Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879.

Many of us know his story. I find it interesting to review it, sometimes as a reminder that he wanted to be a teacher. There's something reassuring about that fact.

He was mostly homeschooled. Teachers considered him too slow mentally for school. (The phrase of today is that he had one or more development disabilities.) He sat alone in the back of classes smiling. He said he learned and studied what he wanted. Teachers didn't like that. He found math and physics interesting. he dropped out of school at 16 years of age.

In 1896, he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. He did not find a teaching position, so he worked as a technical assistant for the Swiss Patent Office.

In his spare time, he figured out what he called the Special Theory of Relativity, the theory that both time and motion are relative to the observer. His observations arguably changed the world.

I wonder if other teachers think of this also. I have wondered since my first day as a teacher how many Albert Einsteins attended my classes and what I might have done more to help them realize their special theories also.

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