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2011 has arrived and I have been swept along with it like a piece of flotsam. Well that is what it feels like. We all seem to make plans, and I think it is essential to do so, and then life comes along and rearranges the dance of life. So we had better be flexible and capable of moving with a new partner to new music if life should suddenly decide to so dictate.
"Sallets in general consist of certain Esculent Plants and Herbs, impro'd by Culture, Industry and Art of the Gard'ner. (John Evelyn, 1699)"
I loved this quote that I recently read in a gardening book, especially the word 'industry'. A word, to me, that has always meant to be hardworking and diligent in application of hard work to a particular area or subject. Have you noticed how many people are described as talented and passionate about their art – in fact many describe themselves in that way – and yet are not much motivated to work at that art and apply that passion in the form of sweat and muscular activity in other words, to be industrious?
Another comment that caught my eye recently was from a character in a book concerning a politician who spoke confidently of his love of the culture of the people but who confessed to knowing nothing about art! Such honesty impressed me even if it did display a fascinating ignorance. This was not a South African book.
But the real meat on the bone that I would like to chew on in this edition is education. So back I went to my dictionaries to refresh my mind on what the meaning of the word, educate, means. According to Oxford's Complete Wordfinder it means – to give intellectual, moral and social instruction to a pupil, especially a child, as a formal and prolonged process. Is this what is happening in our society today? Notice I did not say our schools but our society.
For me education and discipline is what starts at birth in the home with parents, family members and close friends. It is not something tacked on as a special subject for teachers to be held responsible and accountable. I know my love of cooking and gardening came from my parents as did my joy and pleasure of music and reading because they introduced me to these subjects with their personal enjoyment and love of the subjects.
Children learn by example and therefore as adults whether we are parents or teachers the examples we set are what children around us will follow. Manners and morals and codes of behaviour if not instilled by people the child respects will be instilled by other less benevolent influences. The power of the media to educate and influence is enormous especially when big business is involved. Not all a bad thing so long as everyone benefits and it is not a channel of one way profits.
The profession of teaching is never going to be easy as one is dealing with human beings who have different levels of learning abilities and interest in one's subject and come to one's classes often with enormous social and economic problems not to mention mental incapacity. But it is as adults that we must assist in switching on the light of learning and then make every effort to keep that interest in learning, growing ever brighter. My English teacher in High School stimulated my interest in Poetry by relating scansion to the rhythms in music. And today I can `rap' my corrections in my ballet classes that would cause rap artists much envy of my style. After my dancers have got over laughing they never forget the correction 'cause they can `rap it'.
After many years of teaching I feel very strongly that the pleasure teachers experience in teaching whatever subject it is that they teach must never be diminished or lost in the sheer grind that is involved in teaching that subject, anywhere and under any conditions.
Sometimes necessity is a great teacher and I am convinced entrepreneurial skills are more often than not acquired through necessity rather than more formal learning.
We should be encouraging our students, whatever their ages, to think and reason and not necessarily to accept everything they are told or taught. Acquiring information is one thing using it is another.
But read our articles on education and see what you think.
Amy Gould
