Trouble with School

I was not much of a student. I dropped out of high school. I received my GED at the age of 24 and started college. I did well, but I didn't graduate.

I was a bit of a juvenile delinquent. I rode in my share of cop cars and got into lots of trouble, including fist fights and suspensions from school and even an expulsion from Dade County Public Schools.

I eventually got myself straight, but never really got the formal education that I wanted or should have had. I got along. 

One thing saved me. 

I like to read. I spend a lot of time and money on books. I have always been a reader. Even during my delinquency. I would get into trouble, break some windows, graffiti a wall or two, come home, and read.

I now spend my days in a school. I am not a teacher or a student or a janitor. I own a business that runs school cafeterias. We have two schools we serve. I work in the larger of the two. I am able to look after my other businesses from the convenience of the school cafeteria.

This position has given me a very interesting insight. I feel I've come to understand the mind of young students in the middle- and high-school age range in a way that even their teachers, administrators, and perhaps parents, don't understand.

This is not meant to be a criticism of these people. Rather, I believe they are too close to the system to see the harm it does to the children it is meant to serve. This makes sense. Parents grew up in a similar system, as did educators. Parents may not see what I see. Educators may or may not see it, but they are, in too many instances, just collecting a paycheck and doing what they were trained to do. If X is all you know, X is just fine.

I have two daughters. One is finishing her second year at Montana State University. The other is finishing her sophomore year of high school. The older one has known she wanted to be a doctor since she was old enough to dream of what she would be when she grew up. While she has changed her focus since she began college, she is still on the path to being the first doctor in my family. My younger daughter is a singer. A fine one. This talent was discovered by one of her teachers and nurtured by another. She had no focus before learning of this ability and now she is working hard at making music and acting her vocation.

I am not proposing that kids shouldn't learn Readin' Ritin' Rithmetic, but there has to be more to it than that. 

I told my teachers and anyone who would listen that I would never need algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc. in my adulthood. I was right. While I had no idea what I would become or even what I wanted to become, I knew it wouldn't involve mathematics. Sure, as a business owner I need to do some basic accounting functions, I don't need the aforementioned. Maybe my accountant does, I don't know. That's not my business.

One of the reasons I dropped out of high school is that I was sleeping through algebra when I should have been learning how to balance a checkbook. I spent years as a banker and the only reason I know how to balance a checkbook is because I taught myself how to do it. I'm still not great at it and don't even get me started on reconciling that blasted thing. 

What I am good at is communication. Maybe some of you reading this would disagree. I may have been a good lawyer or perhaps a teacher of American literature. It's a little late now, but one can dream of what might have been.

I don't mean to whine and I don't mean to lay my troubles at the feet of others. I made my decisions and I accept responsibility for them.