I believe in Education

(Side-note: Wow I started this blog last year, and then life got busy, but I'm going to try again to make it work!)

I believe in Education. I capitalize it because it is so important to me. It is a proper noun in my book for sure. Education puts food on my table. Education is my greatest talent. Education is my passion. Education leads to all other things. Education is my professional calling. Education is life!!!

Everyone deserves to discover what they are best at, (and I do firmly believe that everyone is the best at something, because at the very least you are the best at being you.) I'm [one of] the best at school. I love ballet, but I was never the best in my class. I loved playing oboe, and even though I was very good, others were better. I had fun playing softball, but heaven knows I'm not really aggressive or competitive enough to excel at sports. But in school, I was the best. I received perfect grades since kindergarten. I was valedictorian of my high school. I actually didn't get straight A's in college, (I was a physics major who took graduate level math courses for fun. That sh!t is HARD!! And failing every now and then builds character. Note: I never actually failed a class. But you get what I mean!) Got back on the perfection bus in grad school though and blazed through my degree with all A's.

Me, giving a speech at my high school graduation

Me, posing in my friend Jana's graduation cap and gown in my apt, since I didn't actually go to my bachelor's graduation haha

Me, rockin the hood and the heels at my master's graduation ceremony last May!

School is my thing. I am good at it. I LOVE it. I love every aspect of school. I love the social aspect of it. All of these people stuck together, forced to cram their brains with knowledge. I love extra-curriculars. I tell my students that I became a teacher so that I never had to leave school because I love it so much, and that is absolutely true. I get to go to high school football games for the rest of my life. Those are so much fun! I get to go to PROM every year! I LOVE an excuse to dress up! I get to go to graduation every year. And cry, as my big heart bursts with pride at what my babies have accomplished. Just walking through the halls of a school and sniffing the air like a lunatic gets me high, thinking of all the blood, sweat, and tears that have occurred in those magical places called classrooms where unbelievable personal growth has taken place in thousands of minds.

Me, now in the teacher role, with one of my beautiful physicists who was on Homecoming Court last year

Education isn't everyone's "thing," and I get that. It took me awhile to get that through my thick, education-loving skull though, because I'm thinking it's so easy to do assignments perfectly, and why not always sign up for the highest level of class offered, so that I can learn the most of every random subject offered?! My mother always pushed us in school. Anything less than an A was unacceptable, and we were always expected to take the highest level of any class.

My older brother told me once that he wished our mom didn't pressure us so much in school. He wished he was allowed to take more elective classes instead of having to take all AP classes so that he could have discovered his passion and talent for technology sooner. (Although Mark may not have loved school, he was certainly good at it! He excelled in every class and ended up being salutatorian in high school. [My little sister ended up being salutatorian too. My mother is very proud.] Mark is one of the most intelligent people I know. He majored in trombone performance in college. Now he does really techy awesome code-writing stuff that he taught himself and he's in charge of other techy people and honestly I have no idea 'cause computers are complex and my students teach me everything I need to know about technology like Instagram and SnapChat. End gigantic parenthetical thought.)

This comment from my brother came as news to me, because I didn't remember feeling pressured at all. My mom didn't have to keep up with my grades, because I was an A+ machine on my own. Without consulting my mother I filled my schedule with every AP class I could squeeze in because I genuinely found challenging classes fun. I was very competitive academically, (because I was so good at it,) and I couldn't stand the thought of someone in my high school learning something I didn't also know.

Education is not my husband's "thing" as well and that took me awhile to understand and respect. My husband is just as intelligent as I am; I don't think we would be as happily married if we couldn't keep up with each other's brains, but Q is intellectual in a very non-schooly way. (I like to make up words. You'll get used to it. I think I'm creative.) He's extremely mechanically-minded, having been raised around motorcycles and cars. He could build one from the ground up, and explain the purpose (and physics!) behind every tiny component. It's in his blood. Both his father and grandfather are bona fide geniuses. I say that with no exaggeration. Here are the geniuses I have come across in my life: Laura Hughes, my ballet teacher/artistic director of my ballet company, Q's father, and Q's grandfather. End list. But I digress...

Never would I have thought I'd marry someone without a college degree. I was almost sure I'd marry someone with a doctorate, maybe a professor, because I value Education so much and for a long time it was a very important indicator to me of someone's worth. Luckily I have grown and learned a lot since the time I held those opinions.

This is all to say that I understand that Education isn't everyone's "thing," and it shouldn't be everyone's "thing," because one of the most beautiful things about people is how different we all are. We all learn things differently, but to me that is what Education means. It means learning. Learning is so important, it is how we all move forward in life. I believe everyone can learn anything. I can teach anyone to dance. You think you have two left feet? I promise I've dealt with worse. I can teach you to dance. I can teach anyone physics. When I worked at a preschool I taught my precious babies about the moon, and colors, and they eagerly absorbed every scrap of knowledge I gave them. (Side rant: where do we lose our love of learning? All children love to learn, yet by the time they are teenagers in my high school they view it as a chore. It is one of my personal goals to reinstate that love of learning into my students' hearts, for that is something that will truly get them further in life.) Not everyone needs to go to college, (there is this awful, debilitating thing called student loan debt that will haunt you and hold you back from living comfortably for decades of your life,) and degrees are not a measure of someone's intelligence or successfulness, (there I go making up words again.)

That being said, I believe in our public Education system. People are not perfect. Thus no government, no church, no educational system is perfect. But that doesn't mean it doesn't work. There are good people out there giving everything they have, and there are enough to make a difference. I believe in Education, for it has so much good to offer. That is why I've created this blog. Education is my "thing" and so that is what I shall write about! I'm not trying to shove Education down anyone's throat, but maybe just to open some eyes and enlighten some hearts to the idea of this beautiful, complex organ.

I hope to restore trust in the public education system, and to encourage my fellow teaching comrades who fight this exhausting battle on the front lines with me. It is my biased opinion that we hold the most noblest role that ever existed. Now go back to Netflix and continue enjoying your well earned summer break!