Guest Writer, John Miller: An Editorial on Education and Antarctica

(If you have been following this blog, you know we have had for many months a pen pal program between our school and members of the US Antarctic Program [USAP] at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and McMurdo Station in Antarctica. USAP members stay in Antarctica only for a limited time due to the severe conditions, and all of our pen pals have now gone home from "the Ice." However, one of them is still our pen pal, communicating with us via email from his home in the USA. He will continue to tell us about his Antarctic experiences at the South Pole and share with us his love for learning. His name is John Miller. [See his photo from last year at South Pole Station.]

John has written to our students many, many times from the South Pole. Below is an editorial he completed for AmeriWord, the newsletter for Literacy*AmeriCorps New Orleans which we are re-printing on our blog. [See the January, 2009 issue of AmeriWord at http://www.literacygno.org/literacyamericorps/lac-publications/ameriword ] We will post much more from John later at this blog, so stay tuned. John's writings are always popular with our readers. Our thanks, John, for your continued and outstanding support for our school, for education, and for the Literacy*AmeriCorps pen pal program.

The South Pole Rules !!

-- Adrian)

Still Learning: An Editorial From Antarctica to New Orleans

By John Miller, USAP

When I stepped off of the Herc [aircraft] back in November of 2007, I had every expectation of being slammed with the mind and body numbing cold that is associated with the South Pole. I was pleasantly surprised that, even at -49, and a wind chill of around -80, I was comfortably warm, but very much in awe of the fact that I was finally in Antarctica, standing on the bottom of the world. And as summer turned to winter and the long darkness set in, temperatures dropped along with the sun, but my own morale stayed high, partly in fact to the opportunity I had gained in the summer, to correspond with students from the New Orleans area through the AmeriCorps Literacy project. I know the project was designed to encourage adults to improve their literacy skills; but as the pen pal program progressed over the course of the winter, I realized just how much they were helping me get through the winter, and how I looked forward to their emails and hearing from people, like myself, who love to learn, and want to improve their lives through education.

In my own life, I didn't come to realize the importance of education until many years after high school. For me, high school consisted of doing just enough to get by, never applying myself, or realizing just how much education could prepare me for the real world. At the time, I really didn't love learning; just didn't care, and saw no reason to continue my education. Years later, after returning to school at the University of Nevada, Reno, I began to acquire a thirst for knowledge, and to see that learning doesn't, or shouldn't, stop after high school, or even college; it is a life-long endeavor that enriches and fulfills not only our lives, but also the lives of those around us. So, as I sit at my desk writing this short editorial, and looking out at the geographic South Pole marker (how many people in the world can ever say that!), I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that education, a life time of learning, was my ticket here. That without the five years spent as an apprentice electrician, which included six hours per week of classroom instruction, and hour after hour of homework and studying; and then spending 8 years getting a Bachelors degree in Education, and at the same time being the sole support for my growing family (including my loving and understanding wife Denise, and our three children; Joshua, Rachelle, and my oldest, Jonathon, who is currently a sophomore at UNR); that this opportunity, which came to include corresponding with my new friends in New Orleans, would never have happened if not for education.

On my refrigerator back home, among the pictures, notes, and report cards, I have taped a small note written in Latin that says "Ancoro Imparo" meaning, "I AM STILL LEARNING" And I pray that I always will.

John Paul Miller

Electrical Foreman

Amundsen/Scott South Pole Station

Antarctica