Now my studies are making sense.

Bird Droppings September 3, 2026
Now my studies are making sense.

My head feels like a sponge from not taking sinus meds yet; with the cool weather and weather changes, it always feels that way. Perhaps that’s why I was sitting, thinking back to a day when we, as teachers in Walton County, were not paid, as it was one of our furlough days imposed by our governor, and students were not in school. It was a teacher’s workday to finalize mid-semester grades and for training. I didn’t sit idle; I used the time to work on research and papers for my graduate school studies. I am sitting here this morning trying to sort through piles of what needs to go first. Schoolwork for my graduate work; I am a perpetual student trying to get ahead with grandkids coming this weekend. I do miss teaching elementary, high school, and college, but graduate school helps to pass the time. Maybe that is why my head hurts this morning. In less than two months, I will be seventy-seven, and that thought has passed through my pondering lately more than once, and who knows, maybe my brain is getting old and tired.

“The more sand that has escaped the hourglass of life, the clearer we should see through it.” Jean-Paul Sartre

As I was looking for thoughts and ideas to start, I actually was going a different direction when, by accident or should I say coincidence- I found this quote. As we get older, we have experienced more, and if we have learned from our experiences, the hourglass does clear. However, if those grains have been abrasive and scoured the glass as they went through, the glass will be scratched and foggy. Life’s lessons determine how we have responded, and how we would respond, based on previous experiences.

“Many go fishing all their lives without knowing it’s not the fish they are after.” W. Whitman

I am not a big fan of fishing as a sport and often draw strange looks when my students hear me say I do not fish. I enjoy the solitude and quiet but not the sitting and waiting. Still, once or twice I’ve had fish stories I could pull out by chance with my cousin from Florida. One took place in Wisconsin, when my father took my cousin and me fishing for Muskie, and another in Florida with my family, when we came upon a group of mating sharks. But they are food for thought another time and writing.

“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.” W. Blake

“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.” Albert Einstein

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake.” Thoreau

Choosing to look, to see, to listen, and to hear these are all choices we make as we go through life. It is far easier to take ideas and thoughts from others and be subjugated by others. It is so much easier to be what another wants us to be. It is only in hearing and seeing for ourselves that we can, as Thoreau says, wake up to the dawn. We must be awake. As I was reading last night, this thought came up, and it intrigued me since I started out using my own eyes and ears.

“An anthropologist asked a Hopi Indian why so many of his native songs seemed to be about the subject of rain… he replied: ‘because rain is scarce in our land… is that the reason so many of your songs are about love?’” from a Hopi elder.

As I thought, is that the problem in our society so easily recognized by a Hopi Indian in New Mexico who had never really been to a big city or “civilized” area of the United States, could it be a lack of love? In many of my graduate school readings, we look at whose eyes and whose voice perceive what is occurring in life. So much of history has been interpreted by a limited number of people, and through a very select and often biased lens. So often, we see only the winner’s view of the world in history.

“Mankind often stumbles upon the truth….but usually picks itself up & goes along.” Winston Churchill

We so often know the answer and choose not to listen, or we disregard it because of politics, popular opinion, or the majority-rules sort of thing. Much of history has been written this way. Many indigenous peoples have been eradicated and literally been the bad guys in history. Their land was taken away, and we make them the bad guys. Listening to politicians and power brokers today, this is still evident. Calling such endeavors bilingual education, not in a nice way and/or even one of my favorites, “voting ghetto,” this adds to a couple of the most ignorant statements of recent political gibberish.

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Albert Einstein

The more I read of his ideas and philosophy, the more I like his thoughts. I think it is funny how what we remember him for is more military-oriented work on the atomic bomb than his philosophy of life, which was pacifistic and anti-war. He loathed the fact that he was instrumental in developing weapons of mass destruction and even at one point said he would give up all if he could take that back. So where am I going today? Perhaps the following thought will help.

“Passive acceptance of the teacher’s wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; moreover, it is the way to win the teacher’s favor unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes men to seek a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position… It will be said that the joy of mental adventure must be rare, that few can appreciate it, and that ordinary education can take no account of so aristocratic a good. I do not believe this. The joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown men and women. Among children it is very common, and grows naturally out of the period of make-believe and fancy. It is rare in later life because everything is done to kill it during education… The wish to preserve the past rather than the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young. Education should not aim at passive awareness of dead facts, but at an activity directed towards the world that our efforts are to create.” Bertrand Russell

The sad thing is, so often we fall victim to 19th-century thought, and this, while applying to education, is very prevalent in the ideas of “normal” folks.

“Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening…The average American should be content with their humble role in life, because they’re not tempted to think about any other role.” William Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1889

It is so sad to think that we actually allowed this type of mentality to lead our nation at one time. Many times, I wonder if anything has changed as you read headlines and newspaper clippings. We do not want to over-educate children; they might think for themselves, then what do we do? The paradox is that in schools, the kids who are allowed to think for themselves excel and are often the pride of the schools. Yet throughout their education, an effort has been made to suppress them. We cannot seem to understand that the ten-year trend of standardized testing has done nothing to improve teacher quality and/or students’ abilities beyond taking tests.
I saw this quote from the late John Holt yesterday in passing on another person’s Facebook page, and it made me think.

“The most important thing any teacher has to learn, not to be learned in any school of education I ever heard of, can be expressed in seven words: Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.” John Holt

Holt and I disagree on many points. I am sure he was one of the first major advocates for homeschooling; however, it was not based on religion but on learning. I agree with him that traditional schooling is ineffective. I try to function within it and provide as much of an alternative to traditional teaching as I can. I have been a fan of John Dewey and experience-based learning for some time, and schools using his philosophy in many ways are not schools but learning environments. I watch current “reformers” trying to put teaching into even more cubby holes, categorize it, and traumatize it, and, in theory, learning. I am sorry, but teaching to a test is nothing but rote memory practice. Corporate America is making a concerted effort to strip away individuality and soul from our youth and profit from it.

I have used this example before, but since it is a good one, I will use it again. My son in eighth grade was told his methodology in a math problem was wrong, and he had to do it right, the teacher’s way. Later in high school, during his second semester of calculus, he found his methodology was absolutely right and even more interesting; what was wrong in eighth grade is so correct in twelfth grade, and again in four calculus courses at Georgia Tech. His math teacher in eighth grade did not understand calculus and therefore could not respond other than to say he was wrong. Sometimes we force children to our terms, and we are the ones who are wrong. We need to listen to the children, learn from them, and before I go too far, a last quote to end this Monday morning meandering. This is from ancient Israel.

“A child’s wisdom is also wisdom.” Jewish Proverb.

Well, I got a bit carried away, but I have several ideas to mull over, ponder, and reflect on, so be safe this glorious week ahead with projected rain and all, and keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts, and always give thanks. Namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

docbird