ARE YOU A SCHOOLER OR LEARNER (OR BOTH)?

When I was a middle school teacher, I was a “jack-of-all-trades" as I taught social studies, English, and computers. Even though my preferred subject was social studies, I had fun with the other subjects. In one of my English classes, one student was having a children's book published about her grandparents during the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a sixth grader, she was the youngest author published by National Geographic. Years later when I contacted her parents, I discovered that Kate was living in New York City working in book publishing.

It was in my computer classes that I had to be my most inventive. The students were provided with old computers, even by 1990s standards. Yet I was able to send them their daily instructions through the system and receive their completed assignments back through the system ready to be printed. Instead of teaching them computer mechanics, I provided them with news and magazine journals for the students to analyze and draw conclusions. I remember very vividly one assignment regarding Thomas Jefferson. After some readings about him, the students had to “temporarily: decide whether Jefferson was a racist and provide their reasonings. One white student wrote that he was based upon today's standards while one Black student submitted that he was not based upon the culture of his day.

Internet access at the school was nonexistent for the students. So, a tech-savvy math teacher and I jerry-rigged a computer featuring my own personal AOL account. I assigned students in teams of three access to the machine to complete assignments. That worked well except when my son at home was on the internet or when the students accidently came across a porn site. And one day one student sent me a note saying that my internet assignments “sucked.” In response, I gave him the responsibility of revising the assignments. He did and his revisions were highly successful, far better than my original set.

I assembled a team of techy students, and we published a school zine on the internet called “Cyber Tiger” (the tiger was our school’s mascot). Our first issue detailed the results of a student survey on what ten books every student should read before graduating high school. The winners- the Bible and various plays of Shakespeare! (Okay, a play is not a book but to a middle schooler it might as well be a book.)

One weekend at a local bookstore I found and purchased a book on the philosophy of computer learning. I do not recall the book's title or author, but I do remember one of its theses. All of us are either primarily Schoolers or Learners.

A Schooler is a person who is successful in school, absorbs all the instruction given, and then after receiving her degree, stops learning about the discipline and craft in which she had invested so much. I read an article many years that one study showed that most pastors stop reading about ministry practice and theological currents within five years after seminary graduation. For most Schoolers, school is a ticket to be punched so they can get on with their lives.

A Learner, in contrast, may or may not be successful in formal educational settings yet find ways to learn often in unorthodox ways. Relating back to that “computer” book I purchased, computers, according to another one of its theses, were going to become machines for learning soon, primarily for the Learners among us. Within a few years long-distance learning became a tool for adult Learners and now virtual learning has become a stable for high school students and younger.

I am both a Schooler and a Learner. School has been an important piece of my life, both professionally and as a youngster, and I have the degrees on my wall to showcase my love for schooling. And then I am also into informal learning from writing blog posts like this one to designing my own learning projects to becoming the first ever visiting fellow at a local theological seminary to completing online noncredit liberal arts courses from a small Michigan college.

My wife likes to joke that whether I am in a classroom or on a computer I search for ways to become the ‘teacher’s pet. With a smile I acknowledge her observation because I take my learning seriously. Now, I ask you seriously once again, Thus, in conclusion, are you a Schooler or a Learner (or both)?