SCHOOL LEARNING VS LIFE EXPERIENCE

School learning is the educational experience of showing up on time.

That’s the first test for new students. On time? Check. Finds desk? Check. Takes off coat and sits down? Check.

As parents, if a kid can do that, then we’ve done our job. Or is there more?

Do you go along with minimal levels of educational exchanges, teachable moments, and expect someone else to pick up the slack?

Is school learning something to endure for as short a time as possible so that you can get on with your life? If this is you, keep reading; if it’s not you, keep reading.

My high school was a three year place. Freshman were the kings of junior high with seventh through ninth grade. After junior year, some kids disappeared.

People who had been with the same kids since grade school stopped showing up. Did the move, dropout, get a job?

Real World Experience

I found the answers the summer after my first year in college. In those days summer jobs were the norm. Someone’s dad was a sawmill foreman and got their kids, and their kids’ friends, jobs in the mill.

The day I showed up for the swing shift I saw my old classmates.

The short version of their story was they dropped out of high school for the highest paying job in the area that required no experience. Then they bought a truck, a boat, a house, and they were set for life.

Some old guys in the mill had done the same thing when they were younger. They started in the South, moved north with the work, and finally out west.

One older man was from Louisiana. He started working a year before the Big One and spent the duration of WWII in ‘How Are Ya’ also known as Hawaii.

The man was a fountain of life experience. For me, it was what not to do. He’d been married a few times, had kids he never saw, and always seemed happy. I was nineteen, and even that young I knew he was an idiot.

Leaving Town To Learn More

After one summer in the mill, I decided to drop out of college and join the service. It was nothing unusual in a small town. Happened all the time, just not to anyone in my immediate family. I was the one and only joiner, the only veteran of the group.

I told the mill man my plans. He said the company was obligated to hold my job for me when I returned. Good news, but I wasn’t planning to return.

Girls I had dated in high school were already married. Girls I hadn’t dated were already married. Again, the norm for small town life. No one likes to say it, but it’s the norm for big city life, too. People meet and stick together. I wasn’t very sticky, yet.

I told my dad my life plans. His only advice was, “Don’t join the Navy.” What else would anyone expect from an old Marine.

School Learning In The Army

The first Army learning experience that stands the test of time was how it feels to be constantly sleep deprived.

How hard is it to comprehend things when you’re a sleep walking zombie? The expectations were pretty apparent the first time we checked out rifles from the armory.

We had to learn the rifle, understand how it works, and figure out which end was which. In short time we were in a classroom with our new ‘best friend’ and watching an instructor take it apart, then put it back together.

The firing pin looked like a contractor’s nail, which seemed appropriate. After watching the demonstration, we were charged with doing the same thing. Then, after getting the weapons checked, they turned the lights out and we did it again.

Talk about a riveting moment. It wasn’t life or death, but down the line it might be. Who would be the weak link in the fire chain? The one who couldn’t get his shit together in time?

This was the motivational talk from the instructor: “Be accountable to each other, you lousy maggots.”

Between school learning and life experience, the self talk for being accountable works.

Add lousy maggots as needed.