The lasting lessons of ‘alternative’ school

ROCKWALL,TX. (August 19, 2014) Pappaw taught me how to change oil. Often I rode my go-cart in his “back 40” between the peach trees and the potato patch and then he’d wave me in, “Give it a break, Scotty, and let’s change that oil.”

He loosened the plug to drain it and made me touch the thin black liquid, explaining how when oil got like that, it was time for new stuff. I eventually graduated to changing it in the 54’ Chevrolet pickup, and we’d work together finding the oil filter, draining the old, pouring in the new, and I took those lessons and used them until cars grew so complex, I’ve had to leave it professionals.

Catching spring crappie was something I learned from my dad. Just when the last vestiges of winter depart and the water begins to warm, crappie become voracious eaters before they spawn. They also swim in schools so if you time it right, you can fill a boat in just a few hours. In the particular lake we fished there wasn’t a limit so we’d rig six poles and just walk from one bent one to another pulling off the sweet tasting fish and re-baiting the hook, and we ate like kings for days.

My childhood brimmed with experiences, many of them tied to a lesson that I not only remember, but also use today. In fact, as I think about those opportunities, not one occurred in a classroom. Things like how to drive a boat or a tractor, replacing a leaking pipe, building a campfire, or gutting a fish. Don’t get me wrong; being a teacher, I’m all about formal education. Back to school for me (once I get over the depression of another summer gone) is exciting, a fast and furious time of new lessons to teach, new players to coach, and evening activities or ball games every other night of the week. It’s fun and exciting and the days fly by; however, it’s also a madness, and there have been times I’ve suddenly realized that my kids have been so busy that they’re missing out on some of the experiences I had, those that continue with me to this day.

So, we constantly work for a balance, a way to enjoy both the back-to-school events and the lasting lessons of outdoors, family, and home. We’ve done everything from raising egg-laying hens, to bass fishing under a full moon. We’ve taken time off of sports to camp in canyons and hike in the woods “off trail” with nothing but a compass and a topographical map.

It is absolutely essential for my kids to balance equations and read poetry and play ball or make art, but they also need to know that “leaves of three, let it be” can keep them from all sorts of discomfort, and if you don’t know to what that little adage refers, it is definitely time to go back to school.

By Blue Ribbon News special contributor Scott Gill of Rockwall. a teacher, coach and author of Goliath Catfish. Follow his blog at scotttgill.tumblr.com.

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