“There is no easy way to train an apprentice. My two tools are example and nagging.”
The morning is cloudy, but I don’t mind because the sun will appear later. It is chilly but not cold. I love saying that. I think of it as the difference between winter and spring.
The kid down the street rides a four-wheeler. He went from a tricycle to a bike with training wheels. I have no idea how extra wheels train a kid to balance on a two-wheeler. It is one of the mysteries of life. I didn’t have training wheels when I was a kid. I had my mother. She held on to the back of the bike as it wobbled, and I pedaled for all I was worth hoping to stay upright and moving. I remember my mother rode my bike first to show me how easy it is to ride. I was amazed. My mother could cook and clean but I never really thought too much beyond those. That she could ride a bike was a revelation. We were on the side street in front of my house. I was afraid she’d let go, but she didn’t for the longest time. When she finally did, I just kept on moving. I was a bike rider.
Okay, next I’m talking feminine undergarments. If you want to leave now, please do. Just hop on down to the next paragraph. Remember you were warned. I never had training wheels on my bike, but I had a training bra, the purpose of which flummoxes me even now. What was I training them to do? No tricks ever came to mind. Later, when I was much older and out of training, I did think of tassels but that’s a whole different conversation and profession. How long we had to train was arbitrary. Each mother made that decision. I didn’t train for too long. I must have been a quick learner.
My first job was at a Woolworth’s, the summer after high school, and I had to be trained. It was ridiculous. I was shown how to work the cash register and had to prove I could make change. The right way to stock shelves was explained and demonstrated. I was glad for that because I probably would have put the articles upside down or backwards on the shelves except for that in-depth training. I really hated that job, but I lasted the whole summer.
I had to student teach my senior year in college. Nobody called it training though that’s exactly what it was. There I was standing at the front of the room facing an entire class of kids who knew I was inexperienced and suspected I was scared. They were right. My lead teacher watched for a few weeks, gave me pointers and then she let go just as my mother had. I had no trouble staying upright, but I still needed to pedal for all I was worth.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: bikes, chilly, cloudy, job training, learning to ride, mothers, student teaching, sunny, training bras, training wheels, Woolworth's
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
April 13, 2014 at 10:58 am
Hi Kat,
I’ve decided that training bra is a misnomer and it really should be called indoctrination bra. You are being indoctrinated into voluntarily inflicting yourself with an uncomfortable garment on your body every day for the next 50 years of your life just because society says so and gravity works.
Tassels would have been fun, though. In junior high, one friend, who’s mother was an exotic dancer, showed us how to make pasties and what kind of glue to use should we decide to actually use them.
Dentyne gum and my best friend Jackie from down the street were responsible for my learning to ride a two wheel bike. Jackie was very patient but he was getting annoyed at my refusal to leave the curbside. Of course, I would hit it and screw up the whole thing. He suggested a gum break. After that I soared away on my bike with no curb at all. 🙂
One day, in work at the huge government agency, we had a one hour training session on how to use the new office chairs. There must have been extra money in the Facilities budget that year.
It’s rainy and cool. The damp makes it feel cooler.
Enjoy the day.
April 13, 2014 at 11:57 am
Hi Caryn,
I totally agree with your first paragraph. I call it a binding undergarment and it comes off as soon as I get home.
Tassels would have shocked my world in those days, but it would have been fun practicing. You have such wonderful experiences: tassels and glue!
My sister used the curb as well. We were just talking about it. She found the curb reassuring until she got the hand of the bike.
I love government spending!
Have a wonderful Sunday!!
April 13, 2014 at 11:45 am
There is a big difference between training and education. Training is the transfer of knowledge and skills through experience to accomplish a particular job or task. Education is discovering new ideas that may enhance your life that once mastered may allow you to train for a particular job. Education is discovery while training is learning to do something some one else discovered. Therefore, you were being trained how to wear a bra while your breasts already knew what gravity will do to sag them and they didn’t need neither training nor education.
Learning to ride a bike, drive a car or fly an airplane is training. Studying the history, development, design or social impact of bicycles is education. Our institutions of higher learning are blurring the lines between the two in their pursuit of money. Emory Riddle University offers BS degrees in aviation maintenance. Basically you can enroll and spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars and get a college degree in turning wrenches. I guess you can take the enterence test and go to law school or medical school with that degree. In my mind a degree in English, philosophy or math is education to prepare you to go on to career training while aviation maintenance is how to fix airplanes.
Student teaching is both training and an education. The education part is learning if you really want to spend your life in a classroom of rowdy kids.
Today the skies are cloudy and it’s raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. We need the rain badly. Tomorrow the morning temperature is forecast to be in the upper 30s with highs in the lower 50s with clear skies.
April 13, 2014 at 11:54 am
Bob,
Having been an educator the whole of my life, I do know the distinction between training and education. I was really talking tongue in cheek about the training bra.
In Ghana I was a trainer and a teacher as I worked at a training college whose sole purpose was to train school teachers for elementary and middle school. I taught them English and they transferred that learning to their own classrooms.
I disagree that my degree in English was preliminary to prepare me for career training. I had a choice of several careers upon completion of college, one of which happened to be teaching.
Rain later in the week, and it will get colder. My sister in Colorado is in the middle of a snowstorm which will drop 10 inches.
April 13, 2014 at 12:12 pm
Opps. I guess my lack of education made my paragraph unclear. Having a degree in English does prepare a person to go into any number of fields including education. A degree in aviation maintenance technology only prepares one to work in an aircraft related ground job. In my mind it’s job training and not a college degree level of knowledge which is not the same thing as a degree in English.
April 13, 2014 at 12:32 pm
Bob,
I get it now!
April 13, 2014 at 12:15 pm
My mother did just the same when I was learning how to ride a bike. See it can be both training and learning 🙂 🙂 🙂 But I have no ideas if those extra wheels actually helps the kids, I doubt they existed when I was a kid. I think my mothers philosophy was that if I fell and it hurt I most likely would be much more careful not to fall again 🙂 🙂
My first job was at a store too, they teached me how to use the counter but I guess they took for granted that I did know ho to make change. Well math was one of my favorite subjects so they were right on that one. I also was in charge of three different departments so I was more there than by the counter.
I have no comments about feminine undergarments but I did laugh out loud 🙂 Yes what trix could You have taught them 🙂
Windy, windy, windy and mostly cloudy most parts of the day but no rain as they had predicted. Now the sun shines but the wind still makes it a bit too chilly to be outside for any longer period of time.
Have a great day!
Christer.
April 13, 2014 at 12:35 pm
Christer,
They didn’t exist when I was a kid, but I know they in hinder a kid. Years ago two kids got new bikes for Christmas. One had training wheels, the other didn’t. The one without was riding her bike three days later. Two months later the other kid still had training wheels.
I hated that job. It was boring and needed no brains or imagination.
I’m glad you laughed! It was what I was hoping!!
Still cloudy, but Gracie and I are heading out as I have to go to the dump and do some errands.
Have a great day!
April 13, 2014 at 6:19 pm
Imagine the difficulty I had with working a training bra worn by a girlfriend while riding a bike at the same time!
Seriously, your way of learning is sadly out of practice now. Now, the parents hover over every activity of the children, pulling them out of jams and never letting them learn to how to do the same for themselves. It’s really awful when parents of college juniors call the professors in reference to a late term paper…and the professor takes the call and listens to the excuse!
And then, with freshly-minted BA degrees in hand, these young people enter the workplace unable to make a ham sandwich for themselves, let alone sell one to others.
April 13, 2014 at 9:35 pm
Mark,
I hope there is a video!
The last thing my parents would have done was make excuses for my not doing my work. That was all on me.
I don’t think my parents had any idea what was going on when I was in college. I called with the latest news, sanitized for their benefit, and requests for money. They didn’t even know I had applied to the Peace Corps until after I was accepted.
That makes for an incomplete, sad life.
April 14, 2014 at 3:55 am
Kat,
It occurs to me at zero dark thirty in the morning that the purpose of training wheels is to take the place of the parent who no longer has time the time to hang on to the bike and trot along behind while the kid learns to balance.
I’m not sure the same thought can be applied to training bras. 😉
April 14, 2014 at 9:24 am
Caryn,
When the kids are riding their bikes on my street, there is always a parent, usually a mother, with them. My street is quiet but the two streets bordering it are not so they don’t ride without a parent who yells for them to slow down. That’s where I see the kids on training wheels.
I think your idea works for a lot of parents but the two on my street are stay-at-home mothers so they seem to have the time but their kids still use training wheels anyway.