Sometimes Education is just Hard Work

If we've trained our children to learn only in the most colorful, entertaining, and sensory-tickling environments, we've short-changed them in preparing them for life. Much of life's responsibilities are simply mundane. Cleaning the porcelain furniture, mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, taking out the garbage, changing diapers, washing the bird poop off the car, vacuuming--no, picking white dog hair out of a black carpet, dusting everything, washing dishes, mopping the floor, making the bed, etc., and that's just part of the responsibilities at home.

Most every career or paying job has its moments of mundane tasks, too. Everyone needs to work a few bad jobs just so they will be able to recognize a good job when it comes along. I used to mow lawns and babysit before I got my first withholding paycheck job at a Dairy Queen after school during my senior year in high school. For two summers during college, I worked watermelons-- the first year in the office, and the second outside as a straw boss on the conveyor line. I've done secretarial work, I've taught in public and private and home schools, and I've partnered in a retail store.

The best job I ever had was as a part-time library director during my children's middle and high school years. I didn't miss a thing, and still had something left at the end of the day to pursue other interests. One of the easiest jobs I ever had was as a college library assistant, but emotionally, it was one of the dreariest because I wasn't allowed to do anything but check out books and tell students where the bookstore and bathroom were. And that came after I had managed every aspect of a public library for nine years. But since I didn't have a master's degree in library science, I wasn't allowed to do real library work.

One of the most demanding jobs I ever had was working as a paraprofessional at a high school while I worked on my master's degree in the evenings so I could eventually do real library work in a public school. Two of the worst years I ever had was teaching in public school where there was very little support for newbies, and trying to work in spite of an impossible schedule and working situation under some people who never should've been around children or the educational system in the first place. But that experience helped me to recognize a better school environment later where the staff received a lot of support from each other and their administrators.

In every job situation I learned something, even if it was for no other reasons than surviving the job or garnering some good writing fodder.

Somewhere along the line, children need to learn how to work hard in spite of difficult or mundane surroundings, because most will experience those very things in some jobs later on. A big part of preparing them for life is teaching them how to persevere, how to get back up after they're knocked down, and to not let a soul-consuming work environment destroy them.

Years ago my dad shared an old fable with me when I was going through a tough time. A king wanted an inscription put on a ring that would speak the truth in any situation-- to make him happy when he was sad, and to keep him humble when he was on top of the world. After much searching, his wise men brought him a ring with the inscription, This, too, shall pass. I can't tell you how many times I thought of that through the years.

Learning should be fun, fulfilling, mind-expanding, and at times just plain ol' mundane or hard work if we want to prepare children for life. To teach them that life and work is composed of both periods of ups and downs and how to navigate through it all is the truth.

Ups or downs, good or bad, happy or sad, hard or easy, more or less, healthy or sick, or any other dichotomy of life, this, too, shall pass.