Life Long Learners

They say that education is wasted on the young.  As an educator, I must object; “waste” is a pretty strong word.  For each time of our lives, education serves unique purposes.  For my traditional age college students, education is, generally, a means to an end.  We have asked them, over and over, what they want to be when they grow up, and increasingly, we focus their education on the end they have identified, encouraging or requiring them to follow charted pathways to their desired careers, sometimes starting as young as 6^th grade.  And then, we’re surprised when they do not become the curious, renaissance people we envision.  We’re annoyed when a student heading for a computer science degree wonders why he needs to know the 200+ bones in the body or how to write an argumentative essay. 

Oh.  Was that a soapbox I just stepped on?  Sorry. 

For each time of our lives, education serves a unique purpose.  I am blessed, at this time in my life to be traveling with five of the most curious of renaissance people. 

L-R: Madeline, Elaine, Tom, David

As we have driven these many, many miles (1700+ from Seattle!), we have been guided by a unique publication called Mileposts which provides non-stop commentary about the sights along the road, tied to the mile markers we pass.  On our first day out of Bothell, Washington, Dad said to my sister and me, “You will be the navigators,” and then showed us this book, arranged by highway and by mile markers, so that on some trips, the traveler reads the columns top to bottom and on others from bottom to top.  As confusing as this text was at first glance, the more I explored it the more interesting (and amusing) it became.

 It is full of detailed information. At mile 25.2 on the Hyder-Stewart Access Road, we learn that there are multiple turnouts to see Bear Glacier at which “morning light is best for photographing.”  When the RVs approach any point of interest, Mileposts provides meticulous details. For instance, milepost 3.7 coming into Seward directs us to Exit Glacier – “Turn west of Herman Leirer Road (paved 45 mph posted speed limit) . . . and drive 8.4 miles to reach Exit Glacier in Kenai (KEE-ni) Fjords National Park.  Close-up views of Exit Glacier and Resurrection Glacier as well as access to local attractions, make this a worthwhile side trip.”  Milepost not only identifies which fish can be found in which river or stream, it even directs would be fishermen to the appropriate angling methodology – “Silver salmon to 22 lbs., use herring, troll, or cast . . . also bottom fish flounder, halibut to 300 lbs. and cod, jig weighted spoons and large red spinners, year round.”  Of course, one needs sufficient background knowledge to make sense of those instructions.  I read the book as we drive along, wisely choosing not to share the pictures in my mind – use troll?  

Troll for fish?

Cast?  Spoons?  Large Red Spinners?

Mileposts also directs us to museums, parks, and interesting pull-outs where my traveling companions give me living examples of life-long learning.  Before they left their Albuquerque homes, they all read Michener’s Alaska cover to cover; at every stop along the way, they build on the knowledge gained from that read.  Viewing the Gold Rush area maps at Skagway, they excitedly connected obscure points on the trail with the various exploits and misadventures of Michener characters Buck, Missy, and Tom 

David, Elaine, Roger, and Madeline reviewing
 gold rush map in Skagway

who carried a TON (that is a precise measure, not a figure of speech) of supplies up the Chilkoot Pass in search of gold.  Whenever our own travels hit a snag – when a either a tail light or the internet goes out – they laughingly balance our modern “woes” “ At least we’re not climbing Chilkoot Pass!” They visit every museum, enjoying the professionally impressive -- Museum of the North Anchorage, the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center in Fairbanks, and the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward – as well as the more folksy – the Seward Community Library & Museum, the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, and the George Johnston Museum in Teslin.

Sea Lions in Prince William Sound

My favorite part of each day is “cocktail hour.”  After a day spent apart – sight-seeing, visiting museums,  or traveling from point K to point L (we’ve long ago passed A and B), we gather at one RV or another and over our wine, beer, or lemonade, share the day’s explorations and new information.  These people have read every sign and every label in every museum, and as they discuss the sights they saw and the information they gained, the whole group learns and remembers more.  Seriously, ask these people the names of the First People nations in the areas we have visited. They know! 

Long house and totem of the
 Gitxsan of K'San Village

Talk about totem poles – they know who has them and who does not.  How many kinds of Salmon? What’s the annual rainfall in Seward?  How much snow fall annually on the Harding Ice Field?  How much does a sea lion weigh?   


Yes!  Real Puffins!!

Where do Puffins live? They know! 

Yes, I am seeing Alaska and spending valuable time with my dad, and yes, I am loving it.  AND, I am so enjoying meeting and traveling with these life-long learners.