52 weeks of personal genealogy and history: week 42: favourite school subject(s)

The topic for Week 42 in Amy Coffin’s and Geneablogger’s 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History series is: Favorite School Subject. What was your favorite subject in school and why? Was it also your best subject?

There are times when school seems so long ago and far away. When we’re in school everything about it seems so intense and important which of course it is, with the fundamental knowledge blocks being pivotal. However what’s really important, long-term, is the process of learning to learn. With that acquired we can always move on and learn new subjects and new skills throughout our lives.

My favourite school subjects were different in primary school and high school because in the latter I moved into a science stream. English was probably the common denominator between them both.

So in primary school I really enjoyed social studies/geography because I loved learning about places around the world, their people and their features. My mother was always interested in geography and travel so I guess this may have rubbed off. We also had an influx of post war migrants into our parish school in my early years in primary. They came from many countries in Europe: Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Malta and the Netherlands. At various religious ceremonies they would wear traditional dress which added colour, vibrancy and a sense of the world beyond Brisbane. The opportunity to learn about difference in culture and language was a defining aspect of my childhood.

In secondary school I guess my favourite subject was probably Maths II once I figured out what it was all about..which did take quite a while. On reflection I think what I liked about Maths II was the problem solving aspect: not unlike pursuing a family history puzzle. Of course because it was a subject I liked I was fairly good at it, but never having used it since, I’ve pretty much forgotten all I learned.

Despite my comment about German in my “teachers” post recently, I enjoyed opening the door into another language and it has certainly been a significant benefit in my family history research, despite my very rusty skills. One of my wishes is that I was bilingual in any language: fantasy-land in some ways but possible if I put as much energy into that as I do to family history 🙂 One can dream!

The observant reader will notice that none of my science subjects feature here, which simply proves I should have been more lateral in my subject choices.