Nothing there is beyond hope, nothing that can be sworn impossible, nothing wonderful, since Zeus, father of the Olympians, made night from mid-day, hiding the light of the shining Sun, and sore fear came upon men.
Archilochus (description of the total solar eclipse of April 6, 648 BCE)
Archilochus (description of the total solar eclipse of April 6, 648 BCE)
A complete solar eclipse will take place Wednesday morning (July 22) that will last for six minutes and 39 seconds, the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century. Those of not in the far East will be able to watch live webcasts of the event (information at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/20jul_longestsolareclipse.htm?list3658).
There won’t be another eclipse like this in the lifetime of anyone now living. And those 12 decades just a blip in cosmic time. A wonderful inspiration for discussions about the nature of time and the wonder of the universe with students.
Jana Mohr Lone is the director and founder of the University of Washington Center for Philosophy for Children, an academic research center dedicated to research and practice in philosophy for children and philosophy of childhood, and she is an Affiliate Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington. Jana is the author of Seen and Not Heard (2021) and The Philosophical Child (2012). She co-authored the textbook Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialogue in Schools (2016) and co-edited the collection of essays Philosophy and Education: Introducing Philosophy to Young People (2012). Since 1995 she has taught philosophy in classrooms from preschool to college and beyond. A frequent writer and speaker about precollege philosophy, Jana is the founding president of PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization) and the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Questions: Philosophy for Young People. Follow her on Twitter: @JanaMohrLone