A bit of seredipity this week connected me to a favourite teacher from high school. We had a quick conversation about education, career planning and all that, which was great. Later, I was telling Angelo about the meeting and remembered that Mr.Fisher taught me some of the most important things I learned in school...some of them even related to the courses he was teaching at the time:
1. clear understanding of the political spectrum...most people I know still don't understand left-right political alignments
2. quality of life is more than GDP and consumer spending...we did a massive unit on quality of life indicators, and it's guided my lifestyle decisions and perceptions of global economics ever since
3. "when in doubt, do"...living intentionally...my mom is the one who reminded me of this one most often, but she always credited Bob with the maxim
4. "life is about the journey, not the destination"...which came out of several philosophical discussions about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which nobody else I knew had ever even attempted to read
5. his observation that I had always been a "seat-of-my-pants" athlete, which made me impossible to coach...I've often thought of this truism when considering how I learn in relation to others
So sometimes I write off the entire education system as flawed, but I guess I did pull a few nuggets out of those 13 years. Thanks to Mr. Fisher for guiding me to a few gems.
No comments:
Post a Comment