Your Education ….. What Size Shoe Did You Wear?

Does This Size Shoe Fit Every Child?

by H Mac Wooten

“Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.”     Mark Twain

What do you really expect from Education?   Do you expect to know everything when you complete it?  Do you expect to get a job?  Do you expect to have understanding of many subjects / every subject?  Will you recite poetry, quote statistics, impress your friends with the boundless knowledge of the universe?  If some of this happens to be your goal,  ….. you better recite poetry, quote statistics and ponder the awe of the universe for yourself.    Education is for you and if you have any conscience whatsoever … it is something you should pass on to others …. and for your reward … you’ll live forever!  If you’re placing 100% of the burden of educating on teachers …. you better start to take some responsibility for yourself.

If you were fortunate, your Education gave you a sound base to continue learning for the rest of your life.  If you were fortunate enough to have had inspiring teachers, they taught you the importance of learning, they taught you how to learn,  they hopefully guided you in the direction of what to learn but more, they instilled the need to continue to learn long after you completed your formal education or at least until the end of the semester!

Education prepares you for the future.  Your future.  Your ever-changing future.  Education is your start, never wanting to stop learning is your reward.  To personalize this blog somewhat, I had a terrible start with my education and look at me now …. with the hepl of sppelcheker, here I am!    “Am” …. that’s a verb … right?  Verbs are action words … right?   And here I sit (sedentarily) writing this blog.  Maybe the irregular verb “Go” would have shown more action.  So …. after the hepl of sppelcheker,  …. here I GO!      When I no longer want to learn, that will be the day I die or maybe the day I need to die.  Actually one time when I woke up in the hospital,  I realized the importance of having taken an AP Physics Class and finally understood the relationship of;   Mass    Momentum  and   (Stationary Objects)  i.e.  trees !   

One of my favorite quotes and something wonderful to live by is:  Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.     Mohandas Gandhi

This quote touches on two very important intangibles.  The quality of your life is affected by your learning.  Do both well and you will truly have succeeded by most of the important measurements.  Your measurements.   If you feel like you’ve fallen a little short on either …….. you get a second chance.  Don’t squander it!  You may only get three or four second chances!  This is the part where I say that the seventh grade was three of the happiest years of my life!  

Our Educational systems today are somewhat designed (for better or worse) to measuring the whole group. If you can figure out a better solution, then maybe the President will appoint you Education CZAR …  but probably only until the end of the school year.    I’m not sure there is a better way to measure these benchmarks for our children,  but the whole is composed of individuals who  learn in many different ways and all don’t wear the same size shoe.  What size shoe did you wear?  How did you learn or did you fall through some cracks?  Life isn’t fair and one size doesn’t fit all.  When the variable of Poverty is introduced into the equation, the selection of shoes is greatly diminished.  It’s unfortunate but in reality all children don’t have the same selection of shoes.  Developed nations of the world have waaaay more options.  Developing Countries have few if any options.  Education is truly the path to the  future here.   We ask you to consider helping us help Teachers here do a better job.  Who knows, you might have an old pair in your closet!

Here in Peru (a developing country) where we live and focus our attention, Teach a Teacher and our Volunteers provide Professional Development and help teach basic teaching skills to Teachers in some of the poorest areas.   Please visit us at www.teachateacher.org and www.teachateacher.wordpress.com and at teachateacher on Facebook.

Mac Wooten is President (czar) of Teach a Teacher Nonprofit.  A native of Greenville S.C. We live and focus most of our  work in the Ancash region of Peru.