Posted on September 4, 2024 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet

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Building blocks of education

 

ABCDEFG

HIJKLMNOP

QRS

TUV

WX, Y AND Z

Now I know my ABC’s,

Next time won’t you sing with me.

Children’s Nursery Rhyme

It all starts again tomorrow. School buses will be running. Anxious parents and anxious children. Teachers will be bracing for the onslaught. It’s not New Year’s Day but the beginning of a new school year feels like the actual start of a new year.

Getting back into a routine.

And substitute teachers like me, will be waiting for that first call. It is highly unlikely that that will occur tomorrow. A teacher would be hard pressed to argue that they are stressed out on the first day of school. I suppose stranger things have happened.

Why do we go to school?

It seems pretty obvious until you dig a little below the surface. A few times a year, when I’m substituting with a difficult class, I will ask them to stop what they’re doing and ask them that very question. I start by suggesting that many of them would rather be anywhere else. School is pure torture for many students.

The first two responses are the obvious ones:

“I’m in school because my parents tell me I have to go.”

“I’m in school to learn.”

I probe and I poke and gradually several themes emerge.

Learning the Pythagorean Theorem might be relevant to someone who wishes to pursue studies in math and science. However, for the rest of us, knowing that the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides might not be particularly useful to a lobster fisherman or a musician.

Is it necessary to study English literature, science, history and geography? It might not get you a job when you get out of school, university or trade school but that’s hardly the point. If your life depended on it, could you write three paragraphs on the war of 1812? Did dissecting that frog in grade 10 biology set you on the path of discovery.

Here is what I tell the students:

You go to school to learn how to think and problem solve. You learn how to follow instructions. You learn how to read, write and listen. You learn about teamwork and cooperation. You learn about mutual respect. You learn about failure and success. You learn about accepting responsibility for your actions. You learn how to forgive and forget. You learn about relationships.

In essence, school prepares you for life after school, arming you with information but more importantly, life skills.

And why, pray tell, does a 73-year-old still get excited about going to school?

Community.

I often chat with people who have recently retired. Many adapt quickly to retirement and can’t get the grin off their faces. Others find it much more difficult. Losing one’s community and one’s reason for getting out of bed can be extremely challenging. Staying connected might be one of the most important determinants of a happy retirement.

I am very fortunate. I like being in school with teachers and students. This is an important community for me. Many of my contemporaries are shedding friends at an alarming rate. I am gaining new friends.

I have my writing community. I don’t have millions of followers but enough who keep in touch with me to keep me engaged.

I (gasp) have my Facebook community. Most days, I keep threatening to close down my FB account for good but then I hear from an old schoolmate from 50 years ago and am glad that Facebook reconnected us.

Most organized religions are in decline. They were once a primary source of community. Churches, synagogues, mosques were all places that people gathered. Even if you weren’t particularly religious, you got to spend time with a group of friends, neighbors or acquaintances once a week.

Chatting online doesn’t feel quite the same.

And unlike the good old days, people rarely visit anymore and dropping in on someone unannounced is as rare as common sense in politics.

Find and keep your communities. Stay engaged. Stay active.

The ABC’s of life.

Always Bring Coffee!

Have a great weekend.

 

Posted on August 28, 2024 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with one comment

A field of dreams

“Take me out to the ball game,

Take me out with the crowd,

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks,

I don’t care if I never get back.”

Take Me Out to The Ball Game – Jack Norworth

Summer is in its rapid decline and September lurks. You can feel it in the air. The days are getting shorter and the “Back to School” sales are in full force. In a few days’ time, the midway will roll into town, and we’ll be batting away flies and wasps at the cotton candy stand at the Eastern Nova Scotia Exhibition.

Speaking of batting.

I’m a sports junkie. I played many sports in my youth and still follow golf, hockey, baseball and football on television. I will watch just about any sport on TV if I happen to be bored… even darts. Cricket still baffles me. I’m warming up to soccer (football in most parts of the civilized world!).

I rarely attend live sporting events anymore. Sitting on hard grandstands doesn’t hold much appeal. My 73-year-old body doth protest when I sit in one spot too long.

Last week, I saw a post on Facebook announcing the 2024 U13 Eastern Canadian Softball Championships to be held here in my hometown. What an opportunity to re-live my youth so I wandered over to Dr.J.H. Gillis Regional school to catch a few innings… and to rekindle my youth.

As I made my way through “Liquor Lane”, a convenient path on campus for university students to get their groceries and beer, I started to have flashbacks. The path on which I was walking was once the field at the bottom of Bishop’s Bowl. Unless you’re ancient and a local, this won’t evoke a response.

I grew up just a few short steps from the university. In a wide-open field on the edge of campus (which has been transformed into a massive parking lot), I spent countless hours of my youth playing ball. On a street where families of 6-8 children was the norm, it didn’t take long to round up a couple of teams. We used old scraps of wood for bases. We scraped up enough money from collecting beer bottles and pop bottles and selling them to Pete Poirier to buy cheap gloves. No uniforms. No coaches. No umpires. Very often, the stitching on the baseball would come loose.

We played our hearts out. We were Mickey Mantle dreaming of swatting mammoth home runs or Sandy Koufax striking out the side. When we became bored of our own company, we challenged other streets in Antigonish. A quick call to Highland Drive or Brookland Street was all it took to arrange a friendly (?) pickup game. Bragging rights have always been an integral part of sports. Unorganized sports are some of my fondest memories.

A bat. A ball. A glove. Simpler times.

On a trip to San Francisco in the spring of 1974, I got to see the Oakland A’s play a double header. They were fresh off their second consecutive World Series championship. Their legendary lineup included the likes of Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers and Vida Blue. My back was much stronger back then and beer sales removed any discomfort that might have appeared after sitting for 5 hours in a ballpark.

Back when the Montreal Expos were Canada’s darlings, a few of us took a road trip to see a couple of home games in Montreal. We didn’t have enough money for a hotel and spent the first night of our travels sleeping on picnic tables in a park somewhere in northern Quebec. If I did this today, I would certainly be in traction for weeks! The Olympic Stadium, affectionately known as “The Big Owe”, after serious cost overruns, was not the best place to watch baseball but we still got to watch our heroes, the “boys of summer” do their thing.

I walked over to the Regional fields to catch a bit of the action. One of the local teams was playing. I watched a few innings and as the game was drawing to a close, it started to rain. I got wet but it was a warm rain. The visiting team prevailed but I saw lots of good softball and good sportsmanship.

As rain dripped off my hat, I dreamed of being young again.

“Let me root, root, root for the home team,

If they don’t win it’s a shame,

For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out,

At the old ball game.”

Have a great weekend.

 

 

Posted on August 21, 2024 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet

The Happy Wanderer

 

“Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends.”

With a Little Help From My Friends – The Beatles

The sweet smell of success.

The Olympic Games concluded a few weeks ago. The Games are quite the spectacle. The opening ceremonies were bizarre to say the least, at least to this old timer. I gave up watching after about 90 minutes. Apparently, the ceremonies lasted well over 4 hours and would have eaten into precious sleep time had I decided to endure the entire event.

I am not a swimmer but for some strange reason, swimming at the Olympics is one of my favourite sports. Like many other Canadians, I was proud of the accomplishments of Summer McIntosh. She dominated her events and captured three gold medals and one silver. Beyond her physical prowess, I was equally impressed with both her poise and humility during her post race interviews.

Despite the fact that events like swimming, running, and shot put are individual pursuits, anyone who wins a medal is quick to point out the team aspect. Nobody gets on the podium without coaches, mentors, family and friends.

Despite her enormous success, do you think that Taylor Swift would be where she is today without her band, management, roadies and countless others? Ditto for J.K. Rowling who relies on editors and publishers and a phalanx of others to take her to the heights that she has reached.

But these are the elites. Elite athletes, elite musicians. Elite writers.

What about your average Joe?

Anybody who claims that they are a self-made man is delusional. Nobody who walks this earth can get far without lots of support from their loved ones.

How do we measure success? Far too often we view successful people as those who accumulate wealth and prestige. In a lot of cases, these people have trampled on others on their way to the top. Hardly role models that we want to emulate. These people are self-serving and power hungry.

Succeeding at any endeavor requires grit and determination. Digging deep when it counts the most is often the difference between success and failure. Common folk, like most of us, rely on family and friends to help us along the way. I’m not talking about gold medals here. Success is an adult who finally has the courage to get their GED. Success is a single parent who raises children. I would submit that a single parent spends as much time and energy on raising their children as any world class athlete who has aspirations of the podium. Success is starting a small business and working 75 hours a week for years before making a profit.

When the light begins to fade and your journey on this earth is on its last lap, most people won’t talk about their wealth, fame or achievements. They know full well that their greatest success was raising children to be good stewards of this planet.

They won’t receive gold medals at the finish line. Just the pure satisfaction of having done their best.

Golden memories.

With a little help from their friends.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. To celebrate my 73^rd birthday, I walked around the Mini Trail, aka “The Cape”. The walk covered 78 kilometers over three days. “With a little help from my friends”, I had people walk with me, drive me to and from home each day and celebrate with me when the walk ended. Thanks to everyone who helped me and thanks to all who sent birthday greetings. In the words of Paul Simon, I’m “still crazy after all these years.”!