The mornings used to be chilly.  Or so I thought as I rode my XT200 through the traffic to university in nothing more than a T-shirt, shorts and a pair of flip flops. I guess riding any bike in shorts, T-shirt and flip flops would be a chilly experience. What chills my blood nowadays is the thought of riding a motorcycle dressed like that - I was looking for trouble should I have fallen off.

The Ivory Tower

My story has just begun and I have already digressed, so best I get with the programme. Each Monday I would throw my leg over my trusty iron steed and roar those 12 km up to the ivory tower on the hill.  The roar got even louder when I replaced the standard exhaust pipe with a wonderful stainless steel one – all shiny, long lasting and emitting a deep, throaty growl. 

I couldn’t wait to get to that first lecture each morning.  And it was the same for every day of the week.  Lectures, and afternoon practicals, which also included a dreaded chemistry prac on a Tuesday afternoon, were the order of the day.  

The holidays seemed impossibly distant

Eighteen months before, the mornings were also chilly.  I would pull on my grey flannels, button up my white shirt, put on the school tie and set forth on my walk to school, bag slung over my shoulder.  I would rather have jumped off a bridge than go to school, and would count off the weeks until the school holidays – which seemed impossibly distant at the beginning of a new term.  I hated school – the petty regulations and the the infantile behaviour, and the boring subjects which were imposed upon us.

Map of the ocean floor

Eighteen short months separated me from a place I hated and a place I loved. And the question is, why? Infantile behaviour and petty school rules aside, I think one of the fundamental differences was the environment in which we found ourselves. Certainly, we were on our own in terms of showing up for lectures and practicals.  Certainly, you could wear what you liked, grow your hair and sport a stubbly chin . But I think it was more than that.  In the geology department were professors, doctors, lecturers, Ph.D. students, masters students and of course us lesser mortals trying to get through our first degree. We walked those hallowed halls in awe, rubbing shoulders with those clever and accomplished people. 

The rock crusher crushed rocks in its inimitable way

It was indeed a house of wonders. Petrological microscopes stood on every desk – from those of the second-year students to the head of department. Infographics of rocks and minerals, as well as geological maps, filled all the available wall space. Downstairs the rock crusher crushed rocks in its inimitable way - the chugachugachugachuga of its jaws echoing around the courtyard in which it stood. Some of those crushed samples were further reduced to fine powders that went into X-Ray Diffraction and X-Ray Fluorescence machines.  

A geological map

Other samples were shipped off to international laboratories for age dating and other obscure testing which we still had to learn about. Through a double door in the rock lab you could see the rock saw cutting rocks into manageable chunks, grey water carrying away billion year old debris.  Some of those larger pieces of rock were sawn into much smaller pieces of rock, to be glued to glass slides and ground down into thin sections, to be examined under those petrological microscopes.

Mount Bromo in Indonesia

Red soils and noise spilled out of the soils laboratory thanks to the ongoing hammering of the compaction tests, tormenting students and professors alike.  Pull open any drawer in any cabinet, and it would be full of rocks, minerals or fossils, each specimen identified by a 1 cm2 white painted square with a reference number written thereon.  Rocks lay in the gardens, in the corridors, in the laboratories, on desks, and then they began to accumulate in my parents’ garden too.

Allowed us to understand what they were jabbering on about

When we weren’t attending lectures or drinking beer, we were attending talks by visiting professors.  Thanks to all that we had learned so far, we were at a level that allowed us to understand what they were jabbering on about. It was heady stuff and we were so in love with it all. So the big question is - if a university could be so much fun, why couldn’t school be the same?  

Landscapes of the Richtersveld

This is not a rhetorical question.  I think the answer is self-evident.  It was partly about lack. The lack of interesting lessons, the lack of practical examples, the lack of infographics, the lack of hands-on engagement. It may have also been partly due to being treated as an adult – we were the masters of our own destiny, and if we didn’t show up for lectures, or tutorials, or practicals, then firstly we missed out on the learning, and secondly there would be a little mental black mark against our name, which didn’t help when it came to leniently treatment of exam scripts. A failed exam meant writing a supplementary examination during the university holidays, which was a prospect too dismal to contemplate. 

Nanga Parbat, India

As a geography teacher, you of course would never dream of delivering a boring lesson, or keeping kids divorced from rocks, minerals, soil samples, infographics or maps.  Here at Rock and Sky, our focus is to assist by providing access to these amazing things. Things like rocks, minerals, soils, maps, infographics and tales of high adventure.  

Want to be your friend in the years to come

It was Ken Robertson who said that by lighting the spark of curiosity a child will then pursue knowledge his or her own accord. By making the classroom a fascinating and adventurous place, you will accomplish this, and Rock and Sky is here to help.  And at the end of it you will be fondly remembered by all of those kids who passed through your classroom.  What is more, your colleagues, the head teacher, and the parents will also be totally impressed with you. By bringing the subject to life and making it fun and engaging it will open up career paths which may not be immediately obvious to our young charges. 

So please stick around, engage with me, leave your comments, ask questions, and tell me how I can help in bringing your geography lessons alive.  It truly is going to be a grand adventure.