School does NOT equal an Education

Many years ago, I quit my full-time banking job in the Legal Department to start jessLEARN Inc.

I have never looked back.

If you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wouldn’t have had a definite answer. 

I was always academically strong which meant many doors were 'open' to me, which didn't always help. Some of my answers included being a Piano Performer, a professional flutist, or a lawyer. Maybe all three. These careers didn’t seem to have anything in common, but digging deeper, they did: they would all allow me to have my own business one day. I just didn’t realize it.

I didn’t think about having my own business because in school, they prepare you for existing jobs in the workplace. School didn’t teach me that I could truly pursue my dreams and passions and make them a reality.

In fact, too many important things were never taught in school.

This is the biggest problem.

In school, I was a very good student. I had obtained the highest designation for Piano from the Royal Conservatory when I was about 16 years old. I graduated from the French program in high school with a 90%+ average and received early and direct acceptance into University of Toronto’s Co-Op B.B.A. Program. It was a 5-year program, but I finished it in 4. I devoted 4 summers taking full course loads plus 1 year of full-time employment. As if this wasn't enough, I was also an avid volunteer for over 8 years as the Chair of Volunteer Development at the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and their first and youngest Community Presentations Speaker who traveled to corporations, hospitals and senior homes to educate them on the signs and symptoms of heart attacks and strokes. I was a strong competitor in Speech Arts in English, French and Mandarin. I started teaching piano when I was 16 years old as a part-time job and paid my $40K+ University fees on my own. I also paid for my first used car, gas, and insurance. My parents did not have to pay a cent. I juggled teaching piano, tutoring, and being a Wedding Musician performing the Piano and/or Flute during my entire University years in order to support myself. Then, I landed full-time jobs at Kodak Canada, IBM Canada, and ING DIRECT. This was my small list of achievements before I was 21 years old.

I was told my whole life to do well in school – in fact, to do well in everything I set my mind to. I listened and my marks showed it.

But then I realized that learning the content of school subjects did NOT equal an education.

An education is different.

School does not equal a real, complete education. I know this, because school didn’t prepare me for the next chapter in my life.

Life happened, and I had to learn this the hard and excruciatingly painful way.

Before I was 30, I unexpectedly lost both my parents. My world and life as I knew it collapsed.

At the time when my friends were getting promotions in their careers, getting married, and planning their first baby showers, I was planning my parents’ funerals and estate.

It wasn’t school that taught me what to do when my Mom was diagnosed with cancer. School didn’t teach me what to expect or how to deal with the wave of emotions and psychological stress I was about to experience. It wasn’t academics that taught me how to handle the role-switch from daughter to caregiver to executor. My high marks didn’t matter when my Mom took her last breath. My list of achievements didn’t matter when I suddenly lost my Dad. Nothing I had worked so hard to learn in school subjects mattered as I struggled to figure out how to plan a funeral and deal with the void in my heart and in my life. All the money I was so capable of earning couldn’t buy back a second with them, and my high academic achievements never comforted me as I collapsed and cried in fetal position, time after time.

To me, an education should provide a toolbox of skills that will help you manoeuvre through life - not just school - so that you can handle life’s uncertainties (there are lots), and learn to live your life to the fullest (if you so choose).

An education is about prioritizing, setting goals, organizing, managing time, communicating clearly, thinking, problem-solving, adapting, failing, and perseverance.

In other words, REAL EDUCATION is about LIFE SKILLS. Academics alone don’t complete you. You need life skills to complete you.

I was too focused on getting high marks by learning the content in school courses to do well on exams, that I was blind to the big picture – the WHY, and the HOW. Answering these, though, is what makes education real and worth more than gold.

I didn’t realize that having a part-time job during high school was why I learned to finish my homework in less time. It pushed me to prioritize and plan ahead to finish projects and assignments I had to hand in.

Everyone told me that working while studying was a distraction. The truth was that juggling multiple side jobs during University helped me form multi-tasking and problem-solving skills. These proved valuable when my multiple jobs conflicted with my final exams, or when I had to learn a new job on the fly. Having multiple jobs also meant I learned about money - an area we all need to/should know.

Writing final exams with a fever and successfully passing (with honours) a piano exam with sprained fingers from the previous night’s volleyball match, taught me resilience, commitment, and not to make excuses.

It wasn’t until I started working full-time at Kodak, IBM and ING DIRECT - while keeping my part-time teaching & tutoring jobs - that I realized that an education is about developing wonderfully transferable skills.

And it wasn’t until I had lost a parent that I desperately depended on these exact transferable skills to plan a funeral, organize a Memorial Service, write a eulogy in 2 hours, and then handle the finances and ALL the matters resulting from losing someone close to me. Don’t even get me started on all the emotional and psychological lessons I had to learn.

Yes, I realize that we don’t always need someone to TELL us the above – but if we only had someone who did, it would’ve been more helpful than harmful. 

Just like how athletes have coaches, students need coaches, too.

Students need coaches who will not only cheer them on, but tell them frankly when they’re off their game. Students need coaches who support them but also push and challenge them to reach a higher level. And students need coaches who share their own personal journey with them as encouragement and validation that what they’re experiencing isn’t a waste, or unique. Students need coaches to tell them that the seemingly pointless drills into which they put so much repeated effort, are building blocks to a BIGGER PICTURE. Students are overwhelmed with school content and details they have to regurgitate on tests and exams, and without coaches to point out and keep an eye on the big picture and the student’s goals, it is easy to lose sight and to give up.

This is why jessLEARN Inc. was created.

I wish I had a coach of this calibre when I was a student. It’s great that I discovered and made the connections between academics and an education on my own, but it would've been easier if I had someone to guide me along and support me while I was at it during my earlier years. Finding a ‘career coach’ when you've graduated and in a full-time job is, quite frankly, too late.

Today, I am honoured to be a coach to so many students – Public Schools, Private Schools, IB Programs, Extended French and Immersion French, and even Homeschool students. I teach and I tutor school subjects, but most importantly, I primarily coach. I share my successes and failures of my school experiences with them, but also the bumpy roads I’ve taken in my life. I went through it so that my students hopefully won’t have to go through it as much, or go through it alone. And, I teach the vital transferable skills students need to build and have, via school subjects, alongside the other teachers/coaches at jessLEARN Inc. 

Academics mean nothing without an education and these transferable tools and skills to navigate life. Students should know this. They need to know the bigger picture of why they attend school, but too often, they are never told.

At jessLEARN Inc., our students know all this.

They know that each minute they put into their own school studies is something that can never be taken away from them. They know that it’s important to set a goal and achieve it, but also to reflect and reassess if they don't, and plan what to do differently the next time. They know that school homework is overwhelming if they haven’t been taught some easy study or organizational strategies. And they know that although they go through the motions of school which often seem utterly pointless, the SKILLS which form the EDUCATION they are creating will be what they rely on now, in university, in the work place, and in life.

Each skill I added to my Education Toolbox started with a school subject plus a life circumstance, followed by a decision I made. Making the same decision after decision formed a habit. Over time, a habit became a mentality, and then part of my personality.

Through every disappointment, I learned a lesson. I dusted myself off and stood back up.

And for as long as I’m standing, I’ll continue to pass on what education SHOULD be - to my students, and to my own child.

- Jessica