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Adventures in Learning

So, what did you excel in in school (if anything)? Do you still pursue that subject in someway or have you forgotten about it?

I'm afraid I was one of those people who did well in school without having to work very hard, through a combination of my own skills, my general attitude and behavior, and teachers who knew my sisters and brother. So I always have to answer this question by saying what I enjoyed the most, or the most consistently, and that would be English and History/Social Studies. I still like 'em both; keep reading....

Do you, or have you believed in the myths about education?

One of the myths I never have believed in is that people who have gone to college--or who have made good grades in school however far along they got--are, ipso facto smarter AND better than the rest of the population. Neither of my parents went to college, and my dad was a classic bored student in school, but they were both among the smartest people I've ever known. The obverse of that is true too: some of the dumbest people I've ever met have lots of letters (i.e., degrees) after their names. I truly believe the saying that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't always make it drink.

If you believed you could learn anything with the right teacher, what would you like to learn to do?

I do believe this: it's the only reason I "passed" the swimming test to graduate high school! However, what I'd really like to do is find a really good teacher willing to struggle with me through classical Greek and Hebrew.

If you really believed you could become a genius at anything just by putting your mind to it, what would you put your mind to?

I don't have any wish to be a genius. None whatsoever. I guess the only thing I can think of is that I'd like to have a better handle on MARC coding so I could work on designing a catalog platform that utilized all the data encoded in each bibliographic record (when it's done right). Oops, sorry, slipped into Catalog Jargon!

What have you always wished you understod better, or wished you could learn about?

Well, I guess that goes back to the Greek/Hebrew thing: I wish I could see for myself how we got from a bunch of documents in those languages to "The Bible" that we use today. I wish I could understand all the (ahem) meta-meanings in each of those original documents: the subtexts, the unwritten inside information, etc. And then I wish I could understand how to make other people understand that Jesus didn't speak English, and translating always leaves part of a meaning behind.