Isn't it weird how just one class can change the direction of your life so easily? I always stress the importance of school, to the annoyance of my family and friends, I'm sure. A lot of school is just crap, busy work, and state-mandated fluff designed to make it look like they really care.
The important stuff in school isn't the schoolwork. There's so much else we learn there that we carry with us for the rest of our lives. One college class can end up becoming a major, a career, a life. Just that single three credit hours can mean so much to one person. Why would you want to miss out on that possibility?
What got me thinking about all this is that I found my 7th grade Science and Social Studies notebook. You would think your 7th grade class would be pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and I did, until I read through that notebook and started thinking about that class.
In it, we learned more than about the structure of cells and the history of the Constitution. My teacher, Mrs. White, was determined to make us interested in politics, current events, and the general world outside of our middle school lives. I'd never really paid attention until that class. Every day, she would have us write an inspirational quote beside the date, followed by a few current events. I was surprised that I actually grew to look forward to this daily ritual.
A lot of times, teachers start the year out with aspirations of daily rituals, and they usually only last a few weeks. Not Mrs. White. Not a single day of class is without a quote or event. She really, truly wanted us to think, not just pass our EOG's. This is admirable.
This also happen to be 2004, the Bush and Kerry Presidential election. She had us keep an election journal, not just of the Presidential race, but of many of the local ones, too. She even had Harrell and Virginia Foxx have a small debate at our school. They even answered one of my questions. That single project opened my eyes to a world of politics of which I'd previously been blissfully unaware. I started to understand the parties and what they stood for (eventually aligning myself with one), the issues, the jobs these people did. No other teacher had ever thought to even try to teach us such things, real things. It instilled in me a political awareness I still value today. I might still be living in a bubble if not for that class.
I can attribute so many things to Mrs. White when I think back about it. I never realized how much of me I found in there until I started reading that notebook again. The strongest memory I have, besides the election journal, is how she encouraged me to enter this essay contest that I ended up winning. Another part of me she helped me discover.
Who ever said school was useless definitely wasn't in Mrs. White's seventh grade Social Studies and Science class.
(Ha, this is the most boring blog entry ever. I apologize, but not enough to delete it. =] )
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