I was bored out of my mind

I just finished listening to a very good podcast of Michael Enright's program "The Sunday Edition."  He was discussing university education and whether students today are forced into university degrees so they can get the credential and move on to professional schools or graduate degrees.

At one point Enright is interviewing an English prof from U of T, and asks if the professor was a good student in high school.  The man replies: "I was a great student in elementary school." In high school he became pre-occupied with illicit substances, girls, and furthermore, he says he was 'bored out of his mind.' 

The prof also stated that he dropped out of high school, later went back to complete a few credits, and went on to university, eventually getting his Ph.D., and was now rated one of the best professors in Canada.  The prof also said that he knew Michael Enright was a high school dropout.  So, then I got thinking - how many people who couldn't stand high school went on to lead very successful lives? Google, google, on the wall, who's the most successful droput of them all?

Here's a good sampling of names, if this list is to be believed:  Shakespeare, Einstein, William Faulkner, John D. Rockefeller, Oscar Peterson, Peter Jennings, Bobby Orr, Sarah Polley, Henry Ford, etc. etc.
 
I think it's a real shame we have an education system that legally mandates that kids be in school until they're 18 years old (you can thank McKenna for that), and that these kids are lumped together into classrooms without any regard for common interests.  Most of the teenagers I know are real obsessive types - whether it's bands, sports teams, staying in touch with their friends, acting, decorating their rooms, cars, whatever.

So why are we making them wait until they're young adults before they have the opportunity to develop their skills and passions?  By then, their brains are not as keen and they have learned to be complacent and 'just get by.'  Is it any wonder we have so many problems with bullying when we have a bunch of kids cooped up together without any positive outlets?

Kids self-identify their interests very early in life.  If we would let them take the lead, they would be learning night and day.

I would go out on a limb and say that I think our present education system probably wastes as much human potential as it develops, because it is so focused on a narrow definition of 'knowledge,' to the utter exclusion of everything else.  What a shame, especially for a place like New Brunswick, where we have so much unrealized potential.

The other thing I would like to point out is that we have loads of educational research that shows people learn best when they are fully engaged (ie. brains + hands working together on real situations).  And yet we have classrooms that immobilize people and beauraucrats positively obsessed with standardized testing.  No wonder our kids are bored out of their minds.  I know I was.

This life, and the next

One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.
- Virginia Woolf

I have a legion of humble music jobs.  They are not glamorous concerts with "production values."  I do not exude technical ease at the piano and yet I am grateful for what it teaches me, and the joy it can bring to others.  It's a far sight better than the passivity induced by television, or even the ad nauseum complaining that we all tend to do in our spare time. 

I play a lot of funerals, church services, the occasional background gig, sometimes larger concerts with bands (as keyboardist or conductor), and a few times each year our church is responsible for the service at the Carleton Manor.  When I first started going there, I was very uncomfortable.

The residents there are obviously in their last days, some limping towards the finish line and others present in body only.  It is very difficult to see other people suffer, especially other people who belong to a generation for which I happen to have a tremendous amount of respect.

Yesterday we went and we were asked to provide a longer service than normal.  There was some debate in meetings about whether this was actually necessary or even appropriate, since many of the congregation are asleep within 20 minutes of the service beginning.  But we did our best to oblige the request, and the choir sang a couple of numbers.  At the end, we sang the Irish Blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

 

To my right was a man all curled up, his wheelchair tilted back so he was cradled in it.  He was obviously a church-goer because, although his words were staggered, he managed to get out parts of the 23rd Psalm.  After we finished our song, he managed to look up briefly and I heard him say ". . . nice! " in a small but clear voice. 

I dare say I have encountered few things in life as humbling as the residents recite the Lord's Prayer together.  Their halting tones are about half the normal speed and due to the miracle of long-term memory, many of them who are normally mute suddenly chime in - remembering parts and omitting others.  But inevitably, they get to the end together, and when they are done I can sense that they have somehow managed to transcend the reality of their suffering for a short minute, and have returned to some snapshot of normalcy they knew long ago.  

As quickly as it comes it is gone again.  But I am thankful for having witnessed it, because it reminds me that "time and chance befalls us all," no matter how rich, beautiful, talented, charming or well-connected we may or may not be.  Although my jobs are humble in many ways they make me rich.