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PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

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So Much for Certainty

by Rebecca Skloot, April 5, 2010 10:08 AM
I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I used to skip high school to hang out in the aisles and coffee shop at Powell's. It's true. My freshman year (at Lincoln High School, for those interested), I got less than a 1.0 grade point average because I was busy wandering the aisles reading books at Powell's and hanging out with friends in coffee shops and Forest Park.

But mostly I was busy pretending to be a student at Metropolitan Learning Center (aka: MLC). All of my friends went to MLC and I fit in better there than at my own school — MLC didn't give grades, students got to design courses for themselves, teachers went by their first names, we sat on the floor instead of lined up in desks, and we read books like Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States instead of a traditional history books. The only problem was that I didn't get credit for classes at MLC freshman year because I wasn't enrolled there.

After failing my first year, I officially transferred to MLC and started designing a curriculum for myself. Since I knew without a doubt that I was going to be a veterinarian when I grew up (so much for certainty), I arranged to take some pre-vet courses at the local community college for high school credit to help make up for the credits I'd missed my first year.

I posted the other day about how I first learned about Henrietta Lacks (who I'd eventually write this book about) while sitting in a PCC biology class when I was 16... well, I was in that classroom because I'd flunked my first year of high school and was lucky enough to find an alternative school that gave me the freedom to follow my curiosity wherever it took me.

After learning about HeLa cells, I became obsessed with them. As part of that obsession, I spent a lot of time back in those aisles at Powell's, reading about cells. It was there that I discovered Lewis Thomas and The Lives of a Cell, the first science book that truly inspired me and showed me that science writing was an art. Now, thinking back on it, I'm wishing I'd designed a course for myself called The Aisles at Powell's. I'm sure my teachers at MLC would have gone for it. In fact, maybe they'd like to do such a thing now... it turns out students can find more than information there. They can also find themselves.




Books mentioned in this post

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot

Lives of a Cell Notes of a Biology Watcher

Lewis Thomas

A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

Howard Zinn
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2 Responses to "So Much for Certainty"

Rosemary Lombard April 18, 2010 at 09:01 AM
I'm hoping you'll be doing more events in the Portland area. What would be perfect would be an evening in the Science Pub series produced by OMSI (for folks from the other Portland and elsewhere, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). Thanks for the encouragement about the nondeath of the book tour. I see interactions there that are completely lacking at other kinds of readings. Yes, I know the traditional tour is now a DIY project. For a book with as many hooks and audiences as yours, it sounds like a project practically on the scope of writing another book and book proposal, long processes for me, too. Rosemary in Hillsboro WIP: Diode's Experiment: A Box Turtle Investigates the Human World

Angela Baumgartner April 6, 2010 at 11:08 PM
I really like what you wrote; and wonder what kind of response you would get for suggesting Powell's be part of the curriculum. Let me know if you contact MLC about that and what the reply is! I read a book not too long ago on "How To Write Funny" and it was surprising the comments they had from people that I didn't ever think were funny and how they viewed themselves. Sherman Alexie thinks of himself as very funny; a riot even. Wow, glad he explained it. Now I'll have to re-read him to see where I didn't get him. Anyways, you made me laugh...enjoyed what you wrote. Thanks for sharing.

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