I was a classroom teacher for a couple of decades, and there was a question that I sometimes heard from my students:
Why do we have to learn this?
We’re never going to use this stuff!
I have to admit, sometimes there wasn’t much of a chance they would use the material they were being forced to learn, but that wasn’t always the case.
Sometimes they were learning something that would help them later in life, even if they didn’t know it at the time.
MY HIGH SCHOOL YEARS
I’d like to travel back in time to when I was a student in high school. Which was, you probably realize, a very, very, very long time ago.
I was taking a class called “Driver’s Training” that included driving in an actual car with an instructor and spending several hours “driving” in a simulator.
I didn’t have to ask the instructor “Why am I learning this?”
I knew why.
It would help me pass the driver’s exam so I could get a license, and it would earn me a discount on car insurance.
What I didn’t realize was some of the things taught in that class would be life changing.
I’d like to share just one of those lessons.
FLASHING LIGHTS
I’m going to date myself here.
The first car I drove did not have turn signals.
Yep. I’m that old.
As I drove in traffic, I had to use hand signals. The driver’s side window was open, and I would stick my left arm out the window to indicate my next move — right turn, left turn, slowing down.
There were some drawbacks to this method. At night it was sometimes difficult to see the arm signals. And when it was raining you had to decide if it was worth opening the window and getting drenched just so other drivers could see your next move.
Getting drenched was not appealing.
Turn signals first appeared in cars in the 1930’s, but they were optional. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that turn signals became required equipment on all new American cars.
Most of the cars on the road when I was learning to drive had turn signals, and my Driver’s Training Instructor not only taught us how to use them but also what we should think when other people used them.
That was the important lesson.
My instructor made it very clear … turn signals were nothing more than a flashing light.
The flashing light might indicate intent.
But it might not.
The driver might have accidentally turned on the signal and then forgot it was on. Or the driver might change their mind about what they were planning to do and even though the turn signal was flashing, they chose to do something else.
My Driver’s Training teacher stressed over and over:
“A turn signal is just a flashing light.”
That has been one of the best lessons I ever learned in school.
Today when I’m at a stop sign, waiting to turn left onto a busy street, and a car approaches with its right turn signal flashing, I don’t immediately pull out.
I wait until the driver slows down and actually begins the turn.
As much as that may annoy the person behind me, that simple habit has probably saved me from several accidents over the last sixty years.
FINAL THOUGHT
As you look back on the lessons you learned as a youth, are there some that stick out as being very important, possibly even life changing?
Treasure those lessons.
And if you’re not as old as me, you may even be able to go back and thank the teachers who presented them to you.
A BLESSING
Before I go, I’d like to share a blessing with you from the Old Testament.
“May the Lord bless and protect you; may the Lord’s face radiate with joy because of you; may he be gracious to you, show you his favor, and give you his peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26 (The Living Bible)
Until next time … be the reason someone smiles today
