In my, albeit, short time in education and teaching, I’ve learned that the things I know and what I think others should not can be wildly varying. An example of this in action is Educated by Tara West, a memoir following the life of a girl from a fundamentalist Mormon sect. It was fascinating to me that what people know and don’t know is sometimes a matter of luck. Whether they are homeschooled or in the public school system. Even outside the context of this memoir, I have noticed a substantial difference in students’ knowledge. I will admit that when I was younger, I genuinely thought it was a lack of caring or a want of incompetence. Over my time, I’ve come to realize it isn’t that, just a lack of teaching that occurs, whether willingly or not. Either way, this was a fascinating read about an aspect that is not discussed outside of sensational reality shows.
Tag: memoir
Major to Houston
I’m not a massive fan of memoirs. In fact, I would say that I actively avoid them. Unless it is a first-person account of a social issue that I am interested in, narrators of memoirs sound larger than life, and I cannot connect to them. Ironically, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Colonel Chris Hadfield is one of the most down to earth books I have ever read.
Hadfield just has a great way of telling his story and being able to connect with him. He does such a great job of showing that he is just an everyday guy with the same problems as others; he only had a really cool ability to have gone to space. It was also a perfect look at what happens inside NASA and other space organizations, a lot more down to earth than what is often portrayed in books and movies. Even though society may tout him as an extraordinary being, he’s just a person and had to continuously work hard to get to where he was. There need to be more memoirs like this, and I wish I could find them this easily. I just want to hear about Clark Kent instead of Superman.
Drabble Geeks 