The Dog Ate My Resume

We had a Geometry teacher in High School who was well liked for telling great stories and giving easy grades but if a student asked a hard question his famous response was "I missed that day at school." After a while we got to thinking he must have been very sickly or delinquent for all the days he missed but we never thought to question his teaching skills, he just didn't know the answer. His main job was Basketball Coach but he had to teach other classes to make his pay and Geometry was on his schedule even if it wasn't his strong suit. At least he was honest.

Back in the first grade I did get sick and miss a day of school and when I got back the next day the teacher took time out to help me catch up with the previous day's work which consisted of one word: pie. Seriously that was a day’s work for a first grader in my day. That was the last time they ever helped me catch up on stuff that was missed. You didn't have to miss a whole day to miss the lesson, it could be anything from daydreaming to dyslexia, the results are the same.

Then later on in life I caught myself using that same lame excuse and I realized that using the ‘missed day at school’ routine was more trouble than good, so then I had to take time out of my adult life to unlearn that teacher's bad habit. That was when I first started looking for other bad things I might have accidentally learned along the way but how do you know it's wrong before it has been revealed? Everything still looks OK so there is no easy way to know which is the wrong idea.

I may not be sure how much bad stuff I did learn but once I got to looking I found all kinds of stuff that I didn't learn. Simple things that would seem obvious to anyone like, How to think. I never had that class, no how to guide, no FAQ , nothing. There should be memory tricks to make things easier to remember, and exercises to remember better. How to smell, how to listen, how to look and see, these were all taken for granted but I can tell I am still not using those skills to the full potential. The brain is such a powerful tool but there is no user manual. It feels like I’m not getting all the features and benefits.

Another variation on the "missed that day at school" is this similar excuse " They didn't teach that at my school". This puts the blame on the teacher, the principal, the school board or even the student body, anybody but the student themselves. Using these excuses is like carrying on the old tradition of the dog ate my homework, then he ate my resume and now the dog ate my career.