As Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde explained: “Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson after.”
Emerging as I did from high school in 1960, I quickly realized that the ability to translate Book 6 of Virgil’s Aeneid, solve simultaneous equations, decipher the significance of the Periodic Table and speak knowledgeably about Charles Dickens’ many novels — these abilities had not actually set me up for what life was going to throw at me almost immediately, and from then on.
The first experience of this deficiency was my summer job as a member of a window cleaning crew with a bunch of guys who were not interested in my passion for the poetry of Dylan Thomas.
They were, however, committed to a clean window being exactly that — completely clean especially in the corners.
Nor had my education prepared me for the knack and nuances of simple day-to-day conversation with people whose interests and backgrounds were not the same as my own, but who enjoyed a good chat at lunchtime.
Now, 60-something years later, I wish that there had been some kind of short course during the last few months of high school on how to conduct a civil conversation with absolutely anybody.
After all, the ability to converse effectively permeates every area and aspect of life. Conversing with co-workers, bosses, loved ones, dates, friends, spouses, neighbours, and acquaintances all require certain social norms and boundaries to be observed, norms and boundaries I discovered the hard way.
It may be too late for a life skills course on conversation but bear in mind that the younger generation is now being referred to as the “silent generation”, communicating overwhelmingly via technology — a medium that does not require actually speaking to anyone, but relies on texting, social media messages, email, and so on for what passes as communication.
I was not long into the post-high school world before I discovered another serious life skills deficiency — I had no skills whatsoever when it came to handling personal finance.
Business classes, such as they were at my high school, explained accounting procedures, financing arrangements and business structures, but did not focus much on personal finances, saving or investing.
A short course on staying out of serious debt or, once in, how to get out and stay out of debt, especially how to rebuff the siren lure of credit card debt would, in those early years, have saved me a lot of pain.
Then, having attended a kind of “back to the basics” academic high school and university, the next stage of adult life for which I was totally unprepared emerged when I bought my first house. Who knew that, along with home ownership, especially of an older first home, came numerous costly repairs and replacements.
For somebody who had yet to learn how to drive a nail in straight, owning my own home revealed yet another list of personal deficiencies.
Minor home repairs were inevitably necessary, and knowing how to do them would have saved a significant amount of money during the early low-income years. Painting, plumbing, basic carpentry, and electrical work were all involved in maintaining a home, and knowing how to do repairs and improvements would have been valuable, both financially and in terms of self respect.
Knowing what tools are necessary for basic repair jobs would have made the work much easier and limited the damage I inflicted in the course of attempting simple home repairs.
Learning how to read a ruler and tape measure and being able to take accurate measurements would have been even better.
Home owner’s insurance (probably worth a short course all by itself) covered some costly repairs to the home but, as I learned later in life, it’s important to be aware of what types of damage and what amounts are covered and included in the policy.
In the same way, repairs and basic automobile maintenance are inevitable for anyone who drives a vehicle for any reasonable length of time and it would be helpful if these skills were taught to students, given that the consequences of poor maintenance can be costly, even dangerous.
All of which brings to mind the advice of Russell Ackoff, Anheuser-Busch professor emeritus of management science at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: “Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us.”
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools who just caused a minor flood while repairing a leaking kitchen tap.
