The Best of Classrooms

We watched a movie this weekend that puts a different spin on education.

It is a little bit off center as far as a recognized title. However, it is based on a true story.

As the story goes, a 20-something graduates from college in about everything that can define privilege. He worked very little to get his degree. Fast food is something he could have driven by in his 318i on the way to the Club. He could have had weekly manicures and pedicures, complaining he has to wait for his appointments. He could have, but he didn’t.

Much to his parents’ dislike, he drove a 20-year-old used car. He argued with his parents on college graduation day that he didn’t want or need a new car. Little did they know that he was about to embark on the greatest educational experience he could have dreamed of, learning more from people and places than a second college degree could have taught him.

In a way, he reminded me of Henry David Thoreau’s experience at Walden Pond. Thorough didn’t need to step away from civilization. He chose to. This young man could have gone almost anywhere he wanted, starting with his father’s bank account. He didn’t want it. He wanted to experience life away from the bright lights and demands of society. The college boy, the urban jet setter, learned how to harvest wheat, experienced all the sweat of working in a grain elevator, a short stint in fast food, and covered countless miles both ways generally along the Pacific coast.

Along the way, he met people of every personality and social group you can imagine. They were, as I’ve referenced local watering holes, people you don’t expect to walk through the door. They were his teachers, although his “pedigree” was obviously at a different level. Many years ago, the education community stressed the need for lifelong learning. This young man was living proof of it. If you plan to hunt, learn from a man who understands guns, game and how to track your prey. If your quest includes living off the grid, have conversations with an experienced mountain man.

This student of the world did all of that, and more. His disdain for organized society and glitz and glamor pushed him to walk away from his car, his college fund, and the cash he was given at graduation. In exchange, he met people who lived deliberately, and encouraging those he met to do likewise. The “class” ended when he misread his field guide and digested a poison plant.

The lesson is each of us has something we can share with the next person we meet. It doesn’t matter if you clean rooms at a hotel or make deals for a multi-million dollar corporation. Each has developed skills the other can benefit from. Often the classroom gives a student the skills to learn the real lessons in life. This young man showed he could be organized, and quietly listen when someone else is talking, handy skills when venturing into the unknown and learning how to do it.

The reality is for as important classroom instruction is, it is only a part of a life of learning. I enjoy coffee shops because they invite conversation. Conversation with the right person leads to learning, which then can be passed on.

While this young man’s life ended sooner than it should have, he lived it fully. He saw things from the top of the world in an almost spiritual viewpoint. His family changed, you might say learned, as well.

They progressed from unexplained absence to having to face the grief of his death. That is an education no one wants a degree in, but when earned, can be used to help the next person to go through it.