It's Almost Real

So yesterday, I applied for school. There was a deadline for free money—I had to be applied to one or all of the three schools by December 01 (tomorrow). And, as the security in the application site doesn't work with my browser, I had to do it at school (meaning I missed a yearbook meeting, the first in the actual lab.)

It's almost starting to sink in—next year, I won't be going to elementary, junior high or high school…I'll be done with that. On to the next thing—school that'll cost me upwards of $10 000 a year, for six years. Why so long for a simple undergrad degree? Well, that's interesting you ask.

The one school that I really want (that is in my country and doesn't cost me $100 000 to attend) actually doesn't have the program I want‚ Education. Soooo…what I'm going to do, assuming I'm accepted (knock on wood…) is attend my choice school for four years, acquire a Bachelor of Arts in __________, then hopefully transfer to a school on Vancouver Island to do a two-year after-degree in Education. Getting my Ed degree in British Columbia would allow me to teach in BC, as opposed to stinkin' ol' Alberta.

Translation: Vancouver, here I come! Slowly but surely….

I would really, really like to work in an alternate school, because everything I do, study, read, watch, you-name-it, proves that the school system I've spent the last eight years in is fucked messed up. Really—spend an hour looking at how children learn, pre-kindergarten, and tel me how the school system works with that.

Children are so naturally curious, so invested in learning everything around them…and then we stick them into half-hour blocks where everything is chunked up, and expect them to sit in a desk all day. No wonder we have kids that fall through the 'cracks'…they're not cracks, they're gaping holes that were built into the bowl.

The current system is built for twenty-five percent of the population. Twenty-five percent. Tell me that's fair. I dare you.

Anyhoo, I want to challenge that, and find ways to make the 'aha!' moments not such a rare thing. I don't know if you've ever spent time with children, or students, but when they get something—and I mean really get it—it's amazing. Their whole face lights up, and you know they've got it because you can hear it in their voice.

I had a moment like that today—one little boy, seven or so, that I've been working with for that past few weeks, got a math concept today…it was amazing. I was grinning the whole way back to the high school—even loosing my favourite card game to a beginner couldn't dim it. (In my defense, I was out second to his first. Beginner's luck—I'll get him next time.)

What are you going to do next year? Are you taking a big step? How will it change your world?