I had a school dream last night.
Cloris Leachman was the instructor. Our classroom was in an amphitheatre. Cloris wasn’t teaching. No one was learning. Teenagers were randomly leaving the room.
And Dave Warner ignored me the entire period until it came time for us to leave, when he wanted to walk me home.
Yep, that sounds an awful lot like my two years of secondary education in America:
- Wrong adults working in the wrong profession.
- Makeshift classrooms.
- Students running their schedule with an emphasis on time served not quality of time spent.
- Oh, and boys being aloof with classmates they secretly liked.
Prior to what I call the “useless years,” I was educated in two schools in England and three (elementary, middle and high) in Greece. And I loved everything about it.
I loved my teachers, my friends, my subjects, going to class. I even loved the 45 minute bus rides to and from. There are things I learnt in social studies in Ms. Hopkins class in grade 6 that I remember to this day.
That’s how good learning was there.
Those final two years put a stain on my academic career, but I made up for it at university.
Best thing I ever did was go to university. It gave me faith about the greatness of higher education in America, and restored me back to my rightful place as a peer in academia.
I kid you not, I basically camped out in the library for three years. On purpose.
My adoration for learning is the one thing I have always enjoyed about me. Well that, and my awesome hair colour.
That love affair continues to this day.
Recently I have been watching online web courses.
Not classroom creditworthy material, more like professional “how to” instructionals given by subject matter experts who reveal cool stuff that you can use right now.
And I’m beginning to get absorbed by the experience.
The first one was about Robotics versus Artificial Intelligence in websites. Another one was about AWS Cloud fundamentals for portals. Somewhere in the middle was one on leveraging the best out of Remote teammates. This last one was tips and tricks for optimal use of Visual Studio (a robust software application tool I use to design websites).
So there’s kind of a theme, but there’s also a variety.
Solid stuff, it’s making the left and right sides of my brain hopping happy to have new concepts and improved techniques to bat around that serve both.
And you know it’s progressive when your first instinct is to pause and reflect, and your second is to share.
I’m excited to discover where this course learning is going to take me. And just like that, I’m back to living in the library.
This rejuvenating world of mind expansion does me good. It’s pure and clean and fun. It also makes me feel optimistic and positive, and fresh-faced.
Next to the Soul … Learning is my idea of Perfection, only here on Earth.
It’s like a game of catch with your favourite friend in the backyard on a sunsetting Saturday afternoon before the real game begins.
I know, right?
The time is always the perfect time to play a game of catch.
Is it Heaven or is it Iowa?
I could of sworn it was Heaven too.
As an aside:
‘Ole lovestruck Dave Warner (name changed) from my dream is really a former coworker of mine, never lovestruck of me, but is a HUGE Phillies baseball fan.
Had this narrative been a part of my dream? Why I would have for sure melted the ice right off my classmate’s frozen rucksack.
Happy Saturday.