LAST CAST
HOOKED ON LEARNING Because this issue is dedicated to education, I’m compelled
an endless array of apps and editing tools, students have
to address the subject, even though school for me began
transformed boats, beaches and camps into classrooms. The
with lots of paddlings on the butt and ended with a fnal
key is getting them outside to discover this amazing world.
college class called Black Elk Speaks, in which we learned
After a few years as a sports writer for a daily newspaper,
how to build Sioux Indian sweat lodges by a river. I’m not
I was fortunate enough to get a job as editor of a scuba
kidding. I got two credits and learned how to chant Indian
diving magazine. What a gig! I traveled around the world
style. What can I say? I went to college in the granola state of
writing about fsh and sharks and reefs and super cool
Oregon. They do weird stuf out there.
diving inventions. I snorkeled with humpback whales on
The nice thing about that class was that most of it
the Silver Bank near the Dominican Republic; I dived with
was outside. We cut birch trees and skinned the bark. We
schooling hammerheads in Cocos Island, Costa Rica; I
collected rocks to put into the fre to heat the sweat lodges,
explored the extraordinary reefs of Palau and its famous
and we jumped into an ice-cold river. I think we were naked.
Blue Corner; and I toured the world’s largest underwater
The point is, it was a hands-on experience rather than
graveyard in Truk Lagoon, Micronesia, where hundreds of
studying books in the classroom. It illustrated what life after
Japanese ships and submarines were bombed by British
school was all about…learning by doing.
and American bombers as retribution for Pearl Harbor. Did I
Of course, back then, before personal computers
learn? OMG! I learned history, science, geography, math, bits
FRED GARTH
and the Internet, it was an either-or proposition. You did
For the past 25 years, Fred D.
classroom work and went to the library for research, or
Garth’s articles have appeared in
you went into the feld with a camera, pen and paper. It
it really starts. So, kids, I say to you: Go forth and pursue
numerous books, magazines and
was impossible to do both simultaneously. Now, in this
something you love and keep learning every step of the way.
newspapers around the world.
extraordinary new digital world, we carry the library into
Your life will be flled with satisfaction and great knowledge
Read his blog at:
the feld in our pockets. Our smartphones can access
that you can use to make the world a better place.
GuyHarveyMagazine.com.
any information we need. And, it’s a thousand times faster than going through the card catalogue at a library,
What can I say? I went to college in the granola state of Oregon. They do weird stuff out there.
of diferent languages and culinary specialties. Learning doesn’t stop when school ends. That’s when
Speaking of which, I’d like to say something to all of those people who worry that kids spend too much time
which brings back
with their faces in their phones…when I was a student,
traumatic memories
my parents worried about me slouched in front of the
of whispering to
TV watching Gilligan’s Island after school every day for
a librarian who
two hours. Sure, kids abuse smartphones sometimes, but
thought I was an
watching the professor every week never hurt me. In fact,
idiot because I
I learned that some people aren’t as smart as they seem.
couldn’t spell Russian
Maybe the professor had spent all his time in a classroom or
author Fyodor
lab and that’s why he could never fgure out how to get of
Dostoevsky’s name.
that stupid island.
With streaming video in real time, GoPro cameras that flm underwater, smartphones with waterproof cases, and
I know what I would have done. I’d have used my smartphone.
