Evariste Galois

6 chapters into a book about symmetry and Evariste Galois and I am completely swept away by who this young man was. He was a victim of his beliefs: in his passion to advance both political reform and a mathematical theory, he had been struck down time and time again. Even his death was under very spectacular conditions. No one truly knows how he died; various accounts from various sources differ in details. What they do know is that he died on the 30th of May. What they further knew was that he died as an indirect result of love. Being the energetic man that he was, he was perhaps too eager in his approach towards a certain Stephanie Du Motel, and two men stood up to defend her honour, challenging him to a duel he "could not refuse." At a young age of twenty, he died that day: 30th May.

I wonder if there are even such people today. And if so, how would we possibly remember them? Letters and diaries passed to and fro amidst correspondence had always served as the means by which such past greats are remembered. How then today? When emails are deleted and rarely anyone uses letters, how then?

I must say that had Galois lived in modern times, he would most certainly not have developed to who he is remembered to be today. Upon mere examination, we would soon discover several major influential factors in his life that are markedly lacking in today's society.

One factor for Galois was the presence of mentors. His mathematics teacher, having discovered such brilliance in one of his students, had taken special care to develop Galois in such a direction -- and to good measure, as is apparent. Subsequently, he came into the acquaintance of two men whose names I cannot recall off-hand. They were to eventually take it upon themselves to seek for sponsorships for his overseas travels, often having to resort to paying out of their pockets, and assist him in submitting his papers to mathematical societies for vetting. This was to eventually be met with a very huge academic blow to the young Galois -- for they would come to have lost his transcript. Still, the presence of such mentors were truly influential in sending him along the correct path of development.

Contrast this to the world today. Few university professors can claim to have mentors under their tutelage. Sure, they might have students that had been assigned to them -- perhaps being bestowed the title of "mentee" even -- but this inevitably remains an arranged marriage. At the end of their tenure, the students move on and forget the professors; often vice versa, too.

A second factor impacting Galois must then have been his eventual access to papers published by the mathematical societies. These were the original transcripts -- the same ones other experts similarly received. Today, however, he would most undoubtedly have been denied all this. The reason is simple: economic indicators today often only consider how many people are able to read and write; beyond that, any further measure is not as forthcoming. As such, schools serve to make sure that people are generally able to read and write by such-and-such an age, and perhaps a little more complexity should be achieved by such-and-such an age. In short, everyone is forced to develop at more or less the same pace. Extrapolating from this, it is not unreasonable then that professional publications are stored in University databases and libraries and not released to the general public. In this way, if a young boy like Galois indeed wanted access to such material, he would have needed to write in for a special permit and await approval -- the paperwork alone would stifle any uprising excitement about the subject. Considering the fact then that Galois was far from proficient in basic arithmetic and most other subjects -- for he was too advanced, in the words of his teacher -- his application would have been made less credible.

Perhaps a question of education should then be asked: should it be more exclusive? When teachers have to consider a large number of students, they scarce have the time to develop each individual's potential.When the pace of education has to cater to such masses, it will always hold back some brilliant individuals. When the society has to live up to economic indicators, they will ask of students extremely gifted in one particular field to be prolific in all subjects and based on that criteria, readily fail them in school.

Reading the story of Galois, the boy who achieved so much by the age of twenty, I feel inadequate. He fought for a revolution, he wrote letters to the paper to speak out against his principal, he penned several mathematical publications. Of course, he eventually died a young man. Still he was remembered by the world. And perhaps, as a fitting tribute, his theory would eventually prove to be integral in the unlocking of Fermat's Last Theorem several decades and great minds later.