Edison Coatings wrote:

> Who among us hasn't found himself, at some point, thinking back 
> to something a teacher said to us decades earlier, and feeling deeply 
> appreciative, even though that generation is now gone and we never 
> knew enough to thank them appropriately at the time?
>
Brian,

I agree w/ Mike. Lest we run out of time here, "I thank you all for 
teaching me."
I suppose to the degree we remember our past with teachers we can look 
to our students with it in mind to thank them now for their willingness 
to learn from us. The student honors the teacher by their presence.

I was brought up that we should always be willing to learn and in turn I 
believe that we all teach, regardless of the official 'teachers' hat 
that some of us wear.

I'm not sure there is anything wrong with a national population living a 
life dumb and happy. Dumb and miserable I can argue against and it does 
seem to be that dumb populations end up miserable. I once had a teacher 
whom I respected highly who was upset to tell me that if I did not 
continue my education I would end up driving around in a Cadillac 
convertible with a redhead. That, actually, intrigued me and I came very 
close, no Cadillac, but I did drive around with a redhead for a while. 
She had spent four years in Bellvue and was a painter. Her father Dean 
of a law school. Without too many details it was a volatile situation. I 
learned a lot from her.

My stepfather once expressed to me that I was pretty effin dumb because 
I could not remember the FM radio stations associated with the call 
numbers. He also one time told me that masonry must be a whole lot 
simpler than electrical work since I seemed to be picking up on the 
masonry a whole lot better. Though for some anguished reason I took 
honors math all through HS when I got out of school I could not add up 
the change in my pocket... we tried this one day and I failed miserably. 
I also had a really hard time reading clocks. But I don't think it was 
the public education that did that. Neither could I write a coherent 
sentence. And I had absolutely no clue what I thought I might want to do 
with my life. Still wondering. If you can at least help your students to 
be curious and impress upon them how vast knowledge is and that they 
will always be no more than a flea on an elephant's ass then I think 
that is good.

To me education is about the acquisition of tools, methods and models 
and I don't really care too much if I don't know who is who. Not that I 
do not like to know... just that I'm not fixated on it. You can go a 
long ways to get to the bottom of any historical figure. I am reminded 
of the two elderly gentlemen I overhead one day. They were 
preservationists of the colonial classical persuasion and appeared to be 
old friends. One said to the other, "What are you working on these 
days?" "I am writing a book about George Washington's architecture." 
"Oh, I would have thought he would not even know how to build an outhouse."

The mechanics who work on structures quite often have no clue what the 
history is that they are engaged with. Often enough it is not a history 
that is in any reasonable manner relevant to them. Particularly if they 
are an immigrant from the Third World. On the other hand mechanics can 
be incredibly curious, learning people, and want to know as much as will 
be given to them. They can be very hungry for the story of place and on 
occasion have a much finer grasp of our cultural history than we have 
ourselves. One of the the 'arrogances' that disturbs me in the work 
environment is when those who have an education, and a knowledge, are 
unwilling or simply do not think to share the history of the object 
everyone is working on together.

If you know something, say something.

][<en

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