I Am a Student - Learning About Geology

Most of my elementary school years were spent attending St. Patrick's Parish School in Kent, Ohio.

St. Patrick's back door off playground

Entering front door of school around 1952

It was a Catholic school with most classes being taught by the Sisters of the Holy Humility of Mary.

With my 8th grade teacher who's name escapes me...Sr. Mary Holy Water?

There were lay teachers in some grades, and my mother was one of them, but the school was run by the nuns!  The nuns taught us well in the basics - "reading, writing and 'rithmetic" - and I even received a certificate for completing the course of study of the Palmer Handwriting Method.

To this day people tell me I have beautiful handwriting and the nuns would be so proud.  What I did not learn in elementary school were the Arts and Sciences. If we were lucky, we had a couple of hours a month for an art class, that was more than coloring a picture, or a simple science class.

Now that I am retired and have the opportunity to broaden my education I enjoy filling in the gaps.  This week I attended a lecture at California State University, Dominguez Hills that was offered to all members of their Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI).  It was the first of a series that will be presented this semester on Topics in Geoscience: Scientific Wonders of the Earth.  The series is popular, due to the generous participation of instructors from various departments at CSUDH.  The first presenter was Dr. Brendan McNulty, a professor of Geology, who is also a winner of the university's "Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Award."  For the past 7 years, with funding from the National Science Foundation, he and a colleague have been researching the Cordillera Blanca detachment fault in the Peruvian Andes.  I am impressed with myself that the last sentence just rolled off my finger tips!  The ideas of the forces of nature within our plant, the action of plate techtonics with plates colliding and subducting, the dating of material, rocks and soils that are 8 billion years old, the work of volcanic action and thermal triggers literally blows my mind! (pun intended)

Cordillera Blanca Peru

I recall being first exposed to the idea of our "living planet" in 2002 on an Elderhostel trip that made a loop of the state of Oregon where for 2 weeks we traveled on a bus accompanied by a geologist and a naturalist and explored four different geographic settings in the state.  I had never before considered how the wonders of nature worked or how slowly but decidedly this transformation occurs.

The lecture was filled with other OLLI members and Brendan commented on how much fun it was for him to share his passion with students who actually WANTED to be there.

Olli Members with Dr. McNulty

Jay, Gary and Gretchen talking to Dr. McNulty

He was enthusiastic, waving his hands and running back and forth from his slides to point some small detail out to us.  I was sure that as a little boy he must have come home with his pockets filled with rocks!  His enthusasm was infectious and we all left energized and eager to pursue other avenues of learning he suggested, like reading more of John McPhee's books, like Assembling California or the novel of Mario Vargas Llosa, Death in the Andes, which is set in the little village of Naccos.

Bottom line, for me I know it is never too late to have a comprehensive elementary education!

Thanks, Professor McNulty!