Grandpas are ALWAYS right too!

From an article by John Taylor Gatto: “One afternoon when I was seven I complained to my grandfather of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head. He told me that I was never to use that term in his presence again, that if I was bored it was my fault and no one else’s. The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible. Certainly not to be trusted. That episode cured me of boredom forever, and here and there over the years I was able to pass on the lesson to some remarkable student. For the most part, however, I found it futile to challenge the official notion that boredom and childishness were the natural state of affairs in the classroom. Often I had to defy custom, and even bend the law, to help kids break out of this trap. ” I don’t agree with everything the author Gatto, as a retired educator wrote but I just wanted to show off my Grandpa on my Dad’s side.  He lived in California and Arizona during the winter but would live with us in Minnesota in the summer.  Grandpa would drive truck during harvest, he would hoe weeds in the vegetable garden, play violin with me or rock in his rocking chair.  He always looked relaxed.  I loved my Grandpa Torkelson.  He was a good man!

Gatto, John Taylor, “Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids and Why” Harpers, Sept. 2003.