Riding A Bike - #30DayProject - Day 06

Source: Pixaby.com

I did something today that I haven't done in a long time, rode a bike. Now I didn't go on a long ride but I still got on a bike, two different bikes in fact, and rode them down the street and back to my house. I couldn't tell you the last time I rode a bike and yet I was able to hop on the bikes today and got riding without any issues at all.

Why is this important and why should it appear on an educational site? It's important for the same reason I can recite my multiplication facts up to 12 without much issues. It's important for the same reason I can recite some of the memorized poems and scriptures of my youth. It's important because when something is truly learned and, dare I say "mastered," it stays with you for life. I'm not a huge proponent of making/asking kids to memorize things unless they are needed on a regular basis because we now live in a world where it's so easy to pull a computer out of your pocket and search on Google for the answer. And yet, there are some things I believe are that necessary to memorize in order to make life easier for kids. Those things, like multiplication facts, scriptures, helpful songs/poems that help you learn, are worthwhile enough that kids still need to use some of their biological hard drive space to house it permanently and not just in the short-term cache. And even more than asking students to memorize things, if we can help them learn something so deeply that it is able to be stored on their permanent hard drive then we are actually making a difference in their lives.

Source: Pixabay.com

A couple days ago I had something amazing happen, my first-year students graduated high school. I never thought I'd see that day and yet, I didn't actually see it. My students graduated and I didn't even try to attend the event. Why not? I don't know, I just didn't realize it was happening that night because I wasn't invited to attend. I didn't attend because I was spending time with my family and visiting different doctors for medical check-ups. I didn't attend because life happened. And it was okay because I know those students learned things in my class and in their subsequent classes that will stick with them and allow them to be better people. They learned things to allow them to one day, sitting in a meeting at work, sitting in a class at University, sitting at home with their own kids, get back on their proverbial bike and get riding because they have that information permanently stored in their minds. And on that day, they'll think back to when they first learned the thing they're thinking about and realize it wasn't so bad to have worked hard in school. And they may even remember their 4th grade teacher and his crazy ways.

Congrats Class of 2017! You did it, you graduated High School and get to move on to the rest of your life. Best of luck!

p.s. It's technically still Saturday here in Utah so I haven't missed a day yet! But I'm just barely making it.