This is going to be a multi-part story of an adult student’s (I have found that I have never stopped being a student and I am learning, each and every day, something new and wonderful) retrospective looking back at learning and the possibilities and problems thereof. I am writing these little stories in the hope that it may help someone see from the mistakes and observations that I have made, from a better vantage point in time. Thank you for reading my stories. 

I don't really remember now who the teacher was that told me that no one could teach you how to learn. Boy, do I have an argument for them now. You see, I believe that you can teach someone the mechanics of learning (I will endeavor to explain in the second part of my story for my blog on learning what I mean about the mechanics of learning) and I agree with them that learning is up to the individual. There is always a spark within someone that excites them about learning. For me, back in the day before computers, before we could look things up on the Internet and find a wealth of information instantly at our fingertips, I was more excited about the physical tactile touch of learning. I will endeavor to explain to you  what I mean about the physical tactile touch of learning. What I mean is, if I could read a how-to book and then I could do it, in other words if I could read it and shape it and mold it with my hands, it was easier for me to understand and grasp the nuances of anything.

I once had a class that was taught by a teacher at Tech High School in Memphis, Tennessee in algebra that was taught by an elderly professor from some college or university. I don't remember which school it was anymore and I don’t know if I ever really knew.

It seems that every time I asked him a question that seemed to me to be a simple and an appropriate question, there was always an insult at the end of his answer directed at me when he answered. Being a very cocky 17-year-old I had my fill of his sly and insulting remarks toward me because I found them degrading, unnecessary and a waste of my time just as I guess he felt that my questions were a waste of his time. For me to understand what the equations that we were working with, when the properties of the equation had no physical meaning, in other words, X was only being shown as X and it had no numerical meaning, then why were we going through this exercise? I would hear something about a baboon's brain at the end of his explanation that was directed toward me. So I answered him back “it's better to get knowledge from the person riding a mule northbound, rather than the mule’s southbound end”.  So he sent me to the Principal’s office where I saw one of the assistant principal’s. I explained to him what was going on and I must not have been the only student that had this complaint because he explained to me that neither one of us would be happy with me being in his class.

I later found out there were as many as 10 students over the last two years that went to study hall for the same reasons rather than taking his class. He was the only teacher that I ever lost respect for. Belittling or berating someone is bullying and should not be tolerated from either a teacher or student. I would never have learned anything in his class. I was robbed of the knowledge either by my stubbornness or by his bullying of me. I'm sure though that his technique may have worked for some people, but he should have been ashamed of himself. I know that I now am ashamed that I said anything back to him; I just should have walked out of his class and never returned and made formal complaints even though in those days nothing would have been done. Students’ complaints in those days seemed to fall on deaf ears. I would have loved to have the knowledge that I lost by not having an algebra class and using the time for a study hall. Because of his bullying, I was deprived of the education that I deserved.

Sad

I guess I have never lost the feeling of being a misfit, you see I never truly saw things in a way that others did. I have never understood someone that sits down beside you and voices their opinion, expecting you to be extremely happy and agree with them and when you force your opinion, you're either an idiot or should not have even opened your mouth, because your opinion is ludicrous. I have never found that the world is made up of just one opinion or thought and that no one single opinion is right or wrong.

If the world of science had been so backward in their thinking to only taken one approach to every equation that they wanted to solve what a pitiful world it would be. Even though the pages of a book are in black and white what you read is just not that simple as in everything its way more complex than just a yes or no.

So why do we think that people should be so boring as to only have a single collective opinion. Solving the world's problems is way more complex than just blaming one country for everything that has gone wrong in this world. So why do we point the finger of blame toward others when we ourselves create our own problems? Why can't we figure out a way to solve our problems? It all sounds so easy when politicians running for office talk about how they're going to change everything and it never happens no matter who gets elected? I have found over my 60 years that no one person can be the solution, we all have a stake in our own lives and yes we are opinionated selfish and especially stubborn about all our beliefs. I'm not saying that that is a bad thing it is good to hold yourself to a higher standard than you do anyone else, but having a closed mind to better ideas is foolish and it also is foolish to fall for every schemer that comes along.

I don't have the answers, I know how I feel about everything, but I personally wouldn't want you to have the same exact ideas about everything that I do it would be an extremely boring world for all of us to agree on everything.

I was 6 foot tall and had sideburns in the sixth grade I felt like Frankenstein's monster amongst all the other kids. I just didn't seem to fit in as well as the rest of my classmates seem to. Today I also feel like Frankenstein's monster at times living amongst people that look at you with hate and fire burning in their eyes at you when you disagree with some viewpoint of the heirs. I could never understand how people grow to hate someone that's different than they are. You see I have always felt different than the majority of people I know. One of the main reasons that I am glad that I'm not just like everyone else is because I don't think I have within me the ability to hate, because I have had my feelings hurt so many times in my life because people have looked upon me with hate and contempt because of all things that make me different than they are.

 What a sad world we have grown up in even with all of its diversity and all of its many people, that we have grown to hate one another because we don't read the same book or we don't look exactly the same. It seems to grow sadder  every year as more and more people are being killed because they are different and even some of them are being killed because they care and want to make a difference in this world. I will never understand man's hatred of man.

We have fought wars to stop monsters from slaughtering people because they're different and we have proclaimed that this will never happen again in our lifetime, but you hear that so much of that horror is still with us today. How do we stop it, I don't have any clue, because it seems that when we put away one monster another one takes its place and we hear the same stories on the news almost weekly about one group of people attacking another group of people basically because they're different.

In the 60s we prayed for peace and love and understanding, where are those kids that prayed for that peace and love and understanding today? It seems that the world was not changed by my generation for the better or even for that matter not for the worse either, it just seems to stay its course. The generations before us fought the war to end all wars and it did not, there have been wars upon wars since that horrible war. So what is the answer how do we end hunger hate and war? I wish I knew.  How do we stop terrorism and even on a smaller scale how do we stop people from committing murders and killing someone for really no reason? I wish I knew.

I can remember my grandfather telling me on his 95th birthday that he doesn't watch the news anymore because it saddens him too much and that was in the 70s and I now know how he feels. I have all but given up watching the news myself and I am only turning 60 in February. I had hoped that the next generation would not see war and the armies of the world would unite for good causes and never again take up the bombs and the guns of destruction, but my dream was only a dream.

A wise man once said all you need is love, and I still believe that love is all you need and peace will break out as a consequence. But I don't think man by himself is capable of that kind of love without the help of God so if you believe as I do and as we did in the 60s that prayers are answered. I call upon all of you to pray for love so that peace will infect itself amongst all of God's people. I don't care what you think of me because it doesn't matter, think about all of those people hurting for the rest of their lives because they have lost loved ones to wars to terrorism and to just plain murder and feel some of their pain and pray with that kind of empathy in your heart and God will answer our prayers.