In high school, I took Miss Croxford's senior lit class (which won't mean much to the general population, but T.C. alums will feel my pain)...advanced biology where we dissected sharks and memorized something to do with the DNA helix (yeah, that info didn't stick with me)...I took chemistry, a couple years of algebra and two years of French...I filled my schedule with all the 'important' classes...the stuff sure to prepare me for the real world...the stuff guaranteed to get me where I wanted to go in this life. But oddly enough, two of the skills I learned in high school that routinely serve me well were learned in two of the most...how do I say this delicately? Benign...in two of the most benign classes I ever took.
Oh, please don't get me wrong, they were great elective courses...courses where things of real value were being taught for sure. But they weren't the classes my guidance counselor...or my parents...were pushing. They weren't classes colleges would have been impressed to see on my transcripts. And even for me, back then when I thought I'd wear a suit and carry a briefcase instead of push a stroller while sporting a diaper bag, I considered them nothing more than 'filler' in my schedule.
So what are these two skills I learned in high school that I use with such regularity that it warrants me noting so? #1-typing. While sitting in class with Mr. Farris at the helm, fingers down, wrists off the table, eyes up, never would I have thought typing would be something I use every single day. In a pre-computer world, it seemed like an unnecessary skill to acquire. But now, when a keyboard is part of so much of our communication, I'm grateful to have learned how to type with ease. Even though I learned on a clunky old manual typewriter, had to use correction strips (anyone remember those?) and struggled to get margins and headers right for my weekly Croxford paper, knowing how to type with speed and ease certainly has served me well. And it's more than just being able to easily blog, write emails or Facebook like a pro, it serves me well at work too. Being the official 'typer' has it's advantages even in the realm of the high school cafeteria.
Secondly, the skill I am most thankful to know, although never so eager to use, is ironing. Crazy as it sounds from someone who avoids purchasing clothes for herself that will require ironing, I find myself standing in front of that darned ironing board on a near weekly basis during basketball season. Every Friday, my son has to wear 'dress' clothes. 'Dress' clothes = ironing. And while I in no way, shape or form enjoying the process, I must say, I am very glad to have learned how to press a mean dress shirt under the direction of Miss Buchanan back in home economics class.
So you're probably wondering what the point of telling you all this is? Well, as a mother, I want to make sure my kids know all the 'right' things. Education is important. But it's easy to forget that education isn't just reading, writing and arithmetic. Good grades and book smarts only take a person so far. Real life requires a variety of skills...some can be learned in classrooms...most are learned elsewhere. So while I'm grateful to be able to read and write, do math and yes, even type and iron a shirt, I am also grateful to have been taught to love others, to be kind, to be generous, to be a thinker and a doer. I am thankful to have been shown how to be a good woman by the women who raised me, my mother, my grandmother. I am thankful to have been able to learn the skills that make me a good wife, mother, friend. I am thankful to have been taught to have a good work ethic by a father who lived that out in front of me every single day. And for me, I'm confident in saying that the best and most valuable things I've learned are found in the Bible that I use as my manual for life.
The list of lessons learned goes on and on and grows even now on a daily basis. I guess, to me, the whole world has the potential to be a classroom if the student is willing to learn. And learning that is a lesson within itself.
So what are these two skills I learned in high school that I use with such regularity that it warrants me noting so? #1-typing. While sitting in class with Mr. Farris at the helm, fingers down, wrists off the table, eyes up, never would I have thought typing would be something I use every single day. In a pre-computer world, it seemed like an unnecessary skill to acquire. But now, when a keyboard is part of so much of our communication, I'm grateful to have learned how to type with ease. Even though I learned on a clunky old manual typewriter, had to use correction strips (anyone remember those?) and struggled to get margins and headers right for my weekly Croxford paper, knowing how to type with speed and ease certainly has served me well. And it's more than just being able to easily blog, write emails or Facebook like a pro, it serves me well at work too. Being the official 'typer' has it's advantages even in the realm of the high school cafeteria.
Secondly, the skill I am most thankful to know, although never so eager to use, is ironing. Crazy as it sounds from someone who avoids purchasing clothes for herself that will require ironing, I find myself standing in front of that darned ironing board on a near weekly basis during basketball season. Every Friday, my son has to wear 'dress' clothes. 'Dress' clothes = ironing. And while I in no way, shape or form enjoying the process, I must say, I am very glad to have learned how to press a mean dress shirt under the direction of Miss Buchanan back in home economics class.
So you're probably wondering what the point of telling you all this is? Well, as a mother, I want to make sure my kids know all the 'right' things. Education is important. But it's easy to forget that education isn't just reading, writing and arithmetic. Good grades and book smarts only take a person so far. Real life requires a variety of skills...some can be learned in classrooms...most are learned elsewhere. So while I'm grateful to be able to read and write, do math and yes, even type and iron a shirt, I am also grateful to have been taught to love others, to be kind, to be generous, to be a thinker and a doer. I am thankful to have been shown how to be a good woman by the women who raised me, my mother, my grandmother. I am thankful to have been able to learn the skills that make me a good wife, mother, friend. I am thankful to have been taught to have a good work ethic by a father who lived that out in front of me every single day. And for me, I'm confident in saying that the best and most valuable things I've learned are found in the Bible that I use as my manual for life.
The list of lessons learned goes on and on and grows even now on a daily basis. I guess, to me, the whole world has the potential to be a classroom if the student is willing to learn. And learning that is a lesson within itself.
Tami dear, you are sooo right! Most of our greatest teachers are not the ones found in the classrooms. My parents, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and neighbors taught me such important life skills. Meanwhile, I agree on another point of yours: High school typing class turned out to be one of the most important classes I ever took! And typing was not a course included on the academic schedule I was on. Against my guidance counselor's advice my senior year, I dropped my last semester of French and replaced it with typing. Oh, and I am so glad I did. As soon as I arrived at Purdue, I had professors demanding one typed paper after another. I shuddered when I thought what if I had come to Purdue without typing skills.
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