Social Studies: A Return Back To Elementary School

Growing up, I once read a poster that said “All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten”.  I just did a google search on the phrase and it turns out to be an excerpt from a book of the same title by someone named Robert Fulghum.  Here’s a link to the things he outlines as behaviors that we have learned in Kindergarten that are applicable to everyday life.

http://www.kalimunro.com/learned_in_kindergarten.html

The reason why I bring this up is this:  Since I have only class for the entire month of January then a break until I study abroad in Japan, I’ve decided to catch up on some reading.  As mentioned a few blogs ago, I raided my mom’s collection of books and found some gold.  I’ve realized recently that when I read for pleasure I usually go for two types of books – fiction/fantasy or self-taught social skills.  My favorite fiction/fantasy writer would have to be Brian Jacques with his Redwall books.  Loved them as a kid and when I make money I plan to buy every book for my own collection.  As for the self-taught social skills, I’m referring to books such as:

1. “Coping With Difficult People” by Robert M. Bramson, Ph.D.

2. “Massage for Dummies”

3. “Improving Your Memory for Dummies”

4. “The College Cookbook” by Geri Harrington

5. “The Complete Book of Chess Strategy” by IM Jeremy Silman

6. “The Complete Book of T’ai Chi” by Stewart McFarlane

7. “Enjoying Jazz” by Henry Martin

8. “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama

See the dummy books?  I swear they are written for people like me haha.  I believe that I like books like these because it gives me a broader sense of what I can do to better myself.  I’ve already read books like “How to be a Gentleman” and “Advance Your Swagger” by Fonzworth Bently, but I was disappointed because I already knew at least 95% of the things depicted in the book and the only reason why I can’t utilize the parts that I didn’t know is 1) I have no money and 2) I have not been in any of those situations yet.  I guess my moms/grandma instilled the right things in me to become a legit Southern Gentleman.  Kinda sucks that I don’t have someone to practice these skills on, but I guess if you embody what you learn that it will eventually become prevalent to the people you interact with.

Anyways, I’m not the kind of person to return back to things after I’ve already done them because I’m usually trying to do things with the short lifespan that we are all given.  However, I’ll start to collect my own books so that when I do get a chance to retire and relax I can come back to these books.  Or, maybe one day my kids/grand-kids will raid my collection of books so that they can 1) get a better sense of what I was into back in the day and 2) find something that can help them in life.  Since coming to college, I’ve realized how much I actually don’t know and how easy it is to forget about things that you’ve learned in the past.  Learning patience and accepting that I’m not a person that can remember everything that I’ve ever come across or that I can never do something perfect the first time and be done with it is something that I’ve struggled with, and am still struggling with, but something I hope to overcome.  With this mindset, re-reading these books at some point in the future may turn out to be a worthwhile endeavor.  But I actually have to sit down and read first huh….

People usually enjoy things better when they are good at them; or at least when they are proficient enough for the activity to not be one of frustration, especially when others are better.  That’s the problem I run into more frequently than I ever thought I would.  The people that I hang out with always seem to be better at everything else than I am, or at least I suck the most out of everyone there.  The feeling is even worse when you add my short temper and when I’m noticeably holding people back for my lack of ability in the given activity.  An example that I gave in a previous blog would be that of tennis or any other sport.  If I can’t rally, dribble a basketball, have the endurance to go on a run/hike, or the mental ability to keep up with my opponent’s attacks in Chess, then it’s not really fun for both parties involved.  So, my logic follows that if I know how to deal with certain movement patterns in Chess, learn how to at least rally, be able to at least run with a basketball, and have enough endurance to continue on to the end of the hike/run, then not only is that a skill that I know how to do, but it will also make the activity more fun.  And when it’s fun, you can get even better at it while working less on it.  Just feeding off of that cycle of happiness making things easier and making you better at it is an amazing phenomenon that I believe I should take advantage of.  Overcoming being useless is also a good perk to becoming decent at something as well haha.

The social skills taught by these books specifically are geared more towards understanding than becoming better at something.  Becoming better is a definite benefit, but all of these readings focus more on understanding oneself, others, or both.  Even the cookbook teaches you how to understand what kind of budget you have to work with verses what’s out there verses what you want/need to eat.  T’ai Chi teaches you how to understand the movement of energy in your body and how to control that, while Coping with Difficult People teaches you how to interpret the actions of others and how to react to them in a way that benefits both you and the other person involved.  Understanding and comprehending the implications of what is depicted in these sources of literature reaches farther than the content of the text itself.  Simply put, what you learn in these books can be applied to all aspects of your life.  I jump at every chance I can get to better myself, and I’m confident that these books will help with that.

Remember in elementary school when you had to take Social Studies?  In a sense, these books are the epitome of the literal meaning of this concept.  Society and the people that make up society all have elements that can be studied in these books, and since I don’t have any classes for a lengthy period of time I guess these books could be my own version of Social Studies.  Humans grow older, but things don’t really change too much once you really analyze things; you can see this when you check out the link at the beginning of this blog and comparing it to the way people act nowadays.  So when I wake up tomorrow and have a nice, chill breakfast you best believe that “Coping with Difficult People” will be accompanying me.  As for now, I’ll go back to one of best parts of Kindergarten:  going to sleep.

PNBE

Snowfield Rhapsody

P.S. – right before writing this blog I came across this dope song that I played on repeat.  Hope you enjoy:

Don’t forget to leave comments/feedback =)