johnny9fingers | (no subject)

(no subject)

That last post of mine was so naive, I mean I wrote:

And doing something means investing. Which means taxes. And paying teachers a wage commensurate with their responsibility to the next generation.

Of course, our only responsibilty to the next generation is to saddle them with as much debt as we can manage by indulging in our desires for luxuries and fripperies. Collectively, we seem to emulate the least intelligent, sensible, and able of the Bennett sisters, talking about spending money on things they don't need, nor really want: like badly-made hats and ribbons to put on 'em.

Yeah. We don't invest anymore. The 'short now' (as Jasper fforde would have it) weighs against investment. Collectively we don't think much of our kids, and we consider our Grandchildren even less.

The Anglo-Saxon cultures have no proper concept of long-term, which is good as we don't appear to have a long-term future.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I had to ponder a while whether "we" meant the UK or the US. I'm still not entirely sure, but I figure it's safe to assume you're talking about where you live.

While I doubt many Americans would look kindly on my calling the US Military a "frippery," we do the same thing here, and we get VERY belligerent about the idea of raising taxes to pay for it.

And Social Security has been raided for generations to make up for it, meaning that the thousands I've paid into that fund, and been taxed on, my generation will likely never see.

In terms of social policy, especially regarding education, the US and UK are fairly similar: the main differences being Medicine and, to a lesser extent, Social Security (Unemployment Benefits, etc).
But it's not just society, or even only the miltary/industrial complex: as individuals, we all contribute to the wastage, and regard such as out free and democratic right. The combination of all the factors is why we're doomed.
I've got no kids, and therefore have no incentive to live small, apart from a sense that I should be doing something.

True, though I try to cut down on my own waste wherever I can. While I do own many things I don't NEED, I do also carpool with my husband where I can, I opt for stuff that involves less packaging where I can, I reuse plastic bags, and I take what steps that are within my budget to do. I could probably cut down even more by biking more often and shopping at the Farmer's Market, but there are budgetary constraints on both of those. I may never understand why bananas flown in from Honduras cost less than apples grown practically in my back yard, but I guess the farmers have to make ends meet somehow, and milking those with a "Yankee" accent may just be how they manage.

or so naive. (as in 'dahling')

personally i have stopped caring since caring hurts. and i have just had my first sherry because joan sims is on the telly being an alcoholic and it reminded me i might feel a bit better if i had a drink.

i have had a dreadful day, dahling.

pass the end of the world vol au vents...
(oh, and open a youth centre, would you?)

My sympathies about the dreadful day. May tomorrow be better, and the next day be better yet.

Me, I'm ranting spleen at the short-termism endemic in our recent culture. I don't much like 'the youth'. That's what the idea of proper taxes for proper teachers is all about: paying specialists enough to inculcate the nasty little blighters with something approaching civilised behaviour, whereupon they can be allowed out in public without handcuffs and leg-irons.

Then it might be possible to teach them about 'difficult' things like Maths and Physics; metatexts and subtexts; or the morality of waste. I suppose I ought to open a chess and bridge club for underpriviliged young folk. I might yet do that. Thanks for the idea.

ew!

having taught teenagers, i can report from the front line that they are really rather lovely, though i did teach mainly asian boys on the young people front, and from what i saw of the girls they were literally hysterical, and quite painful to be within earsreach of.

i dare you to do something with the yout!

I can tolerate some kids. Which doesn't mean the quiet ones, just the clever ones. But that's part of who I am. As the world dumbs down, I've become more ensconced in my ivory tower. I prefer the company of the clever and well-educated, almost none of whom seem to exist before the age of about 30 or so, which is not to say there are none, nor that they spring, fully-formed in some mythical self-creation.
I know I'm in danger of disappearing up my own arsehole, but sooner or later we all revert to type: and I suppose I'm a bit like a sort-of-straight, not traitorous, Anthony Blunt type. I try to be kind, and wit matters more than just about anything, but I do 'lose it' with both the unformed and uninformed: especially when they are vehement in their unformed and uninformed opinions.
Something about fools, gladly, inability to deal therewith. I'm dead good a teaching masterclasses in guitar, however (when I can be bothered, and I think the pupil is doing the work, or is especially talented).
Everyone has their level. Mine is dictated by the limits of my patience and my leaning towards irrascability, if that's the word. But I shall have to learn better. So I will.

i was lucky with the teens i taught, my btec was in multimedia so i got quite motivated clever ones. they couldn't write, but they could render a 3D animation in a flash.

i felt frustrated that they clearly had barely learned to read and write, or even learn, or even watch a documentary, so i don't know what school ever did for them. they would all be first generation in their family to get a degree, as was i, so i was particularly sympathetic towards their weaknesses.

handling a group is like the herding cats of proverb, but if you did want to dip your toe in you could try mentoring, that would just be one person. it's a bit like dating except less expensive and sexually fraught. (ideally)

Another possibility I had not considered. Actually I know a couple of folk who should, given their talents and abilities, be mentoring. But to a certain extent that is what we do for godchildren. I have books to give mine, and I attend to some aspects of their learning, if only at a distance. Books may always be given, and to the reading child interested in knowing more (two out of the five), a book can work wonders. I gave Jostein Gaardner's 'Sophie's World' to one, which sparked an interest in philosophy of a simple kind in a twelve year old. We all do what we can. My own mentors were my teachers, and a parent of a schoolchum: Robin Buss. Robin died last year. I didn't keep in touch enough, dammit. I still honour the man. He encouraged me in my poetry and writing.
That is, I suppose, the thing I would be best at: encouraging folk in their writing.

indeed, there is no need to do formal mentoring, it was just a thought. it's good that you have some contact with children, i really value it when i do, they can be very refreshing in homeopathic doses.

i was taught by the late jeff nuttall, who was a rabid generalist, he wrote, played jazz, did performance art, painting, all sorts. he died while i was too ill to have noticed, and then it was even too late to go to his funeral, nevertheless i still honour his memory.

we really do think a lot alike. if i was pres i would pay teachers (who were highly qualified) atleast 100k a year by the fifth year. i would charge citizens for infrastructure & public education according to how much they make annually. luxury tax would be the norm!
the poor child would get the same quality education that the rich child would (only talking money here, there are lots of damaged rich kids). it doesn't really matter why a parent is poor to the child. & all kids would also get breakfast b4 class. do you know how many kids are hungry @ school? i do, & it's shocking. a kid can't learn while hungry; & a nap(getting jerked out of bed 2 b beat when the parent unit gets home late from partying is tiring) & lunch (2 meals a day is a lot for some kids.) sad huh.
since you seem to have a heart, i will tell you i have just volunteered to work with inner city children in the town i grew up in (10 months). a full circle experience for me. it will probably help me more than the kids. i will not be in my born demographics, which i really love. & my main goal will be to pay close attention to figure out who the most tortured children are & help assist as much as humanly possible. it will be a passion to work at this for me. i am very grateful to have been given the experience. no i am not a great person & resent being thanked for this service. it is my duty as an older woman who has survived to help others with a hard beginning to break free & survive too. 'nuff said. thanks again for the nice comment.

btw, i'm from the USA & not real proud of it right now. born east coast, south very racist. live on west coast now, love it much better. liberal, yet racial undertones. if any one is curious about the deep south in the united states & how horrible it was (& still is but more hidden) watch dvd's "eyes on the prize" the truth on old film clips about white pushing down black.see it 4 ur self! money is ill distributed in the USA. i needs to change.

I have an especial friend on the West Coast. She lives in the Bay Area. She's connected to all sorts of folk out there. It sounds like a cool place.

Prosper and learn.

I've just realised that my valediction could be construed as being imperative, and therefore patriarchal. Such was not my intent, I shall improve upon it.

May we all be fortunate enough to Prosper and Learn.

Fforde's other idea, "stupidity surplus," comes to mind. It's a good comparison really; on governmental scale at least (on a personal level too, actually--evil, evil credit cards), money has steadily become something intangible and abstract, like stupidity, and that makes it too easy to spend. Never mind the pack-rat mentality supported by the modern Western world.

Well, after this present administration, we probably have a 'sensible surplus' that has been built up over the last eight or so years.
We may have used up all the stupidity we can afford.

pretty accurate - more the pity.

We undervalue teachers and overvalue apes (*cough* sports players). Take ONE - say - baseball star. Distribute his salary amongst teachers. Raise the value of education.

.. what me bitter? Yes.

Although I've seen enough of the race circuit to know the expenses there are actually pretty accurate. I haven't seen that for, say, football (or for my country's fav - hockey).

Or Football (soccer) stars. David Beckham's salary could pay for a whole bunch of Maths and Physics teachers, and enable them to get their children educated.
Some of my chums have left academia and opted for the money because of children. Academics cannot afford to educate their children properly on their salaries.
An academic chum of mine has four kids. The school fees for the four are approximately double his salary. If he hadn't family money there would be no way he could give his kids the same sort of education he had.
More incentives to be clever and academically inclined, nah...they should all be priests and we should be discouraging the cleverest in our society from breeding: after all, it's not as if we could use those talents.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(no subject)

no subject

no subject

no subject

so naive

Re: so naive

Re: spleen leak

Re: spleen leak

Re: spleen leak

Re: spleen leak

Re: passing things on

thanks

USer

Re: USer

Re: USer

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject