of a new age. Did Lorenz, while observing the weather, ever ask why the initial conditions were present? I know he must have. The current context is material to predicting activity and direction and change. Perhaps I am a meteorologist of a different kind, gauging the background knowledge and skill levels of students through measurements to determine their direction of travel, their speed, their force. So why are they in my classroom? Why would Polish parents enroll their son in an ...
