"You Learn By Living"

I have had to come to terms with a few things as I've gotten older.
 
First:  I don't bounce back from injury as quickly as I once did.  In fact, "bounce back" may not even be the proper term.  I think "learn to live with the pain" might be more accurate.
 
Second:  My taste buds have changed as I've aged.  I never liked blueberries, coleslaw, or hummus when I was younger.  Now, I enjoy all of these and I may possibly be addicted to hummus.  I'm glad I decided to try these foods again.  I've also developed a taste for coffee at any time of the day.  You know you are "getting old" when you enjoy coffee at lunch.

Third:  I am, what the students would call, a nerd.  I was probably always a nerd, but hid it well (or no one bothered to mention it to me).  I don't care if I'm labeled a nerd.  I embrace nerdhood (get it:  Nerd Hood) with a ferocious gusto.  Nerds are "in" right now.  Being nerdy is "hip"(but saying "hip" isn't "hip"). 
If you are unsure what I mean by nerd, I will explain in the personalized list below:

1.  I thoroughly enjoy documentaries.  Not only do I enjoy them, but I want others to enjoy them.  So, I tell all sorts of people about the documentaries I watch and then follow up to see if they've watched them based on my glowing recommendation.  I'm always a little disappointed when they choose to watch Vampire Diaries or Pretty Little Liars instead.  I'm sure my enjoyment of documentaries has a lot to do with my complete love and passion for history since many documentaries feature historical topics.  I guess loving history adds to the "nerdhood".

2.  I read a lot.  Books are everywhere in our home.  I have no restraint in a bookstore.  I completely believe that Amazon.com chose to move to this area to be closer to me.  As you can probably guess, I tell people all about the books I'm reading and try to persuade them to read them, too.  And, yes, I'm always a little disappointed when they choose People Magazine instead of East of Eden, but at least they are reading.  I currently have 413 books on my Kindle e-reader and probably that many "real" books around the house.  I just hope I live long enough to read them all.

3.  I love quotes and random facts.  I have quotes and random facts written down everywhere.  I used to keep a file folder full of them in my classroom to "dazzle" the kids with.  Google kind of stole the "dazzle", but now I can find millions more quotes and random facts than before Al Gore invented the Internet.  I just wish I could remember them when I need to use them.  Random fact:  Ronald Reagan had a file drawer filled with hundreds of note cards on which he wrote quotes, jokes, and facts to use in his speeches.  They were recently published.   I should take a cue from Reagan and put all of my quotes, notes, and facts in one place. 
  

Several months ago, I caught part of a documentary about Eleanor Roosevelt on PBS.  Because I taught American history for many years I knew a bit about the former First Lady, but not very much about her life before marrying FDR or her life after his death.  I did not realize that Eleanor Roosevelt wrote several books and thousands of newspaper and magazine articles in her 78 years of life.  One of the books written by Eleanor Roosevelt is You Learn By Living.  It was published in 1961, just a year before her death.  I added this book to my huge collection of must-reads.  After reading just the introduction, I decided this was a book I needed to take notes from as I read (on my handy-dandy iPad2, of course). 

Here are some of the jewels I found in this book:

*"It is never enough, it seems to me, to teach a child mere information...What is essential is to train the mind so that it is capable of finding facts as it needs them, train it to learn how to learn."

*"It is the ideas stirred in your own mind, the ideas which are a reflection of your own thinking, which make you an interesting person."

*"If the child's curiosity is not fed, if his questions are not answered, he will stop asking questions.  And then, by the time he is in his middle twenties, he will stop wondering about all the mysteries of his world.  His curiosity will be dead."

*"The kinds of things with which you surround a child will sink into his consciousness."

*"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face...You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

*"One of the problems all parents face is that of bringing up their children to be as free of fear as possible.  Certainly you can't accomplish this unless you have developed a philosophy for yourself that is freed from fear.  If you can give them a trust in God, they will have one sure way of meeting all the uncertainties of existence."

*One of the secrets of using your time well is to gain a certain ability to maintain peace within yourself so that much can go on around you and you can stay calm inside."

See what I mean?  Eleanor Roosevelt was a smart lady and obviously highly valued education.  All of these quotes from You Learn By Living could have been written in 2011 instead of 1961.
 
Sometimes I think we get caught up in all the new "stuff" and forget that some things just don't change.  I enjoy reading about new trends in education, but education is still, and always should be, about feeding curiosity, instilling confidence, and training the minds of our students to learn for a lifetime.  The ultra-tech-savvy kids of today are really not that different from the students several decades ago.  They still have imagination, interest, and a sense of adventure of life.  Experience is still the master teacher; you truly learn by living.  At Boyd-Buchanan School, we just try everyday to fill in the gaps. God willing, we fill those gaps with the right things so that our students can achieve their dreams and be lifelong learners.  This nerd is in this for the long run, and I'm in good company.

--Renee Hood (a.k.a. Nerd Hood)--