Life Lessons from School
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Happy new year. That's how I feel, at least, as September and the new school year come barreling along. There are some who would say that all they really needed to know they learned in kindergarten. Hmm. In kindergarten, I learned that talking too much will put you in the corner counting the holes in a pegboard, and that, when coloring a picture of Moses and the burning bush, it's not OK for Moses' face to be blue. (I was trying to be creative!) So, maybe kindergarten didn't make me who I am today (thank goodness!), but there are some things I learned in school that have proven to be especially important in my life and job. For example, I learned the importance of collaboration and sharing; I learned how important it is to be able to write well; I learned how to learn from mistakes; I learned the consequences of missing deadlines (not that I still don't occasionally miss them); I learned a lot in the school yard and lunch room about social dynamics. In college, especially, I learned to play to my strengths: Chemistry, no; journalism, yes. (Of course, I did learn some things in college that I wish I hadn't. But that's a blog for another day.) I also learned a lot about technology. I'm old enough to have seen the transition from typewriter to PC while I was in college, and, much as I liked my typewriter and feared that green screen, I also learned that it's never OK to stagnate. I would have been left behind if I had ignored the PC and the Web, just as I know I'll be left behind now if I ignore Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis and social networks--and whatever else will come down the pike. So, as the sound of school bells fills your ears (figuratively, anyway), please let me know what you learned in school that is making a difference in your work and personal life today. |
Comments (9)
I had rather intensive English and writing in high school and especially in college where my BA was in US History. I had to produced a lot of term papers requiring a lot of reading and writing. I went on and earned my MBA which was good but not as imporant as reading and writing is today in my career as a college CIO. It is amazing how many professional IT staff are not good at writing; in fact, many simply stink at it. What might takes me three or four hours to compose and polish up may take them a whole week!
Posted by Tim Farnham | August 25, 2007 11:30 AM
I attended a small four room school until grade 8 and it was the best environment for me to see that all learning and growth is collaborative and that the other kids knew as much or more than the teachers. I hated the regimentation and boredom of high school but loved college with its freedom and challenges so I got an Masters and Doctorate plus post doc work in collaborative areas.
Posted by Gary R Sweeten | August 25, 2007 8:47 PM
As the owner of an odd cognitive style, I'm afraid that the most profound things I learned in school were destructive:
* That deadlines are arbitrary and have little to do with actual learning.
* That memorization is a more important and useful skill than understanding.
* That unusual ways of viewing things, figuring thing out, and learning, are not welcome in an assembly-line educational system.
* That something was literally *wrong* with my way of thinking, and that scorn was an appropriate response to my natural approach. (This took me into my early 40's to usefully un-learn.)
The most important positive thing that I learned was:
* That in spite of the narrowness and the scorn, I was capable of learning a great deal in my own way, and that self education is *much* more rewarding than schooling.
Posted by contrazz | August 26, 2007 1:59 PM
contrazz' note got me thinking about my years of education, including a Computer Science graduate degree.
The comment about memorization will surprise some instructors who are used to locating every arcane passage in a novel for the next quiz or exam. Guess what? In the "real world," it's not important for me to memorize a passage or know the exact year a historical event occurred. What is important is for me to be able to appreciate literature and understand in the historical significance of a particular event and that history truly is relevant. Mere facts are quickly gleaned through many search engines. Understanding those facts is another story.
From a computer science perspective, I had a number of instructors who felt that using IDEs was taboo, as they prevented the student from truly understanding what was happening under the covers. Guess what? As soon as your students graduate, they have to learn how the IDEs work and unlearn some of the things they had been managing themselves.
Lest I make it sound like technology has changed everything, math, reading (building vocabulary and understanding how to identify the important points), writing (while I would not say writing skills are more important today than for past generations, it certainly is at least as important), and a host of other disciplines still require a sound understanding of the basics before you can truly appreciate how technology can be leveraged.
As an undergrad I studied Business, which opened a whole new world for things I take for granted when watching the evening news, reading the paper, or investing. Prior to college, I studied music (wish I had the patience for music theory and technique). If music can be taught in the right way -- not just something dry, it is very interesting and provides a lifetime of challenges.
Posted by Al | August 27, 2007 12:16 AM
Hello,
I learned very early in life -at primary school- (I was born in a coffee farm in Guatemala and we did not have kindergarten or Pre-K) that if I wanted to get ahead in Life that I needed to not only earn an education but be good at something: if not the best, be among the best. The school had a program to reward the best students with a schoarship to continue studies. That marked my life to the point where I am today. I committed myself to trying my very best to be always among the best, which earned me the right to compete for scholarships and now... 20 years later, I clearly see that most of what I have accomplished was because of that spirit of "do always your best in life" fostered in primary school. It was key for me. I am now a Computer Engineer, with up to date Network certifications and about to finish my MBA. Coming from a humble family with scarce resources, I was able to compete and pay for most of my studies with Scholarships won in the good old fashion way: competition!
Posted by Pancho Lopez | August 27, 2007 10:40 AM
Re: "It is amazing how many professional IT staff are not good at writing;". "Good" is an adjective. "Well" is an adverb. It should be "are not good writers" or "do now write well".
:)
Posted by RBK | August 27, 2007 11:24 AM
Grade school taught me that there was a world.
High school taught me how big it is.
College helped me find my place in it.
Posted by Rob Nalecz | August 27, 2007 4:07 PM
There's an adage - every rant about spelling or grammar has in it a spelling or grammar error.
RBK takes Tim Farnham to task for his supposed bad grammar. Sorry, RBK, but there's nothing wrong with the grammar in the sentence you are criticizing. "Good" is properly used as an adjective in the quoted sentence. "Are" is an intransitive verb; "good" is a predicate adjective, modifying "staff" in the sentence. Furthermore, "writing" would also take the adjective form, since, as a gerund, and the object of a preposition, "writing" also acts as a noun in the sentence.
Yet, it's good to know that those IT staffers "do 'now' write well." Apparently, at one time, they didn't. I assume that "now" is a spelling error, but maybe 'not'.
;o)
By the way ... I make no representation that my grammar or spelling in this message is correct ...
Quoting RBK :
Re: "It is amazing how many professional IT staff are not good at writing;". "Good" is an adjective. "Well" is an adverb. It should be "are not good writers" or "do now write well".
:)
Posted by RBK | August 27, 2007 11:24 AM
Posted by contrazz | August 31, 2007 1:57 PM
The most important thing I have learned in Collage is that Google is better than any textbook.
Posted by jay | February 3, 2008 10:31 PM