The Best Thing of All is to Learn… Your Mind is Yours Forever

I never really considered schools to be a deciding factor on where to live when my children were young.  I knew they had the preschool experience; I taught them both to read before kindergarten.  During summer vacations from school they had “vacation school” on our porch every day.  We did our own version of SOL’s.  I know what you are thinking; my children did not have the summer vacation their peers had.

We did have summer vacation trips. We went camping at Rehoboth Beach.  We camped at Watkins Glen.  They went to Disney.  There were no history lessons just plain ole’ fun on vacation too.  When it came to 3 months away from education, the answer was no… we do school work during the summer.

Lately the  news reports are focusing on schools that are not meeting their qualifications or high school graduation rates of a school being above or below the state average.  I also am aware of the increasing trend to celebrate each milestone in a child’s life.  My daughter teaches in the City of Richmond where families celebrate 5^th grade graduation as we celebrate our high school graduates.  My daughter explains that many of the students do not graduate high school. 

While attending a garden high school graduation party at my friend’s house I could not stop thinking how foreign the idea that my child would not graduate high school is.  My grandson graduated preschool and he will begin kindergarten in the fall.  I fully expect him to graduate high school and attend college or some type of technical school afterwards.  I even started a college fund for him. 

My inquisitive mind started a search for graduation rates of local high schools and the City of Richmond.  Locally, Tunkhannock High School has a 94% graduation rate where as Trail High School has 87% and Elk Lake High School has a graduation rate of 79%.  I expanded my search to Scranton High School at 91% and West Scranton also at 91% graduation rate.  Abington High School has a graduation rate of 92% and GAR has a rate of 84% which is comparable to Honesdale High School with a rate of 85%.  PA high school graduation rate is 88%.  Sadly, high schools in the City of Richmond have a graduation rate of 52% and incredibly, one of Richmond’s high schools has a graduation rate of only 27%.  Virginia’s state graduation rate is 77%. 

I now understand why 5^th grade graduation is celebrated in Richmond.  I know some of my grandson’s kindergarten classmates may not make it to high school graduation.  I find that fact very sad.  There are theories why some schools are failing while others thrive.  Theories point to the school’s administration, teachers, budgets, curriculum, family make up, environment and even the children.  You can search the web to find all the theories, it does not change that for many, high school graduation is not a guarantee and maybe an actual struggle to obtain.

If you are attending a graduation or a graduation party this summer, celebrate that graduate! It really is an accomplishment.

I Can Only Show You Where Things Are

April, May and June is the second window of testing in the insurance industry.  There are four testing windows a year.  The spring/early summer window is difficult.  The weather becomes sunny and staying motivated to study becomes easier said than done.

Advancing your education is a motto at DGK; it’s not but it should be.  We are all licensed either property & casualty or life.  Those licenses come with mandatory education requirements of 24 hours of CE credits every two years.  We all renew at different times so DGK is in perpetual education mode.  Inside secret, many of us have more than 24 CE credit hours in a two year period. 

I am currently taking a course on Ocean Marine Insurance.  You may laugh but Lake Wallenpaupack falls under certain coverages in the Ocean Marine insurance.  The world is a small place and technology allows us to enter into contracts with companies that utilize overseas shipping.  EBay, Facebook and Craiglist have opened markets that were once closed to smaller companies.

 

I find it difficult to study when I’d rather weed my strawberry garden.  I would rather kayak at Lake Winola or down Tunkhannock creek.  I’d rather, well you get the picture.  Staying motivated to study comes from a place more than determination to pass a test.  I want to be able to answer a question a client might ask.  I want to be able to help someone learn the information that I have.  My motivation for studying when the sun is shining is to help someone.

On Saturday, my husband and I took a break from household chores to go to Home Depot and shoe shopping for him.  The shoes were purchased without a hitch.  The herbs I wanted were not organic which caused a problem for me.  While we were there, I was looking at all the ideas they display when a well dressed couple approached the hanging basket of strawberries.  The Home Depot employee escorted them to the location of the baskets and they asked her if they needed to plant the strawberries within the basket.  She replied, “I can only show you where things are; I cannot answer any questions about the plant.”  I could not control my instructional side, I explained everything you ever wanted to know about strawberries in 3 minutes.  They grabbed a basket and thanked me.  My husband asked me if I wanted another job.

When I stop learning, I stop teaching and paying back a community that has allowed me to learn as much or as little as I want.  DGK has provided me with educational opportunities that I do not take for granted.  I find myself a lifelong learner trying to inspire others to learn and share. I hope I inspired the well dressed couple to learn more about home grown container produce and sparked an interest in learning the products the Home Depot employee was locating.  Maybe next time she will gladly say, “Let me show you other container plants we have and their companions.”  I can only hope.