Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Taking the time to think about what to do

I really do love walking and today was another fine cool crisp blue sky day barely a cloud in the upper level of my sight.
Whether I walk a half an hour or more it is my time to think and in that process I let my mind wander.
Concentration at this age is a challenge...aw who am I kidding it has always been a problem for me to get centered.

When I was a ten years old, in the fifth grade my teacher called me a crab since I did everything backwards; odd that she mentioned a crab because my birth sign is Cancer the Crab, but the truth of the fact is crabs do walk backwards and I suppose some of the things I may have done as child could have been done that way but I don’t really remember.
All I do remember was the fact that she mentioned the crab in reference to me and the way that I did things.
I was going to dancing school, ballet; still at that age so really I don’t think that I walked backwards I was much too graceful for that awkward display.
My admittance then is to my mind perhaps wandering backwards, not that comprehension was a difficulty but her method of teaching made learning quite extraordinary.

These were still the Eisenhower years on the cusp of Kennedy’s, and Miss Mion was a teacher who believed in hands on teaching so if we were learning about the human heart she brought into class a real heart; in this case a calves heart, but a real one. We were encouraged to pass the amazing part of anatomy around from classmate to classmate, now mind you these were ten year olds and we were used to yuck; being not that long from the sandbox and mudpies etc., noisy body functions simulated vocally, potty talk et al. So handing over a heart from one student to the other was quite interesting and informational without too much fanfare and no realization on what we were actually learning, but learn we did by fun. One of my classmates just from that experience decided to become a doctor and I did learn much later on that he had become one.

That same year Miss Mion also taught us about poison mushrooms, or at least the fact that you should purchase them at the grocery store and she did this by relaying her near death experience of trying to consume toxic ones from her backyard, not a good idea.

About nine years later I bumped into Miss Mion again and immediately recognized her and shouted out a hello in the Fashion Mall where I was working my second year of college. I shouted loud and clear,” HELLO MISS MION!,” and she said from behind her nine month voluminous pregnant belly hello, but I think she might not have recognized me since from the age of ten to nineteen one changes quite bit. But her enormous bulbous belly didn’t hinder me remembering her one bit, although her name had changed to one that even when told to me I could not pronounce, an Italian name that I had not heard before, and yes she had married. Those were the good old days when people did it the old fashion way… they taught you and then got married. LOL

I had a few other teachers over the years of my education that left their mark or at least some influence on my way of thinking.
But Miss Mion really did make it hard for other teachers competing with my learning curve over the years; I was always more capable of listening to ones that handed me something to touch and see close up, a tangible way of getting through to my so-called backwards brain. Rote never worked with me because nothing in my way of thinking supported just words; handling the object plus personal tales or experiences always got my attention.

As an adult I have done some public speaking on occasion and teaching too and those two ideas still do work; let’s call it the touch and tales method or not, sounds a little weird. LOL

With that I will say good night to all and to all ah fond memories.

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go?

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