Education

Were you expecting to find out where I went to college?   You can get that on Linked In.  Yes, I have a degree, but is that what you are really interested in?  I’d rather discuss learning, it is a lot longer discussion, but it is far more interesting….I promise!

So how far should I go back?  Let’s go chronologically:

Nursery School

So why do I go back to Nursery School?  The same reason you are reading this: it is interesting!  I learned a great deal in Nursery School and it is an important developmental point for us as humans.  First off, we called it nursery school back then.  Today it is called all sorts of things that make it sound a little more educational.  It was educational back in the early 1970’s though and I took some great lessons away.  They are educational in a life education sort of way.  For example, I learned in Nursery School that I could not be Superman and I could not fly.  Obvious today, but when Kenny Panda, my classmate, jumped off the 2nd floor of the play house because he could fly, well lets just say his dose of reality was a broken arm and the rest of us certainly were educated a little about Newton and the laws of gravity! (That is how I remember the story, I could be wrong, but I think he may be teaching Hemingway now and that swagger so goes with Ernest!  As EH said: When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead.”)

So perhaps, learning the lesson about flying is not important by today’s standards.  Well, let me tell you a little bit about my school.  The name of my school was The Little White House Nursery School and yes, it was little and it was white…..sort of.  You see there were two buildings that made up the school. The first was, in fact, the little white house, but the second was actually a brick synagogue.  I can’t recall the name of that synagogue, because honestly, back then, I did not know what a synagogue was.  Ahh, but this was education.  Exposure to places of worship different than mine.  Even if we were just using the playground and the large meeting room.

I had two teachers that I remember: Mrs. Rothman and Mrs. Melman (though honestly we all called her the phonetically easier Mrs. Mailman and I have no idea how to really spell her name!)  Mrs. Rothman, from what I remember, was a towering, loud and slightly in your face kind of teacher.  Yet, that was absolutely okay and probably what we needed. She taught us, kept us safe and definitely kept us in line and despite her fairly gruff initial appearance to us, she defintely cared for us deeply and I remember her sadness when students left the school.  It looks like Mrs. Rothman may still be teaching there today based on a quick visit to the school’s site (http://www.littlewhitehouselearningcenter.com/index.htm)….wow she must have been 18 when she was my teacher.  Mrs. Melman was the even keeled one in the class, she never raised her voice and her demeanor was definitely a contrast to Mrs. Rothman’s, but it worked well together.

I have deep fond memories of those days……well, all except the first day.  I definitely did not want to go, would not get out of the car and probably cried to my parents for an hour about the reasons why I should not go.  My parents might tell you it was 3 hours, trust them….it was a long time in the back of the big yellow station wagon.  Somehow they persuaded me to go, and that was an educational moment.  You have to try things.  You may not like everything, but you have to at least try.  I ended up loving nursery school.  They had Big Wheels that we could ride in the synagogue parking lot.  Not the ones like they have today, these had hand brakes so you could slam on the foot pedals and simultaneously pull up the hand brake and spin the big wheel around.  I did not know it at the time that I was learning physics, but I was.  I learned that in order to get the best big wheel, you had to be fast.  How fast?  Faster than John Duhamel, because he and I liked the same specific Big Wheel.  This was not about sharing, this was about pure selfishness and having as much fun as possible.  The nice kid stuff came later (believe me, Mrs. Rothman made sure of it!)

So did I learn anything of value?  Yes.  A lot of those intrinsic values that we hope our children learn about being good people. My family taught me and my early childhood teachers reinforced these, such that they are habits.  I learned that a sit-n-spin is an awesome toy to play with, I learned that firetrucks can be green, yellow or red (we only had red and white in our town so lime green was a pretty cool thing that sticks with me 38 years later.  I suspect that it was the Weekly Reader that had that.)  Finally, I learned to appreciate (retrospectively) my teachers, my peers and my environment  (no not the environment as we talk about it from an ecological perspective, but rather the space that we operated in, my school, playground and the people in them.)

Sadly the Little White House as I knew it was knocked down, the synagogue was converted into medical offices, but the school still exists today.  I was happy to see on their site that they still ride (Lil Tikes instead of Big Wheels, but what can you do?) and Mrs. Rothman is still there.

Elementary School

So after reading my Nursery School description, if you are still reading, you are either my mother, a classmate or appreciative of my soliloquy.  Thanks Mom.  Thanks classmates Kenny, Cindy and Al and thanks to rest of you for allowing me to entertain you a bit!

Off to Central Grammar School or C.G.S as we called it.

Stay tuned for this story.

High School

College (the First One)

College (Summer School)

College (the Second One)

Business School

Professional Education

Graduate School

What’s next?