Steered away,,,,

It’s day five of cold weather, cooped up at home, no work, and the mind is starting to wander into strange acloves,,,

(Update: A Guest post over at Sarahs House covers a similar vein to what follows.)

Starting last night, I was wandering into my past and using that hindsight thing to figure ‘where did certain shifts happen?’.    Most all of y’uns that have been here for awhile know how little respect I carry for our Modern Public School Indoctrination System.   And I could go on and on about what changes I think are needed to correct the problems: I won’t, not today (not much anyhow).   Instead, I am going to cover where things went sideways for me, and what I think “REALLY” happened.   

High School, mid 80’s: we were still getting educated for the most part.   YEah, there was some of that indoctrination crap starting, but we still had a hella set of STEM courses, still had Vocational Arts of several sorts ( I took all of the intro’s and excelled at Industrial drawing and Communicating arts (print shop, and why I know about linotype and such.)   BBBuuuuutttttt

Those wasn’t where I wanted my focus.   I was bound and determined for Education and STEM.   I wanted to be a teacher and I wanted to be an engineer (like my granpappy) and either would do me good, but why not both,,,,

The problem arose from this trend THAT I FEEL needs fixed in a MAJOR way.   Coaching and Teaching.    A lot of teachers are also coaches.   Or maybe I should say, a lot of coaches MUST  teach to justify thier existence.   Yah,,, that last seems correct: it definitely lends  validity to what happened to me.   

Gotta step this back a bit.   I was failed in the last year of middle school.   Not because I didn’t have the grades, but because I had skipped ONE CERTAIN CLASS repeatedly.   The reason I was skipping that class was BOREDOM!!!!   History,, (and y’all know how much I adore history these days, so it wasn’t the subject matter,,, it was the coach teacher/teaching method.    

monday: copy notes from board.

Tuesday, Read chapter, study notes

Wednesday; quiz

Thursday; study notes, compare to returned quiz

Friday: test

Upside, no homework

Downside, ZERO LECTURE, ZERO TEACHING  Rote memorization, and no elaboration on WHY this is important.

Ok, failed, Coach told them I couldn’t read (he never admitted that I had aced every single test he gave, even though I had only showed up for mondays and fridays.) so I had to repeat the grade and attend reading class.   

Reading teacher (who was a REAL teacher, not a joke pummeled on the students.) knew the game.   Tested ALL of her incoming students (and this was a very small class, literally in a large broom closet, with only 4 desks able to fit the space) and I  tested out at 3rd year second semester COLLEGE LEVEL reading.     I was only 13 and was reading books like James Clavells SHOGUN and such: mostly Historical and fanstasy stuff, so it wasn’t lack of interest in History,,,  

Reading Teach gave me an option.   Return to History class(Coach was the ONLY history teacher in that school: yeah, that small of a school) or she could teach me speed reading and typing, and I could do some of her work for her (typing up quizes, etc)    Return to that drudgery and torture class? Oh to HELL NO!!!    So I jumped on her offer, and she gave me 2 books a week to read and review, as she was also teaching me to speed read and type.   As the year went on, that list grew to 4+ books a week.

(side note, some of ya may already know, She was the teacher who escaped east Germany in the late 50’s, and her political views were ‘given’ to me by her choices in my course.    Some of them had to stew for many years before they exploded on my psyche, but they NEVER left me.)

SO, fast forward (back to where I started this) to High School.    I was further FUCKED by Coaches in my highschool years.    One Coach was the head counselor.   Another was the Algebra Teacher.  BOTH, (and in hindsight, I think colluded) Killed my STEM efforts.    See, without algebra, you don’t get to pursue the higher maths like Trig, Physics or Calculus.   I was forced out of Algebra within 3 weeks of the start of the year.   I was repeatedly accused of cheating (I sat center row, front seat right in front of the teachers desk,,,) off the football players that surrounded me.   The teacher/coach was the head Football coach.   The Counselor was the Assistant coach.    I was repeatedly accused of cheating off the player that sat BEHIND me, and when I tried to argue my case, there was NO hearing me.   The two NEEDED that player to have passing grades and couldn’t let him fail for any reason, let alone get booted for cheating.

AND y’all wonder why I so hate POLITICS,,,

The head counselor/AsstCoach flat told me that I was ‘Not capable of such higher learning,,, why not focus on management skills and the humanities instead’.   They even told me I had ZERO MECHANICAL APTITUDE, and that my spatial perception (lack of) would hinder me in the higher maths.   

BIG WORDS, Malleable Kid,

And I listened,,,    I wasn’t such a contrarian than (shush Sis,,, what I was at home was not the same as at school,,,,)(additionally, my personal history shows the lie of all his statements…)

It was about then, that what I really wanted to become, more than anything, was a teacher…    I knew even then, that a good teacher can have lifelong influence on a person.  My Reading Teacher showed me that.   Several of my English teachers showed me that.   

And even there, I was steered away,   ‘Middle management would be your best bet as a career,,,,’   Fact being, I HATE managing,,, I can do it, can even be good at it, but I HATE IT.   All the ‘management’ jobs I had, I burned out fast.  Even now, when I am in charge of crews, I burn out and need WEEKS to recover doing the things I do best, McGyver-isms, creating, building repairing: anything BUT dealing with others.

And knowing that now, I can see why I didn’t pursue Teaching as much.     There is more than a little management involved in teaching classes, I might have been able to handle small classes, much like what my reading teacher did, but the larger fuller classes,,,

And that brings me to my present day,,,   I know now, the real point of education: its not to teach subjects, its to teach LEARNING and inspire self education.   Thats much harder to do and probably why so many modern teachers fail at it.    ITs easy to play the ‘memorize this, pass the test, and move on’,,,  But thats not learning.  A friend of mine is a teacher, and I hung out with him and some of his fellow teachers not too long back, and what I gathered was “Pure angst” at dealing with the kids and the system.   NO INSPIRATION WHATSOEVER.   It’s not the kids fault: its all due to the system, lack of discipline (not just at school, but at home as well) and how the system tries to make widgets from individuals.    As in my case, for whatever reason the teacher/counselors decided, they did NOT want me going in the direction I felt a calling for.   It certainly was not my intelligence that held me back,,, (not going to list my IQ since I don’t believe IQ has much to do with anything but a score  to brag about.  And I don’t like braggarts.)   Since then though, I have always been a bit rudderless,,,  Adrift in the sea of life, no direction, no real goals.     I have bounced around as whim and passion dictated with no ‘resounding successes’ to call mine.   Not to say I haven’t been successful: I did become a touring soundguy, in less than 7 years, in an industry that is VERY dog-eat-dog.   I have (or held) certifications all over the spectrum of service industries. 

And I have memories from all of those that can’t be replicated in any other way.   

I’m losing my thread here.

I’m too old to go back and start over, No pursuit of an engineering degree for me.  I could take the time, make the effort and get my teaching certifications, but the only place you need those, really, is in the public sector.   A body could do a private school without the certs,    Those are fewer and further between though.(and very closed off to ‘outsiders’,,,)

OR, I could try to start something of my own.     And that calling is still the siren song in my soul.    Why would I come back here everyday if I weren’t trying to get some idea or concept across, even if vicariously and sideways.   Why would I continue self educating myself in things that have no point in my world (yes, I am still teaching myself the higher maths,,, thanks to Saxon math books and others.  And a huge blessing in Slide-rules, that should NEVER have been removed from the schools, even if they are obsolete in the real world.  More on that in some other post.)   Why?    

Because people need GOALS, and without goals, we become rudderless and drifting, and then we start to fill our worlds with meaningless trivalities and entertainments of no substance: Like video games and Stephen King novels.

I am hoping, and yes, its a thin hope, that (fingers crossed) with the removal of the Department of Education, local standards will open up enough that people like me, WITH PASSION, can start replacing those that are only at it for the benefits, not the kids sake.

And thats my post for the day.  No current events, and no OMB vs The BLOB,,,, Just a little personal history and random wandering thoughts of “What if?’

Live

Learn

LAUGH

LOVE

LOAD