Eminent Scientists’ Demotivation in School: A symptom of an incurable disease?

“[A]fter I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year” (Einstein, 1959, p. 17). This is Einstein’s explanation, in his autobiographical notes, for how coercive taking exams felt to him. Einstein is not the only scientist who found school demotivating. Charles Darwin, Carl Jung, and Michael Faraday also reported experiencing boredom in school as well as not learning much. The historical psychologist Simonton (1994), in his study on geniuses of the western civilisation, concluded that 60% of the great men of the 20th century simply hated their school years.