The Blessing of An "Easy A"

When I was in high school I was looking for the exit from day one. As one songwriting poet said, "Every front door found me hoping, I would find the back door open."  That is not much of an exaggeration at all.😎

Even though I took five math classes and four history classes, I took the bare minimum of English and science classes. Like I said, I was looking for the exit.

Every year I was on the lookout for "filler" classes that would earn credits, but would be an "easy A". In my 10th grade year, I signed up for Sociology thinking it would be such a class. I had the same teacher for Civics the previous year so I was familiar with his teaching style. 

Sociology was quite an experience that was everything I signed up for and more. It was taught by a flaming 1960s radical who hated Ronald Reagan, the president at the time, with intense hatred that I had never been exposed to before.

He did his very best to transport our young skulls full of mush to 1968. In the process, he challenged me to think critically and to know why I believed what I believed. Believing something because it was the way we were raised was not enough for him and he unwittingly elevated my reasoning skills while trying to conform my mind to his views.

It was an "easy A" and I still think about things he taught to this very day. I also enjoyed the friendships I made in that class and even though we gravitated in different directions the next year, I was bettered by those friends.

Another year, I signed up for a full year of typing. Not because I wanted to know how to type, but because typing was taught by a football coach and classes taught by coaches are always easy.

This coach spent at least 75% of the time each day outside the class and that worked great for all of us slackers. Every day started the same. "Get out your typing books and type such and such lessons. Remember to look at the book and not your hands and try to increase your speed while decreasing mistakes."

Then he would leave the room and come back occasionally to make sure we had not burned down the school in his absence. We had not, so the coach was satisfied with our performance. Like I said, "Easy A"

We were not typing on computers, but on typewriters. I think they were IBM Selectrics. Even though I goofed off most of the time, I surprised myself by learning to type and to type pretty fast.

That "easy A" typing class turned out to be one of the greatest things I carried with me from four years of high school. Other classes have been useful. I have benefited from Latin, English, history and especially algebra for 37 years.

But nothing from high school has been more profitable for me than learning to type. I can not imagine not being able to type. I type many thousands of words each week in letters, emails, Mile Markers, YouTube descriptions and sermons.

Living my life as I do would simply not be possible if I had taken Chemistry, Advanced Calculus, Advanced Placement English or anything less useful than typing.

I am thankful that my desire for an "easy A" pointed me to the football coach's typing class. I am not advocating a quest for mediocrity, but IF you learn a useful life skill in the process, you may rise above average eventually.

OR it may be another example of God guiding my footsteps by His providence and goodness when I did not even have enough sense to know it. I will take that explanation and thank God for His kindness to me. I am so glad that I learned to type well.

Thank you for reading my typing today.

Davy