lefonzz

I just felt like writing

Being a graduate student in Engineering I rarely find myself writing creatively. The only letters I write are ones that stand for numbers and since we ran out of english letters, we’re now using greek letters.

But anyways, what should I write about? Religion is too controversial. Politics are too corrupt. Life is too broad. And relationships? i don’t really have to explain why I am not writing about that. I guess I could write about education. I’ve been in school for 16/22 years of my life and its probably the subject I know most about.

Lets start out by looking at the google definition

Education-The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction

Well if you put it like that then any fool could be a teacher/professor. But teaching is an art. And there are some I have seen in my life that have really changed what I know about education.

Who better to name first than Ms Spivak. This lady was a genius. I never understood how any language worked until she introduced me to the art of diagramming. To understand what function each word serves in a sentence. Subject. Predicate. Object. Prepositional Phrase. Helping Verb. Adverbs. and each one of these came with a hint or clue to remember, SPO, prepositional phrase break dance, hooker adverbs, FANBOYS, who whose that which. And the list goes on.

The second great teacher I had was named Mrs. Drucker. 10th grade Honors Algebra 2. She taught this class so well that i felt like I was doing simple arithmetic throughout the class. Her style was simple but effective. She would start with a very basic idea of what we were going to learn, recalling simple rules and building up to a new one. Math was just simple in that class.

Third great teacher is the one and only Mr Tucker. If a teacher can get you to wake up with a smile than he has already done his job. Having African American History as my first class everyday was a blessing. The only problem was that this class was so much more than just about African American History. Mr Tucker was there “to keep us on the cutting edge of news and the outside world” he said as he threw articles at us, literally. But no one can forget the morning soundtrack of John Legend. The same album every morning. I could probaby write an entire article about Tucker, and I probably will later.

Time for Cal-State-Northridge. Professor Roger DiJulio. The man who taught my father is now teaching me. The first thing he did when I went into his office for advisement was tell me to call my dad. I had no idea who this man was but did as he instructed. “How could a man so ugly have such a handsome son” was the first thing he said on the phone. I witnessed as my dad and him recalled nostalgic memories of 30 years prior when my father was in my seat and eventually became his colleague. But then came time for my first class with him and that is when I came to respect the man my father had told me all about. First thing he tells us is, “Theres no assigned textbook for this class. If it makes you feel better you can buy any you want, they all copy each other anyways.” And so I never bought a Statics book. Little did I know that his notes were structured in a way that i would have ended up copying his book in my notebook. He explained the property of structures so simply that you’d think a monkey could do this. Instead of making us take integrals he showed us the tricks of statics and strength of materials. He demonstrated that although engineering is referred to as a science, it has more art involved than architecture.

And with this we have come to a new school. Cal-Poly SLO. They tell me its the best Architectural Engineering program in the nation. But how do you rate an educator? These professors and teachers were my favorite. But that’s because my learning skills matched up with their instructing skills. Some might have loved Farhangi, who was, to me, a moron with another professors powerpoints and the ability to point a laser at the screen. I will forever like the old-school style of teaching, a chalkboard, 1 man and a class discussion filled with intellect and wisdom. Are we not scholars after all? We did not pay to come to institutions where teachers will educate us in the fashion of “receiving or giving systematic instruction.” We have enrolled ourselves into joining a society of the elite.