Let's Spend the Afternoon in a Cold Hot Air Balloon

The first day of school was exactly a week ago. Not mine -- I won't be having a first day of school in the foreseeable future and I've been reminded, or rather mocked, enough by Back-To-School ads and Facebook events that I can't even bare to write about the fact any further.

It was the first day at my elementary school. The fence was lined with colorful balloons dancing in the wind (a decoration that brought back absolutely no memories since first-day-of-school celebrations back in the 90's didn't involve balloons).

As my brother and I were passing the school, memories of tangrams, tetherball, D.O.L., music with Mrs. Woolhouse, and book reports came flooding back. It was very cinematic, all that was missing was the emo soundtrack. My brother was simultaneously experiencing not-so-similar sentiments. I feel like I didn't actually do anything in elementary school. I don't remember specific "things" I learned. Maybe social skills. He commented. What about reading? Or cursive? I offered. Apparently he knew how to read before kindergarten and cursive doesn't count, so I was only helping him prove his point.

Each year, at 4 PM on the last day of summer vacation, a large sign announcing classroom assignments were posted outside our Principal's office. I was the kid who, by 4 PM, had already made three or four trips just to see if the poster had been put up earlier. So naturally, I felt sad to learn how different my brother's experience had been. My teachers were far better than his, for one.

I spent the past couple days thinking about the notion. Yeah, what DID we learn in elementary school? I finally decided that there's a broader reason my brother feels this way. Beyond tangible things (like teachers) at which we can point fingers. In elementary school, everything was an exercise, a hands-on activity, a game. Dropping an egg off the school roof taught me about gravity. A colorful song taught me the names of the fifty states in the nation. Digging for spray-painted rocks on the field taught me about the California Gold Rush. Each of my four teachers (I can't for the life of me remember kindergarten and I had the same teacher for first and second grade) had completely mastered the act of making learning fun. It was rare that they flat out provided us with facts or figures. And my immersion in these environments at such a tender age most certainly shaped my future attitude towards school and learning.

We did learn in elementary school. We just didn't realize it because learning was supposed to be something boring that took away from recess. Fun activities just didn't fit the schema for learning.

As I went on to older grades where I was told what to "know" or "take away" from a lecture, it was up to me make it fun and interesting. During a Biology lecture in the eleventh grade, our teacher looked up from his PowerPoint to advise a group of panicked note takers. You've got to believe this is interesting. It will make it so much easier to learn.

Sitting here wishing I had a class schedule to compare with friends, I'm realizing that maybe it's not awful. My new job might, in a very loose sense, be like the elementary school days. My bosses aren't going to give me lectures about marketing and product management. Instead I'll be assigned projects from which I will learn as I complete them.

And not to beat this to the ground, but the exterior of my office building was lined with balloons on the day of my first visit in March.