Odd Skills

My father taught me that nothing you learn will go to waste.  He was right, sort of.  Having survived an outdated school system, I hold volumes of esoteric knowledge for which I have had little or no use in my life.  I can’t say that higher mathematics did a whole lot to expand my adolescent brain.  I suppose someone cares about the Persian kings and their battle strategies, but I can’t say this knowledge has influenced many of my life decisions.

I can say, though, that nothing I have learned to DO has gone to waste.  Basic things like replacing a muffler on my car or cooking a decent meal are things I draw on almost every day, even though these days I pay somebody else to replace my muffler.  Even wildly esoteric things like molding lead bullets for a flintlock musket or crocheting lace for a friend’s wedding dress have helped me to grow.  These skills, these experiences, empower me.  They opened my eyes to laces that other craftswomen had created.  They taught me ancillary skills, like how to light a blow torch. 

Every skill I have ever learned without exception has opened a voice for me further into my being that says “I can”.  

Bangor Daily

Check out the Bangor Daily at

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/03/21/sports/rowing/midcoast-high-schoolers-get-taste-of-the-sea-in-crew-racing-program/

They did a great article about Station Maine.

Pirates

We had so much fun on the water yesterday with Alt Ed.  They were as joyful as I was that it was so warm and the water was so still and so clear we could see the bottom at half tide.  Then they declared their own  talk like a pirate day.

I wish I could quantify what they learn on a given day.  Besides the sheer magic of the water we landed on the shingle beach at Owls Head.  We talked about rock formations and sedimentary rock being turned on its side in Rockland which created the lime quaries and quartz and shale and granite and limestone and the different industries in Penobscot Bay surrounding mining.  I know that kids retain lots more when they’re outside the classroom.  The geology of our area is certainly as important as the Grand Canyon and Great Salt Lake.

Clearly, the school systems in Rockland think so.  We are fortunate to be here.

The Keel

I scarfed together a keel yesterday in a friend's workshop.  I am not a boat builder.  I'm not much of a woodworker.  But I'm normally intelligent and it needed to be done.  Because this particular keel will be formed with expoy glass putty and covered with several layers of fiberglass I knew it wasn't critical that it be perfect.  Just good enough to hold its shape.

I made a perfectly adequate keel.  A few dyslexic cuts had to be compensated for.  A few gaps will need putty.  And it probably took me twice as long as any competent craftsman working in his own shop.  But it's done and I feel great about it.

Have we, in our need for expertise and perfection, taken away from our kids, and ourselves for that matter, this sense of pride in doing something adequately enough?  Sometimes I feel like we channeling our kids towards the one field in which they will excel while denying them the chance to just do something.

I feel good about making that keel even though it's not perfect.  Everyone should have that privilege.

Work Ethic

I painted our trailer yesterday with a few volunteers from the Mid Coast School of Technology.  I found real pleasure in working with these young students.  They were in the Metal Fabrication class learning to weld, yet they clearly took seriously this mundane job of painting the trailer that they were a part of building for this community.

These students had that increasingly rare quality called a work ethic.  They made the decision that what they were doing was as important as the actual welding of the trailer.  They made the decision to find every crack and corner of that trailer and lay the epoxy primer thoroughly where it was needed the most.  They crawled on the floor, without being asked, to double check the underside.  They didn’t stop til the job was done.

No one is born with a work ethic.  Nor can one learn it out of a book.  It cannot be learned outside of direct experience.  How fortunate we are in this community to have schools that offer that direct experience.

A Good Idea

Never give up on a good idea just because it's impossible.

Empowerment

I laid fiberglass this week.  I don’t recommend this as a profession, although I have newfound admiration for the craftsmen and women who do this for a living.  It is hard and dirty work, but the results can be truly wonderful. 

So, here’s me in the bilge, laying strips of rapidly disappearing fiberglass to rows of resin over spots that I prepped over the week through hours of grinding.  Here’s me thinking thoughts like “why didn’t they tell me not to touch it?  Why didn’t they tell me how to mix the resin without making a mess?  How do I get the fingers of my gloves un-stuck?”

This is, of course, experiential education.  My own education born of yet another new experience and a new skill.  Knowing the theory of  how fiberglass is laid or simply  watching fiberglass laid, are pale shadows compared to actually doing the job myself.  Do I enjoy doing it?  No.  But I feel so empowered through having done it that it is worth every whiff of styrene and every itch of fiberglass.

The often unmeasurable results of experiential education lie in this sense of empowerment.