My wife teaches high school seniors, and this is something that she tries to impress upon them. From one of her recent posts:
I thank you for reinforcing what I was saying with a more learned source, someone taught to be, someone trusted with, raising the next generation. My view on education reform, is that we should test kids early. I know that mothers and fathers love to see their young ones become scientists and doctors and lawyers and be told that their son or daughter was "gifted." I was someone who got good grades, but too often, I needed someone to show me how to complete a task that wasn't some abstraction like identifying the key components of a story. My learning style is hands-on. I liked examples when doing physical tasks like cooking or cleaning.
Show me, don't tell me, but you only have to show me once, and I have it down. I have meta-cognition and was told, just today, that I have above-average intelligence by someone with some credentials behind their name. Education should not be one-size-fits-all, take-a-standardized-test. Too often, that relies on rote-memorization and then they start just covering the material on the test, which is not teaching the child
how to think, it's teaching them
what to think. Identify the kids who are hands-on, and put them all in the same classroom to streamline their learning, and keeping them engaged in the material.
My brother could do 2nd-grade work in Kindergarten. He is smarter than me, sees more of the big picture than I ever could. Why tell him at 5, he can't do 2nd-grade work? Why is it determined by age, and not ability? Why does he have to be in a classroom with 7-year-olds, when it should just be up to when they learn, what they are capable of learning?
I am not someone who turns off their brain because something is seen as menial and not worth their time. I may work at a gas station, but I look at the time when it gets busy. I do overnights for a 24-hour station. I know that between 4:40 AM and 4:45 AM, my regulars are coming in for coffee. This means, I have to have floors mopped and swept, coffee products out, hot breakfast finished, by the time this first wave hits the store. I remember our regulars and have their orders (usually a pack of cigarettes and what brand, or their size of coffee, ready when they hit the register, just to speed things up). I may not know their names, but I do know they are in there every day and fill their mornings with chatter, always reflective of whether they are tired (especially at that time of the morning) and gauge how much chatter is too much. I want them to have an experience, being a small town and our prices higher than most, than to treat them like a number and just expect them to come back. It's always about how you treat people.
I dream of being a Social Worker, as I find the human animal fascinating and want to help and serve those who need it the most, but I take pride in my work. I don't just throw things at the oven and the fryer, I want this breakfast to be good enough that they come back and have some more the next day. I thank my bosses every chance that I get, I talk them up to customers and potential employees, and try to serve them for giving me the opportunity to be in a job. It sure beats not having one, and when I sell a half-gallon as opposed to a fifth of Jose Cuervo, I am happy because if the store does well, then my paycheck is more secure--hopefully.
I don't stop using my vocabulary because I have a logo and a name-tag on my shirt. I don't play down to the perception you have to be stupid to have a menial job. I love my job, and the people I work with are diligent and hard-working. One does tasks beyond her pay grade, and served in Desert Storm, another helps like she is a manager still (she was, but gave it up), another has been there 16 years and doesn't approach it like it's a drag she has been there so long, but an accomplishment, another is young and having a baby, and works 60 hours a week between 2 stores. Another has an eye for aesthetics, and therefore, can get things sold just by seeing the details of dirt and presentation. Our maintenance guy is in his 60s, and knows the store inside-and-out, and he is a speed-demon. I can't keep up with him. These are people I respect and would do anything for. And it doesn't matter that it's a gas station. We all have worth, are trying to pay the bills, and take pride in our job. Someone has to do it, and you don't need to be stupid to do it. I didn't fail into this job. I am paying my dues until I can get my degree, even at 32-years-old. We all have inherent worth. And how could I look down on people who do a job as well, or better, than I can?
Anyway, thank you again. And you made my irritation over being told I was stupid, and didn't belong there, into something worth sharing.
