So I ended up dropping one of my classes and adding a new one (although the professor of my original class was deliciously hot, very much so)- anyways, this new class I picked up is taught by the greatest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet, Jose Lopez. He is my hero. Jose is a very tiny, older Puerto Rican man. He reminds me a shit ton of my Grandpa Volz, who, by reputation, is the cutest old man to ever exist in the natural world. So, pretty much, if you remind me of my Grandpa, I automatically love you unconditionally. Anyways (again), ironically Jose hadn't been at the first two classes that I missed because he was sick. Score for me! But sad for Jose. So the first class I was in was also his first class too. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I didn't miss Jose's first lecture to the class because it was so, not to be cliche, but it was so profound. I swear, Jose could write a book about all of his theories and it would be a New York Times bestseller. No doubt. Right when we sat down he asked us to say the first thing that came into our minds when he said "Grammar School". All of us kind of laughed and looked around but honestly, no one could think of anything. Maybe it was because we were all on the spot or maybe it was because we were proving Jose's theory on grammar school correct. But finally, someone said "boys and girls", then someone else said "recess". Not one person said anything about academics. Okay, that's a lie, some annoying girl said "math" or "learning" or something annoying like that. I don't count her in this. I don't think Jose did either. She was an outlier. After we all stopped nervously giggling and shit, Jose told us his theory on grammar school. He said that he can guarantee that if we took a test over all of the things we learned in grammar school (grammar school? elementary school-) that almost all of us would fail. This is because all we learned in elementary school was how to socialize. Jose didn't mean this in a bitchy way to make us feel like all we do is talk. He meant it in the sense that elementary school is not worth even attending. Then Jose pointed out another theory of his. He asked us, "If I was talking to your 5 year-old self, and I asked if you knew how to dance, paint, sing, what would you have said?" We all said that we'd have said yes we could do all of those things. Precisely. Jose's theory is that as we go through our schooling, we become domesticated. Like animals. We are told that we can't dance well, sing harmoniously, or paint beautiful pictures, via the opinions of our teachers. However, why the hell did we give elementary and middle school teachers so much authority and professional opinion on how we created our art? It's not like these teachers were anything more than drunk/ripped, college-grad townies (well, for Huron students anyways). Teachers were really the ones that destroyed our creative selves. But, the teachers can't take all the blame. Jose also thinks that some parents do it too. I don't care how "liberal" of a parent you think you might be. If you have ever told your kid "no", you have stunted their creative growth in some way. Let's be honest though, you can't let your kids do whatever they want all of the time. However, you can let them learn on their own, or learn the hard way. Such as, if you guide your kid by telling them not to play in the street and let them know the consequences of playing in the street and they still do it, then it's their fault if they get hurt. You simply are there to guide them. Help them along. Not to stunt their growth.Jose had some other good theories throughout his lecture, but that one definitely struck a chord with me. I don't particularly know why. I have never felt that my parents have ever stunted my creativeness. At the least they've always encouraged my sister, brother and I to follow our dreams. I guess the elementary school theory slightly applies, however I don't even think our teachers in Huron care enough about the students to stunt them creatively. They need to get their heads out of their asses and actually teach them something.
I'm so glad I'm done with the Huron City School System.
This blog took an odd turn at the end. But I mean every word.
