Larning

As I think back on it I guess I was on the pre-college track in high school, but it was never described that way. All high school was for really was to get you ready to graduate. I was fairly average, some things I was better at, some things not so much. But it passed anyways.

I had somewhat of a affinity towards science courses. More some natural talent that would manifest itself later, That did not come from instruction.

 

What I remember most that no one ever asked me if I wanted to go to college, or what to expect if I did not. Not one word.  My family never talked about it either. Just assumed that it would be so.

 

When I was a freshman at Temple

one Saturday I visited my brother David who was a student at BMI>

So I attended Temple University, me and 30,000 others. I remember one thing they told us during orientation and that was ½ of us new freshmen would not be there after the first semester, and ½ of those left would not be there after the 2^nd semester.

 

There was no guidance to speak of, you were just on your on. So I selected mandatory classes thinking I might eventually be a chemistry major moving toward a career as a Minister in my church.

 

What became apparent very quickly was Temple didn’t care. They wanted that class admission for the money it would bring, and maybe because they were a state school. And because most of them would not remain in school, gigantic lectures, indifferent instructors, etc. were just part of the norm.

 

I did not realize that I should have walked away from some of the instructors after the first day and changed instructors. Didn’t know that was an option. Instead I did what I was trained to do, and just soldiered on. I don’t want to discuss the negative.

 

One thing I did do that made a difference in the long run. Because of a club orientation, I joined the Debate Club. While the best had been high school debaters, it did teach me to research (probably the most important skill I learned and that did not come from a class.) Politely I survived trying to learn how to debate, not to go on and become a true debater, but it made me aware of the existence of the Speech Department.

 

As an aside on thing the Harry Potter movies got right was that the course books in Potions were really not correct, for they really didn’t want people to become good. But Harry found an old text with very, very good notes. That made him brilliant.

 

My 2^nd semester I had Chemistry 102 (Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis). We had 3 hour lab classes a week, as we covered the topic. Another aside, that summer I made a friend who was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. One time I went over to visit him, and discovered he was taking Chemistry 102 there. His text book was by the same authors, but it was a way more advanced edition than was used at Temple.

 

Lesson, different schools were preparing their students way differently.

 

That semester the big chemistry project was we were to receive a miscellaneous substance and a list of chemicals to test for to see if they were present in the liquid. You would not know ahead of time what tests were necessary. They blocked 3 - 3 hour classes for that lab exam.

 

We were not told how to prepare. The night before I had an idea. I prepared a gigantic flow chart showing how to test everything we had studies.

 

Then at class we individually received a numbered tube of our substance to be tested, and an individual list of what we were to test for. They we were instructed to prepare a flow chart of what we were going to test for, to be approved before we could begin testing.

 

I just went back, took the master flow chart I had prepared, crossed off everything I was not to test, and from that prepared a new test flow chart. It only took my a ½ hour.

 

I went up to the lab instructor to show him my chart. He looked at me and asked what was wrong. I told him I had my flow chart (everyone else was working on their own charts). He compared my test list to my flow chart, and agreed I was ready to begin testing.

 

I went back to my area and began my tests. By the end of the 3 hours I had completed my tests, and I had 2 labs remaining. So I locked my substance in my lab drawer and left.

 

The next class when I decided to retest my substance to determine my results were correct, I found someone had broken into my drawer and stolen everything there. Nothing to retest, so I just turned in my results at the start of that class and then left.

 

I scored 100% on my tests, and only used 1/3 of the time.

 

Later when I left Temple I know my gigantic flow chart was still being passed around. And I did not learn how to do that at Temple. That was me. It would have a later impact on my life.

 

Any how to make a long story shorter, because of course choices I should have never made, because of classes where I did not know to change instructors. And partly my own inexperience of dealing with college, I was .01 below the average I needed to remain in Temple. That meant I had to wait a semester before I could apply for re-admittance.

 

Long story short again, I found a job in Philadelphia, and attended Philadelphia Community College taking 2 courses at night. And after that semester I was re-admitted to Temple.

 

Things went better. Being aware of the Speech Department, I decided to be a Speech Major in Rhetoric and Public Debate. That proved to be an interesting choice, because the Speech Department was mostly a graduate program, There were only 5 undergraduates taking it as a major. 5 out of 30,000, the only one I knew was a friend who I had described the program to.

 

School went much better. My research skills proved very useful. And my basic speech course was even more important. For I discovered how to structure a public speech also was what was needed to write a paper. The same skill. That proved extremely important for several semesters later I had to write over 25 papers for that semester. And having a template how to communicate, made those papers a snap. In fact for the rest of my life I was able to draw on that experience many, many times.

 

I also began thinking about how much high school did not prepare you for college, And how much better it would be if everyone had obtained that basic speech instruction. Then I came to realize probably the last thing anyone wanted was to have everyone able to structure their thoughts and really express them.

 

Learning occurred in many different ways. Many classes were structured around current trends. For example I had to study the play “Waiting for Godot” in so many different courses. Having read it so much (even seeing a Temple performance of it) made it no effort to use in in papers for those classes. Later I attended a performance of Tom Stoppard new play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”. Then reading all the reviews I could find, I discovered I realized something no else noticed.

 

Stoppard just applied the structure for “Waiting for Godot  to Shakespear’s Hamlet,  Using the time R.& G. were not in the play as the reworked Godot. This was original thinking. Not that anyone cared.

 

Probably the most interesting class I had in Speech was “General Semantics”, the idea resonated with me. A much later religion class on ‘the Language of Religion’ covered Wittgenstein’s ‘Philosophical Investigations.’

 

I had so many classes in so many different things. None of them connected to the whole.

And because the department was so small at the undergraduate level, I even had to take a graduate level course, in modern speech theory. That was a eye opener as it was expected I read a complete book every week.

 

No on ever discussed my major with me, I was simply picking among requirements in the Temple course guide. For my senior year I was supposed to write a Senior paper on speech for a research topic. I was given an advisor and was to select a topic for the paper.

 

I worked very hard during semester break, for I could see a connection between Korzybski’s writings on General Semantics to Wittgenstein’s “Philosophical Investigations”.  I prepared a presentation for my advisor. I was beginning to realize I was interested in Linguistic Philosophy as applied to speech.

 

When I shared it, he turned me down, suggesting a general paper on General Semantics instead. I was extremely let down to say the least. The more I thought about it the more I realized as he had to read/grade the paper, and he was probably unaware of Wittgenstein, he did not want to work himself, rather to pick an easier topic for him to understand.

 

That began a process of my thinking why I was there. I realized I didn’t want to be a teacher, I did not want to be a grad student to go further for other degrees. I had come to realize my earlier interests in the ministry were not what I wanted. Those and many other things made me realize I did not want my degree.

 

So in the middle of my senior year I choose to leave Temple.

 

I was going to follow a different track.

 

I was grateful for what I had learned, but I was going in a very different direction.

 

Much later I came to realize the courses I had studied were pretty much was a classical liberal arts education would have covered. Though I never realized it at that time.

I did add texture to my life forever.

 

Today at Temple there is no Department  of Speech, though some of it remains in the Communications Department. And there are very few places that offer the classical liberal arts major, now days much despised as a concept. I can say it never hurt me for those studies.

 

Then I did many things, managed bargain stores and self service shoe stores, dug ditches and was a construction laborer. None of which required college. Then entered banking as a teller.

 

After that I went a whole different direction. I was shifted to the personnel department at that bank as a special assignments clerk Assisted installing a new pay system in personnel. Realized that system could also do new things for me. Being told by MIS you could not do that, instead I did it and eventually became the bank Benefits Officer, but much of my time spent using that system for many other things.

 

MIS and the bank did not realize what they had bought. It was originally purchased to sell payroll services and also a decision was made to use it for the bank payroll. They never realized it’s full potential, and had no plan to do so.  Payroll wanted some specific things, that MIS was not agreeable to build. I worked out how to do them on my own and began using the tool. And everything I did worked. Then I realized how I could make my job more efficient doing the same with the system. One thing led to another, and while it was never my job description, I began using it for everyone in the department and more.

 

I made a career out of doing what I was told I couldn’t do.

 

Eventually went to work for that system supplier as a Customer Support Representative. After using the system for a decade they realized what I could actually do. I also learned ever more. Part of my job was testing new releases and as I actually knew the system they found that useful.

 

Then moved on to be a Payroll Manager for another Company.

Then to another company to be the Manager of Payroll Systems.

 

One thing led to another. All that really mattered was I had skill and could get things done.

 

Personnel,  Payroll,  Benefits, Consultant Business Analyst,  Senior  Quality Assurance Technican, All of them variations on the same skill sets I taught to myself and kept learning.

 

In my work I was an individual contributor. I could not talk about what I did within the Company for I had access to all the employee records. I was not hired to train, just do and the I did again and again. Among the other things I can point to is throughout my working career, every project which I participated in completed on the scheduled delivery date.

 

When I was the new Manager of Payroll Systems, I had to upgrade the software package and roll one of the divisions into the main corporate structure. They were not very happy about that and did their best to resist that.

 

When we had our initial program planning meeting I sensed what a problem was ahead of me. So I called a meeting of the people who actually would have to do the work requesting me dates to meet and projects to accomplish.

 

Then I got to work. At my previous job a contractor had gifted me a Gant chart tool he used. I took everything and plotted it out on a Gant Chart.  Just as I had done back in University.

 

When we had out next team meeting, with all of those from that division ready to slow me down.  Instead I presented each of them with a 3 foot individual Gant chart, laying out what had to be accomplished. Their Senior Vice President from that division, took a look and admitted there was nothing left to discuss. Mission accomplished.

 

The only qualification they ever care about is what I had actually done. No one ever discussed my education for any position I ever held.

 

Of course things I had studied in University added to the texture of my life. I did learn many things.

 

But for me leaving University behind made my career as much as anything.