This is the final blog, although tmr is technically the last day, we are only going to get up and get breakfast and go home.
Here is us getting ready. The day before the day you go home always sucks. Not because the ride wasn't good, but because I'm running through my head the 5 million things that awaits me... Mow the lawn, apply for those classes, pick up the salvage ducati and send in for the check, shop for a new bike, hair cut, and a myriad of things awaiting me.
Here we have a field of old machines for farming. Josh is showing off his package... Rofl. Yes we are 12. Then this turkey came to check out the bikes. We ended at the bridge overlooking the stream.
2nd day of BBQ, josh is our grill master. He had a better picture with the Cabasa he didn't want me to post. Lol
As I hang out with josh and rob, both over a decade my senior, each with different upbringing and life experience, there was a sense of simplicity hanging out with them. One could say the trip was "sublime". Lol
Our neighbors kids came and wanted to ride our bikes, so I picked them up and put them on my bike. They had a blast, although the older sister was freaking out. Granted I picked up a random kid without the parents permission, and he was fiddling on my bike that could of broken things... Kids are masters at breaking things, ask me how I know. But will this boy remember getting on a big sports bike, or will he remember that he was told not to.
Living in the litigious city environment one can easily get too caught up in all the little 'cya' precautions. What if the parents sue me because thier kid fall off my bike, what if they break my bike who do I sue, what if he cries and freak out, what if he cut himself. With that logic we can also ask, what if a meteor hits the bike blow up the kid while he was sitting on it. Or a massive earthquake shakes the bike and kills the kid when the bike landed on top of him... -_-
We have taken so much of what makes learning fun in our schools. As I remmeber talking to Shelly, when she regale me on her former days of building bird houses and engaging the kids in learning beyond the English textbook, I look at my students in thier classrooms today learning what we call "common core" or really a system to make all learning environment the same. While on paper it looks fantastic, but in reality it couldn't be less engaging. In fact, if you are a student, and walking into a classroom and all you see whether it's English, science, math, or WS, all you see is a goal for the day, and then you have a warm up, and then you do a activity, it becomes a routine.
Sure you can make it "fun" one day and show the entire staff, but seriously try doing that everyday and every week. Students are bored, not because the subject is boring, but if you do the same routine for everything, anyone will lose thier focus or concentration. Or worst, thier interest.
I always rememeber my favorite teachers, they were different. They were characters in the most fantastic of ways. Mr L sang a song in chemistry, and some other times he gets you started on the lab right away, sometimes he messes with you and then boom middle of the class he tells you what ur doing. By today's "observation" of meeting standard for teachers, they would have failed him on a regular basis, but he was more influential and powerful as an educator for so many kids than the others who simply follow the curriculum. He quit because of the politics.
My art teacher drove me to a chessmaster and paid him to teach me, because he saw potential in me at the time. He broke about 500 school rules, but really that was one of the most amazing experience I ever had. I still keep In touch with him even to this day.
As I watch teachers leave one after another, hoping another berth is the answer, and some retiring all together. These are phenomenal educators. They all have character differing from one another. But we have devalued them and micromanaged them looking for numbers to attach to success of the students.
As I took this trip with josh and rob, I felt very little stress. I felt fit in, without feeling like an outsider. They joke around at my jokes as much I joke about theirs. Despite the generation gap, I have already planned the next summer Europe trip and the summer after doing the tat with both of them.
Did we do some silly things and make jokes on stupid things ? Yes. Are we 12? Yes. Because we all need to be reminded that maturity does not fall within the spectrum of following the rule, in fact, we need to constantly revisit our inner child, and forget all the fear, apprehension, our scars, political correctness, social acceptability, and just have fun.
As I always tell my students "you live everyday, but you only die once, so make it count"