Tag: education

Seasoned Educator

May 9, 2026

That’s what Mrs. Jackson was when she was my teacher in the first and second grades. I’m not sure how much seasoning she had, but she looked older than my Mom and Dad. They were in their thirties, and I thought she must be somewhere between them and my grandparents.

My third-grade teacher was about my parents’ age. Most of my teachers through grade school and junior high were in that range between my parents and their folks, at least until 7th-grade gym. That was the coach’s first year out of college. After the first quarter, he and my Dad had a conversation.

He gave me the first “D” I ever received on a grade card. It was the only grade below a “B” that I saw on any report. When my father saw it, he asked me a lot of questions. Was I always in class and dressed out? Did I follow instructions, and did I try my best?

I told him that my grade was low because I could not do as many sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, or run as fast as my classmates. The next morning, when he dropped me off at school, he parked and went inside to talk to the coach. Next quarter, my grade was a “B” for both quarters.

In high school, I continued to have seasoned teachers, and in my freshman year, I thought that our Spanish teacher had a little too much seasoning for my classmate Vern and I. We were in the Spanish III class as freshmen. Our class was the first to have had Spanish since fifth grade.

The administration said that we had the equivalent of the first two high school classes. She disagreed and told us that if we did not pass the first test, she would make us take the first class even if we had to wait until the following year. The scores on our first test were tied with two seniors. We all had 98%.

After that, we had no more trouble with our instructor. Another first-time teacher came along in my sophomore year. She taught my favorite subject, chemistry, and she was a hot, newly graduated blond female. Not at all seasoned in the least. She was an enjoyable, fresh face for this teenage boy. I found out that you can be seasoned at some things without being very old. One of my classmates asked if we had to heat glass tubing before we bent it. I thought that was a dumb question because of my experience.

Experience is the best teacher is a saying I’ve heard forever. My business experience proved to me that my education was a very useful thing. When I began to work in an office, I did not rely on secretaries to type purchase orders or sales documents for me; I could do that myself.

In college, my typing and shorthand from high school enabled me to take notes fast and type them as well. I still have those notes in my files for reference in my writing when I need them.

When I had the opportunity to become a sales service specialist, it was necessary to use algebraic equations to determine drive speeds, ratios, belt and chain lengths, as well as numerous other things like torque and horsepower required for machinery. When someone says they never use those skills, they probably haven’t thought about all the ways mathematics, reading, and writing have to be used in our technological world.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

NO ONE CAN TEACH YOU WHAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO LEARN

July 1, 2025

It seems like an easily determined idea, doesn’t it?  Parents, teachers, and employers all fail to recognize this one fact. A father or mother attempts to teach a child how to use a spoon, a fork, or the potty chair before they want to. And it is always a struggle. I know. We tried that with Heather.

She would sit on the pot and not do anything.  Then she decided she wanted to use the chair because she was tired of diapers. Why do training diapers help so many kids? They don’t want to lose the security of the protection from accidents, but they want freedom in the bathroom. They also wish for Mom and Dad’s approval.

Effective teachers find ways to encourage their students to learn, but may use games, toys or other activities that catch the attention and are interesting. This type of learning must be customized for every student. If you are fortunate, more than one person is captured by the same activity. Others require a different approach.  Learning centers in classrooms take advantage of this principle.

Although I have never carried the title of “trainer” as a supervisor, manager, or an employee hoping to help someone else get ahead, I have trained hundreds of people in dozens of areas. Often, the lessons I taught to others were taught the hard way by trial and error for me. The desire to make learning easier for someone else makes me want to discover how to help them catch what I am throwing at them. This is how it should be done in the workplace.

The truth is that many are afraid to instruct others in what they know. They believe their job security depends on no one else knowing as much about their job.   

On other occasions, we want to pass on knowledge, but do not know how because our school was hard knocks. We learned by doing and believe others will also.  On-the-job training is good, but why shouldn’t those with more experience guide the newbies?  Show them the things you tried first that did not work. Tell them why you do it the way you do and all the other methods that are not as good. These stop wasting time and effort.

If they listen. That leads us back to the title of this article.  No one can teach you what you do not wish to learn. If you are stubborn and will not take instruction, you are doomed to repeat other mistakes and be thought less of. 

When your trainer takes the time to show you their errors, you don’t have to repeat them. Hopefully, you will not be greeted with the worst of all educational philosophies, “Because I said so.”

It is time to take your company to the 21st century. Write a procedures manual that includes every process in your business. This is one of the requirements for all major companies. Certifications that multinational companies must maintain to bid on government contracts require this manual. Start with this item and see where it takes you.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

The summer of 1975

January 26, 2025

In 1975 I traveled farther than I had ever gone.  I rode a Continental Trail Ways Bus from Springfield, MO to Harrisburg, PA. I left Missouri on a bright morning and by the next afternoon had checked into a hotel with over a hundred college and high school students from all over the United States. We were there for orientation to the Student Summer Mission Program of the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Leaving home wasn’t that hard. I spent the last semester of school in a dormitory on campus in Bolivar. That is about thirty miles north of my home. Ron, my roommate, and I got along well, and we both went home every weekend.  He went to Waynesville and I to Springfield.  He had transferred to Southwest Baptist College that year as a junior from the University of Missouri, Rolla campus. I did the same thing from Southwest Missouri State University. He was a mechanical engineering student, and my major was creative writing. I was going to go to the University of Missouri at Columbia before God called me to the ministry.  Ron’s plans were changed by God, also, before we met.

During the first week of my first semester, I saw signs around campus promoting the Summer Missionary Program. I filled out the paperwork and applied. We would find out if we had been accepted after the new year.

That year, I met many new people, not all of them at college. I went to church one Wednesday evening for dinner and joined a youth excursion to a haunted house. At church, I met a cute little high school girl. As we waited in line at the haunted house, we began holding hands, and I made myself available to comfort her when she was frightened.

I failed to ask for her phone number that night. I later asked the girl she had attended with for her number, and we began dating. When I received my acceptance for the summer and learned I would be going to PA I wondered about leaving her for ten weeks.

When I left in June 1975, we were engaged. We wrote letters—yes, I know that is old-fashioned—and spoke on the phone. I missed her terribly. I returned in August; I had decided that by next summer, we would be married. I was graduating in the spring and did not know if I would be going to seminary or where God would take me.

I took a part-time job in February of 1976 and was offered a full-time management trainee position two weeks before graduation. Two weeks after our wedding I was told they needed me to move to Joplin, Missouri. Cindy was still in high school. I left for Joplin on a Sunday evening and stayed in a hotel. She joined me on Friday after she quit her summer job.

I was so glad to have her in my arms again. She graduated in December, and we returned to Springfield in August of 1977. Over the years I have been asked why we did not wait until she finished school to be married. My answer is simple. I did not want to be away from her like I had been the previous summer.

I did not know that God intended me to move so close to home. I thought I might be going hundreds of miles away again. I had considered Dallas, TX, Kansas City, or even California for Seminary. That was not God’s plan. I did not need a master’s or doctorate. I needed to learn to be a workplace minister.

The question is sometimes asked by teenagers, “How do you know when you are in love?” For me, I knew that summer. I never wanted to be away from her again. I’ve gone on short mission trips of about a week. I’ve traveled for training and my job. Ten days was the longest we have been apart in fifty years.

Shortly after I accepted the call to full-time Christian service, my pastor told me to carefully select the woman I would marry. When I transferred to SWBC (Southwest Bridal College), I dated several girls. I prayed for each one. Was she the one I should marry? I do not believe I ever asked God about Cindy. I knew I had to spend my life with her.

If you are looking at major changes in your life this year, graduating, moving, or changing jobs, be sure that you are seeking the Lord’s will. Nineteen Seventy-Four was a pivotal year for me. God told me He wanted my life, and I gave it to Hum. Is this the year you should do the same?

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger