
My story is not like everyone’s story. Not every child goes to a business college at age seven to learn how to type so they could become a writer. Not everyone had a second-grade teacher who believed that all children had stories to tell that were worth paying attention to. Or a mother who believed that whatever aroused their interest was important to pursue.
Fortunately, I lived in a city adjacent to a university where exchanges of ideas and information were part of our educational experience. These were constant opportunities to grow and to see the importance of ideas. We were gifted with teachers who were getting advanced degrees while learning how to help us learn what they were discovering. It was a powerful way to grow both individually and within a peer group setting. You could go as far as your intellectual and learning and creative interests would take you. But there was enough competition to press those competitive buttons and watch the process of learning grow both within myself and within my peer group.
Education as Transformation
Our school system was deeply connected to the University that was included in our area. We could explore ideas and strategies within a learning context that would “grow” with us. We were “pushed” as far as our learning would take us. And the learning was exciting, energizing and wonderfully transforming.
The rewards for these kinds of educational experiences were captured in the intellectual growth that was examined carefully for each child. We were growing with the “pleasure” that comes from the reality of growth. We had the confidence of success burning our growing passion for learning. We were “organized” to succeed and those experiences were exciting; rewarding; and highly competitive.
My mother believed in encouraging children to pursue their interests. So when I turned seven and became interested in learning how to type, she and I visited the head of the Evanston Business College in Evanston, Illinois and informed them of my interest. And they replied with what I would have to do to become a student.
The incentive that sparked my interest in typing came directly from my first grade teacher, who told us the previous year that we were all potential writers so we’d better start learning how to write sale-able materials, now!
I took that lesson seriously because I already loved to write. But I understood that first I needed to learn to type because editors would not take me seriously if I didn’t know how.
The faculty listened to my story politely. They took my interest seriously and admitted me with encouragement and support. If I could learn to type at the age of seven, it would open the door to a whole new population of students for the school.
Creativity as a Lifelong Companion
Once admitted to Evanston Business College I tried to become just another student in the school, even though my feet hung about 6 inches above the floor and my fingers just barely reached the keyboard. But my typing book was never out of sight and my passion for learning to type never diminished. I was pronounced a graduate some six weeks later and at 94 years of age I am still using my typing skills every day.
We teach children the basic skills of living with energy and conviction. But once in a while a child comes along who “wants to learn how to type”.
They are likely to be relatively quiet but persistent. Their interest comes from a creative mind which operates within a broad spectrum of ideas.
And those ideas regularly teach them to discover who they are, and the marvelous capacity they have to think and to learn and to discover the gifts of creativity they carry. It is the miracle of life and living which are also God’s Gifts to each one of us.
When we have responded to the inner voices which opened the doors to our passions and our convictions, we have entered new territories of ideas and belief structures. These wonderful opportunities to grow intellectually provide exciting moments of discovery and new realities to explore.
Our minds bring us to powerful educational and creative moments, each of which is like a new Adam and Eve exploring a new Garden. In the pursuit of new ideas, we discover the reality of God and the preciousness of each moment.
And we are transformed!
- Reverend Bobbie McKay, Ph,D