It All  Begins in Kindergarten, Maybe……

   There are many things in this country that most living here experience at one time or another. One of those common experiences is attending school. Whether if be the doctor who is helping to cure your cancer, the lawyer defending you in a court hearing, or the mechanic fixing your automobile, at some point in time each of them, as well as you who are reading this will spend in a classroom. Attending school to learn how to balance a checkbook, learn the proper order of the letters in the alphabet so that eventually you could learn to read and write and learn the many skills needed to live and work in the world as we know it is important and the classroom teacher is an important part of that experience.

   Aside from what we may have learned at home from a parent of other family members, our more formal approach to learning officially begins somewhere between the ages of 4 to 6 years old in a school program traditionally called the ‘kindergarten’. Dating back to the early 1800s, the word’ kinder’ is the German word for children and when linked to the word garden, its original meaning meant “a garden of children” and was a place that would provide early learning and socialization. And after learning how to have a good relationship with each other on the playground, the more formal learning processes would begin.

   People learn in different ways and achieve at quite diverse levels. Personal  interests, including likes and dislikes,  are keys to achieving success in learning. It is often more than just how smart you may be but how effectively you use that smartness and how it effects what and who you will believe and support. And I have come to believe that there are many perceptions and events in our current society that lead us to judge and misjudge people in general based upon the level of schooling and/or the jobs and careers they may have.  

   A number of years have passed since I worked in a school and taught civics, government, English and social studies and even today I wonder where some of those students are and what they were able to achieve and accomplish in life, not necessarily because of my teaching abilities, but because of what they were able to learn and experience based upon what they learned or heard in their classes .

   I do know that several of my students became teachers, one eventually went on to medical school and several entered West Point. One ran for a political office. But why have I been thinking and reflecting so much on the past?

   We are experiencing some challenging times in  society right now. This is not the first time in our country’s history that we have faced these types of issues, whether they be world war conflicts with other countries struggling to maintain a democratic way of life or conflicts within different segments of our own United States. Are the ways and skills we use to attempt to resolve these issues of disagreement actually taught in school or learned on the playground?

   Although I had seen the video many times before, on a recent broadcast the attack on the Capital in Washington was replayed and for one of the first times of my viewing it, my emotional reaction was quite different than it had been in the past. I had seen it before and it was very upsetting to see the damage, hurt, and pain that was being inflicted upon those participating. But this time I wondered how many teachers and educators, like me,  who were watching, were able to watch it and  saw someone who may have been a student  in his or her classroom. How did it make them feel watching the violence.

   I still believe that, even at an early age, not only do we need to teach children to add, subtract, divide, read and write,  but we still need to understand that that while there are some things we all have  in common at a young age, over time there will be different opinions  and it is important to learn how to acknowledge those differing opinions with understanding and respect,  but not  with violence or hatred.

   And just an added thought here. It was not my intent to overlook the importance moms and dads play as teachers  for young children at home. But the world is very different from the one I grew up in. Many moms and some dads were able spend more time at home than they can today, which implies that the teaching and learning that takes place in the school may be even more important each day.

 

The Search is On….

As we close in on the end of 2024 and look toward the new year, of 2025, there is a somewhat long-standing tradition over the years with a new year to list some New Year’s Resolutions, things we hope to improve upon in our lives during the new year. One of the most popular, over the decades, I am told by Alexa, is to eat healthier food and lose weight.

 Over the years I have participated in this “resolution” activity and a few days before the new year I take a piece of paper and list several things I would like to change in my life and post the list on the refrigerator door, where the list  would serve as a constant reminder of what I hoped to change in order to make me a better person. To ensure that I did not repeat any of the items on my list in the new year, I went on a search to find last year’s list.

   It has been a while since I have seen that list, truthfully, probably since early January of 2024. Like many, resolutions tend to be forgotten a day or two into the year, and life goes on pretty much as we have become accustomed to, eating food we had for a moment may have considered unhealthy or cleaning out the closet of clothing we no longer wore (because it didn’t  fit! ) or making sure we had the oil changed in the car on a regular basis.

  The lesson here is that making changes in our lives can be challenging and in some cases is something that cannot be done alone and needs the support and help of those around us. And what we find is that in many cases we are not alone in our attempts to improve our lives.

   After a brief search and not finding the list I decided to move on and take the risk of developing some resolutions for the new year, hoping that I would not repeat any failures of the past year.

   As I sat down with a fresh cup of coffee and pen in hand, I began to reflect upon the year and some of the experiences that have crossed my path. There were new friends, old friendships rekindled, some new and challenging responsibilities to keep my days busy and of course, some dreams about the future and what life might be like tomorrow.

   I thought a great deal about watching my children and grandchildren grow up and that sometimes it was like looking into a mirror with reflections upon my own life and some of the interesting times and challenges.

   As I thought about what I might want to include on my 2025 New Year’s Resolutions list, I thought about a book I had read this year. It was a “short read” but contained some very thought provoking and interesting perspectives on finding out who we really are as an individual, what we believe and what we value in our lives, why are we who we are and what were those events that had significant influence on your lives, regardless of our age. I questioned myself if my life was really founded on my 78 years of New Year’s Resolutions or was it something else.

   I knew I would not find the 2024 list of New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t remember writing any resolutions for the year, so the need to search for the list was a waste of time but to help navigate each day, the book I found has been extremely helpful. And the title of the book? The Café at the Edge of the World by John Strelecky. I would encourage anyone to get a copy and read it. For me, the idea of understanding my “purpose for existence,” even at my age, was helpful to understand who I am, where I am in my life right now and what my future could be. As a result of the reading, I even keep a small slip of paper in my wallet with what I see as my purpose right now. It’s a great place for a daily reminder as I reach into my wallet to pull out a credit card. For me, that is a lot more effective than the list of New Year’s resolutions taped to the front of the refrigerator. And which by the way, that posted note with the resolutions from the previous years? It had slipped under the refrigerator.