Wisdom In School
vs. foolishness
Making practical application of what is learned
To practice Wisdom I will:
- seek out knowledge to fill in my gaps
- learn from correction
- choose my friends carefully
- consider the consequence of my action
- ask “what is the right thing to do?”
‘Perfection…Nothing Left To Take Away’
– Bill Croskey
Over forty years ago, I had just completed my student teaching in social studies at Princeton Junior School. I came to social studies by a wayward trail. When I was 12, I was the editor of the Mound School Gopher Gazette, and was working on being a journalist. OK, actually, I wanted to be mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent, because, well, I knew I couldn’t be Superman. Then, in high school, I wanted to be a chemist. Part of it was wanting to blow stuff up. But another part was that it was fun mixing chemicals and looking for “What ifs?” and “What happened?” Next, I wanted to be a math teacher – until I took Calculus. Finally, I settled on Social Studies. Part of my motivation was to attempt to be as stimulating, as creative, and as funny as my Sophomore World History teacher was. But just as big a push, maybe bigger, came from wanting to be a better American Government teacher than the guy that “taught” me. The cross country coach. Long ago, he had copied the textbook onto notebook paper, and read the book to us word for word as his lecture. That class was a great place to finish my Physics homework.