Alan Turing’s signs of the genius and his teachers

Alan Mathison Turing, (23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, logician and cryptographer. Turing is often considered to be the father of modern computer science.

Very early in life, Alan Mathison Turing showed signs of the genius he was to display more prominently later. In 1926, at the age of 14, he went on to Sherborne School, a famous and expensive public school in Dorset. His first day of term coincided with the General Strike in England, but so determined was he to attend his first day that he rode his bicycle unaccompanied more than 60 miles (97 km) from Southampton to school, stopping overnight at an inn. Turing's natural inclination toward mathematics and science did not earn him respect with some of the teachers at Sherborne, whose definition of education placed more emphasis on the classics. His headmaster wrote to his parents: "I hope he will not fall between two schools. If he is to stay at public school, he must aim at becoming educated. If he is to be solely a Scientific Specialist, he is wasting his time at a public school". Alan Mathison Turing is often considered to be the father of modern computer science.