(no subject)

[johnny9fingers]

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.

Comments

Re: so naive

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

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.

Re: spleen leak

[e4q.livejournal.com]

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!

Re: spleen leak

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

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.

Re: spleen leak

[e4q.livejournal.com]

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)

Re: spleen leak

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

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.

Re: passing things on

[e4q.livejournal.com]

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.