My favorite teacher was an oxymoron

I couldn't tell you the names of 95% of the professors I had at college, but I'll never forget Norm Looney's name. Isn't that a great oxymoron? Looney taught drawing at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State) in San Marcos during the late 1970's, and I learned so much more than drawing in his class that I have been able to apply in other areas of my life.

He taught me how to really see what I was looking at. One day he asked us what color a tree trunk was, and the obvious answer was brown. Then he had us go outside and find a tree and put our faces within inches of it to answer that question. I saw yellow and green moss growing on the various shades of the gray trunk. I saw some brown, white, and tan color, too.

Looney challenged our assumptions and made us back them up. I've learned since then that many of my assumptions were wrong-- in art and in life. He took us to an art show in Austin, and I remember scoffing at some pieces that looked like a little child had been playing with crayons. He gently steered us into viewing them with a different perspective by asking us to try to think about how children first begin coloring with crayons-- the complete freedom they have when no one's taught them how things should be drawn or colored a certain way. He said the artist may be trying to tap back into that. Wow. I hadn't thought about that. That didn't mean I had to like it as art, but I could appreciate what the artist was attempting to do and not be so judgmental about it.

I know this is so cliche now, but Looney truly taught me to see outside the box-- which was a new concept back then. He taught me to try to see things from all different perspectives. That is an art tool, but the skill is also essential in problem solving. Problems turned into challenges for me, and it was exciting to figure out how to solve them. It still is. But before I learned those skills, I would give up way too soon, assuming a solution did not exist.

It's also an important skill in getting along and working with people, and respecting others' viewpoints that are different than my own. I think Congress and our Administration could stand taking a class under Norm Looney.

It's been thirty-four years since I graduated from SWTSU, and I don't know if Norm Looney is still living or even living there. But I've never forgotten him or what he's taught me about art, and especially about life.

Thank you, Norm Looney, wherever you are.

Wax on, wax off

How many times have you heard a child say, "Why do I have to learn this? I'm never going to use it in real life." And we come back with such stunning responses such as,

• "You need to learn this to be able to pass the __________(fill in applicable term) test," or 
• "You never know-- you just might be another Albert Einstein some day!" or 
• "I use algebra all the time in my everyday life," or
• "Hey, there's science in cooking!" or
• "It's good brain exercise," or
• "It's in the TEKS (or applicable acronym) so it must be important," or 
• "Shut up and just do your work."

Just kidding on that last one. I have to admit, though, that there was a lot of stuff I had to learn in school that I really do not use in real life, except in Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit. There was a lot of stuff that I learned in college that I forgot long ago due to lack of use. I think there is quite a bit of stuff we require kids to learn that seems to be of benefit only in the education world and not so much in real life. 

We do need to teach our kids: 

• how to read and understand what they're reading, 
• how to communicate through writing, speaking, the arts, and technology, 
• mathematics, especially for life - understanding budgeting and living within one's means, how interest works when it comes to mortgages, credit cards, car payments, etc. as well as career-related math,
• information literacy, which includes how to find the information they are seeking- no matter what format, how to evaluate that information and its source, to understand the difference between biased and factual information, to give credit or due for using someone else's creative efforts to avoid plagiarism and piracy,
• the arts - visual and performing,  
• how to think clearly, rationally, open-mindedly, and informed by evidence [definition of critical thinking, www.dictionary.com],
• how to use technology for something other than entertainment,
• honesty and other important character traits such as perseverance, kindness, courage, confidence, hard work, attentiveness, compassionate, others-minded, faith, forgiveness, respect, gratefulness, patience, loyalty, etc.,
• how to relate and work with others,
• how to live healthy through diet and exercise,
• to learn to question the whys and hows of life, and to improve a circumstance or situation or tool if they can,
• to take responsibility for their actions, their learning, and how to learn for themselves, and
• that "school" and "education" are supposed to prepare them for life, and that the habits (good or bad) they develop in school, and the knowledge and skills (learned or not learned) are what they are taking with them into life-- not the grades on their report cards.

A well-rounded education would include: 

• history, geography, and social studies (always with timelines and maps) to teach students a good perspective of their place in the world and history, 
• the knowledge that students benefit greatly due to the efforts of the ones who came before, and to hopefully avoid the mistakes of the past, 
• a good basic understanding of how our physical and natural world works, and 
• how to question and investigate accurately in order to solve problems or to learn the truth about something. 
• and of course, there's more than this. This is just off the top of my head.

Where many schools are coming up short is that they are focusing on getting students through the educational process like running a bunch of cattle through cutting chutes and into generic pedagogic pens, which tend to focus on the herd rather than the individual. The checklist involves passing their courses and the standardized tests that supposedly determine whether they've mastered certain skills or retained certain facts or not, according to the educators who developed the test. But in their defense, our state legislature (in TEXAS) hasn't helped matters by drastically cutting education funds, which has forced many schools to increase the student-to-teacher ratio. It's common for the average teacher in my former middle school to have anywhere from 150 to 175 students they teach every day. How can anyone teach and monitor and assess each individual adequately when you have that many students? 

By high school, students should have an inkling to the direction they need to pursue for a career path, and that's where their education courses should be customized to the individual and certain career-related subjects, which should be pursued at more advanced levels, especially the math and science courses. But too many students handicap themselves because they're not in the mindset of learning for their own sakes and futures. Most teens' priorities are focused on who likes whom and their appearance and clothing and dating and entertainment-- not building their future. And until we change those attitudes, too many kids will continue to graduate from high school and fall flat on their faces when:

• they realize they weren't prepared for college because they had learned how to make the grade throughout their school years, but retained little knowledge, or
• they learned quickly that procrastination and poor study habits don't work too well in college, or
• they blew through their college savings account the first semester, or 
• jump into neck-high debt with easy-money credit cards because they didn't learn how to manage their personal finances, or
• they go directly into the workforce and learn the hard way that a minimum wage job will not support them or a family. (a simple math lesson if they were paying attention)

I think we should have good answers when a student asks why they have to learn something when they don't think they would ever use it in life. Tell them or show them how a math or science skill will be used in real life. Tell them why it's important to learn about our country's history, or human nature, or someone's life. Tell them why we need to know about other cultures around the world, and that we should be grateful for the freedoms and opportunities our country provides. Tell them why it's vital that they learn to communicate well and to stay up with technology. 

If they're in middle school and below, I like to tell students the wax on, wax off story from The Karate Kid movie. They may not realize the usefulness of many of their assignments now, but the skill or knowledge learned may come in handy in the future when it's applied in a different way. And sometimes learning something is simply good brain exercise, or a practice in doing a job well. A lot of what we adults do in our jobs and at home can be mundane and repetitious, and kids need to learn to muscle through that discipline, too. 

The most effective type of learning is at the point of need, but until we help students to recognize the "need" and the "why" behind most learning in school, too many are destined to learn too many things the difficult way in the school of hard knocks beyond those classroom walls.