TAUGHT IN SCHOOL, LEARNED AT HOME

Where I come from what I learned in school, what I was taught in school, was echoed at home.

What I learned at home made me a better student.

Can I blame my parents that I wasn’t the valedictorian? Or salutatorian?

Or top half of my class? Maybe.

I just asked my wife, “What’s the most important thing you learned in school?”

(Since she’s soon to retire she’ll have time to appear here.)

Her answer: “How to be a friend. How to socialize, how to fit in.”

Which I find amusing because like the smart kids I graduated with she has great people skills.

She was top ten in her school. Top eleven? Twelve? And the best friend everyone she knows has ever had.

Our valedictorian comes to every class reunion like it means something.

Because it does. (Hey Sue)

I like introducing my wife to the women I went to high school with. They would have been friends.

Like the other kids who paid attention, who suspected there might be more to life than a diploma, they learned how to be friends, how to socialize.

Instead of mumbling and grumbling about a bad teacher, or a defective coach, they saw a bigger picture.

What was taught in school confirmed a bigger picture, whether you saw it or not.

Now it’s even bigger.

 

Learned At Home

By the time I picked up the title of dad, the ‘father of those children’, I had a personal goal to prepare them for the real world.

I cheated them in games, then explained the cheat while celebrating my victory.

I tricked them into making bets, then explained the trick while keeping their money.

They asked, like normal kids might ask, “What do you get out of tricking and cheating us? We’re kids. How hard can it be?”

To which I say: “Boys, when you leave this house today, tomorrow, or ten years from now, you’ll know to watch for tricks and cheats in real life, and you’ll think of me.”

“That our dad was a trick and a cheat?”

“That your dad spent time teaching you meaningful lessons. Who else would you want for a dad?”

Michael Jordan was their go-to ‘wish for a new dad’ guy. I’m somewhere down the line in hero worship, but top of the list of a particular sort of parent.

I went to a parent – teacher meeting with my wife. My takeaway was that my kid finished his work early and talked too much while others tried to finish.

I nodded solemnly and said I’d talk to him.

 

Me: How are you doing in science class?

Kid: Fine.

Me: You don’t skip?

Kid: No.

Me: You hand in your work on time?

Kid: Yes.

Me: Do you help the teacher?

Kid: No.

Me: If you finish an in-class assignment early, ask him if you can help him.

Kid: Why?

Me: Because teachers need help. Keep up the good work. What was your grade last time?

Kid: I got an A.

Me: Top of the class?

Kid: It’s easy.

Me: Not for everyone. Some kids need more time, more quiet time. Now go to your room and study.

 

Don’t Miss A School Day

How many times have you heard someone speak and thought, ‘that ain’t right.’

Without giving voice to the funky stuff, it’s not what was taught in school, not what was learned at home.

And, like most old cranks blind to the new reality, I blame social media.

But is it really social media?

From Google AI:

 

Meta $375M Child Safety Penalty

The jury found Meta violated the state’s Unfair Practices Act

 

Meta and YouTube $6M Addiction Verdict

negligent for designing addictive platforms that damaged a minor’s mental health

 

Nigeria $220M Meta Fine

fined Meta $220 million for violating data protection and consumer rights laws

 

 

Maybe social media?

Let’s say social media spreads information faster than anything ever has, which means it gets to fast learners faster than ever.

That’s good because now they can find ways to use information to make a better world.

In theory.

However, it also gets to slow learners faster than ever, and that’s where problems start.

Some borderline character sees an order to take direct action online and instead of putting it into the trash where it belongs, they take it upon themselves to ‘self-investigate.’

Why?

 Because they are a ‘citizen journalist’ responding to an urgent need to put things on blast, to correct the disarray they heard about, to reveal the long held secrets of the shocking truth.

And so on.

 

PS:

What was taught in school?

The earth is round. It travels around the sun in an orbit with other planets in our solar system.

The earth is 4.54 billion years old, give or take 50 million.

People who have been in school all their lives, been in the lab their whole career, stake their reputations on the material they publish.

PSS:

Social media influencers who have found their niche in shit talk stake their reputation on clicks.

Some folks appearing in copycat shit-face do their best to shovel what they’re told needs shoveling.

There was a movie that came out about the loyalty a group of news ladies had to show an old man before they got the job.

 

 

Did anyone look into what the guys did to show their loyalty?

Anyone? The same test? Different?