Curtis Jerry Smothers
Teacher . Editor . Poet . Writing Coach . Historian . Online Tutor
Education: A Journey That Never Really Ends
Welcome to Your Education Articles
I've been an educator for much of my adult life, although for many of those years nobody called me a teacher.
My first classrooms were aboard U.S. Navy ships, where training meant helping sailors master the skills they needed to do their jobs. Years later, as a vocational education specialist at the College of the Sequoias in California, I worked with programs preparing people for careers and spent six semesters as an adjunct instructor teaching computer applications. More recently, I've worked one-on-one as an in-person and online tutor in Spanish, English and Social Studies.
Those experiences left me with a simple philosophy: Teaching and learning are processes, not products.
Education is more than teachers, students, lessons, textbooks, tests and degrees. A good teacher learns from students; curious students eventually learn how to teach themselves. One discovery leads to another, and education becomes less a collection of facts than a way of connecting the dots as we move through life.
The Journey Is the Interesting Part
Education is often measured by destinations: pass the test, finish the course, earn the degree, learn the skill. I've come to think the journey matters just as much.
Learning something you didn't know yesterday can be useful, but it can also be interesting, fun and exciting. Teaching brings its own reward—that wonderful moment when “I don't get it” becomes “Oh! Now I see.”
I've experienced that moment with sailors, college students, adult learners and tutoring students. I've experienced it as a student myself, and I hope I never stop.
These pages aren't intended to be the last word on education. They're observations, advice, arguments and occasional provocations from someone who has spent a good portion of his life on both sides of the teaching-and-learning equation.
So pick a subject. Question something. Learn something. Disagree with me if the spirit moves you.
Class is never really dismissed.
What You'll Find Here
The articles in this section come from many years of teaching, tutoring and freelance writing. I've selected those that still have something worthwhile to say and updated them for today's educational world.
The collections cover Teaching & Learning, Secondary Education, Adult Education, Higher Education, and Study Smarter. Within them, I'll explore teachers and teaching, student success, college and career preparation, online learning, study skills, educational technology and other issues that affect how—and why—we learn.
Some of these articles have aged gracefully. Others need a little renovation. And a few old assumptions may deserve to be challenged altogether. That's part of learning, too.
You can visit each page by through the dropdown menu above. For a fast track to each, those pages are also linked below:
