| I had an acquaintance who was proprietor of a small convenience store. I stopped in one day to buy some unnecessary and probably unhealthy items and noticed that she was very sad. This was odd since she usually appeared to be genuinely upbeat. I asked her if anything was wrong. She sighed and said, "I'm taking a Girl Scout troop camping next weekend." I was puzzled because she usually talked about these camping trips with great enthusiasm. I said, "I thought you enjoyed camping with the Girl Scouts." She said, "I used to but this year is different." "How is it different?" I asked. "Well this year the adult leaders have to study a book on first-aid and be able to pass a short test, and we never had to do that before." I scratched my head and said, "It's none of my business but it sounds like a pretty good idea and what you learn might come in very handy if someone gets hurt." "Yeah, I suppose," she said. "But I thought I was finished learning things when I graduated from high school." I waited for her to break out laughing because I had totally fallen for her gag. But there was no laughter. She was serious and believed that high school graduation marked the end of learning. It is certainly her right to regard learning in any way she wishes, but my very opinionated view is that life is a pretty shallow affair once we close the door to learning and the new ideas and possibilities that come along with it. It is not a coincidence that I am writing about learning during The Capital City Hues Back-to-School issue. Beginning a new school year can be a terrifying ordeal. And even at its best the first day of school will almost certainly guaranty many sleepless nights days or weeks before the alarm clock summons you to begin the school year. If you're in middle school or high school would wager that the subdued pimple in the middle of your forehead or on the tip of your nose will burst forth in red raging glory on the first morning of school. The outfit that you thought looked so cool when you bought it now looks dorky. The brand of athletic shoes you wear is another topic entirely. But aside from trying to look good, smell good, talk smoothly and confidently, and walk with a certain attitude, there are larger battles to face in the classroom. Things like math and English. Spanish and other languages. History. Current events. There are also haunting questions like, "Will I be able to bluff my way to a passing grade by just showing up and being quiet, or will this be the year when I have to show that I've actually learned something?" I have some advice for returning students. And please remember that I do not pretend to have figured any of this out. I am simply thinking with my fingers as I write these words. And I promise to do my best to follow my own advice. In fact, it's not my advice but thoughts that were shared with me at times when I was unwilling or unable to hear them: Sit at the front of the class. The back of the room, under the coat rack, only appears to be the safest place. If you fear a particular subject it is best to see it in full light, up close and personal rather than squint at it from a distance that will only distort and make the teeth sharper and longer on the monsters of math, science, history or English. Ask questions. Chances are that if there is something you don't understand there are others in the class who are clueless as well but lack the courage to say so. And if this is not the case, so what? If you happen to be the only person in the class who doesn't get a particular lesson, ask because you need to know. And rest assured that the time will come when a classmate will stare blankly and scratch his head while you bask in the glory of the answer that is obvious to you. Remember that it is not cool to intentionally do poorly in school. Learn all you can. Even the subjects that appear to be totally off-the-wall and irrelevant will serve you well some day. To not take advantage of knowledge is like tossing money down a sewer. You'll need to retrieve it someday when you don't have two coins to rub together and the effort will be very messy. So what to do? Don't throw opportunity away in the first place. Learning is a persistent opportunity and school is a great place to stock up on knowledge that you will apply to the world in ways that you'll never know if you don't give school-learning a chance. Don't get caught up in the "shoulda, coulda, woulda" trap. O.K. You messed around while you should have been paying attention and doing your math assignments and memorizing all the multiplication tables, theorems and postulates. But you didn't. All the regret in the world is not going to bring you up to speed. Today is today. It's not yesterday. You have to go back to the place where you started to lose your grip on the subject. Maybe it was last semester. Maybe it was in the third grade. Whenever it was, you need to go back there. Scrape away all the shaky stuff, all the bluff and hype until you uncover your foundation and start to rebuild from there. Ask others for help. Teachers and other adults in your life. Be enthusiastic about learning and I think you'll find that others will get infected with your enthusiasm. If you build a skyscraper on a foundation that is mostly sand it will eventually fall because sand shifts. That is its nature. Build on solid rock or concrete reinforced with steel and you'll have a structure that you can point out to your children many years from now. There is a period of time during which it seems like you can trick people (like teachers) into believing that you know things you don't know. Then the day comes when it is clear that the only person you have been getting over on for all those years is you. I did not graduate from college and I regret that I blew several opportunities. I attended off and on and made it to almost-senior standing. I went to college for free as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society in the '60s. The experience was exhilarating beyond description. I was particularly fascinated with existentialist philosophers like Camus and Sartre. But when I read these fellows today they depress me. Their perceptions, definitions and explorations of life feel too dour to me today. To my understanding, the world they describe is Godless and that is not a world that I choose to live in even if it were possible. But I am eternally grateful for the experience. I read books by the heavy-duty Black psychiatrist Franz Fanon who was born in Martinique in 1925 -- the year of my mother';s birth. It intrigued me that Fanon and Sartre were very close and supportive of one another. Homies of the mind you might say. Fanon is author of books on neocolonialism like "The Wretched of the Earth," and "Black Skins, White Masks." Dense stuff. He talks about the effects of colonialism on people of African descent and the mental and other invisible shackles that remain long after physical freedom is attained. I still get headaches after reading the first paragraph or two of anything he's written. And I am so grateful for the experience of Fanon. But despite the experience of these marvelous portals into other worlds and a second chance to attend college for free with the generous assistance of the father of the mother of my children, I never graduated. Why? Largely because I failed to follow the advice I just gave you. I've learned a lot about a lot of things over the years and I continue to thrive on learning, but I am not a college graduate. Fanon, Camus, Sartre and many others changed my world for the better and opened my mind. I met them in school. I would not have experienced them otherwise. They were not the topic of discussion on the corner of Avenue D and 10th Street in New York where I spent way too much time hanging out back in the day. Is school the most important place where learning takes place? My guess is that for some it is and for others it isn't and I am in no way minimizing the relevance and critical importance of the "University of the Streets." The point is that learning institutions are important places to acquire knowledge and to earn the credentials that say you have acquired specific knowledge. Don't play down the importance of diplomas. Every diploma is an arrow in your quiver and gives you another shot at the kind of life you imagine for yourself. Education is a way to solidify dreams. Learning is the coolest thing I know. There is no end to learning and I'm so glad there isn't. Be cool. Stay in school. A message that is simple, unoriginal, perhaps a little boring and very, very true. And don't forget to sit in the front of the class. Put yourself at the center of your own life. If you don't nobody else will. |
| Simple Things/Lang Kenneth Haynes Thoughts on learning |
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