I was accused of being racist yesterday. Let me give you some background before you think too badly of me! We're trying to sell a car, and we received a phone call yesterday from a guy with a very strong regional accent, (Ok he was a scouser), and I made a joke about him needing a new 'get away' vehicle, which prompted the accusation of racism from my eleven year old. He gave me a strict telling off, and reminded me that I was the one who had taught him that everyone is the same. (Yes, I'm very ashamed!) So this led me to thinking; why do we, as human beings, not accept one another for who we are? We all crawled out of the swamp in the same way, (or were all made in the same image, depending on your viewpoint), so why do we feel the need to pick at each others' differences? In a week where a TV presenter was sacked for 'sexist' remarks, and two young girls were sentenced for kicking a guy to death because he was gay, it is very difficult to understand how we have managed to survive as a race this long!
I know that teaching my kids that everyone is the same is probably a very naive thing to do, (and obviously I don't practice what I preach), but I do essentially believe it to be true. Or do I? Is the black kid at school any different from the white one? Of course not. Is the woman with mental health problems any less deserving than the Nuclear Physicist? No. Is the man committing lewd acts near the childrens' play park any different from the devoted teacher? Of course he is! He should be locked up! (The lewd man, not the teacher...although...). But now am I being descriminatory? Maybe I am naive. Maybe we are all different, and we should celebrate or persecute these differences depending on our personal tolerences, but it makes me very sad to be bringing my children up in a society where these intolerances can be so extreme as to cost people their lives. Human beings have fought over land, and religion for as long as history has been recorded, and probably even before that, but I wonder if cavemen (and women...don't be sexist!) persecuted each other because of their sexual preferences or because they wore the 'wrong' animal skin, or their skin or hair was a different colour.
Maybe there is no answer. I probably won't lie awake all night looking for one. I do feel though that in a society where different cultures, beliefs and lifestyles are forced by geography to co-exists, the only way we will survive as a race is by teaching our children that we are all essentially the same, but we don't all have to act or dress or believe the same. A wise man once said we should love our neighbours, and look at ourselves before we pass judgement on others. It's a great philosophy. One I try very hard to live by, but it's easier said than done, isn't it!!
Sunday 30 January 2011
Tuesday 25 January 2011
Where do I begin...In the middle!
So, I'm nearly 42, a married mother of two with a job a house and a puppy...what the heck am I doing going back to University? I don't need to be doing this, do I? Well actually, yes I do! I think there comes a time in everyone's life (usually described as a mid-life crisis I believe) where we realise that if we don't do what we want to do right now, we're never going to do it! Some people buy Harleys, some people get tattoos, or have affairs or another baby! Me...I went back to University. I went back to the very building that I met my husband in over 20 years ago, when I avoided everything academic and learned how to hold my drink and survive without solid food! I went back to sitting in classrooms where I wasn't expected to assist the lesson, but learn in it. So am I enjoying it? Am I 'fitting it in'? Am I 'fitting in'? Actually, yes to all of these. I won't pretend that it's easy, but it is exceptionally satisfying!
Learning because you want to do it, and not because you feel you have to, is a fantastically rewarding experiene. I start each lesson like a puppy; excited and enthusiastic, desperate for recognition and praise. I silently pant 'Teach me, teach me!' at every Tutor and absorb every word they utter like old newspaper. I say I absorb it, that doesn't mean I understand all of it! Some of it is kind of confusing, yet still oddly enjoyable, and while twenty years ago I would have panicked at my inability to comprehend everything, I now don't care! If I don't 'get' something, it's not a sign of my personal failure, it's just something I need explained again! My grades are never going to be excellent, but why do they need to be? So long as I fulfill my own expectations, then I can do no more. I'm even fitting in with the other students, and have recently been 'Facebooked', if that's the correct verb! I won't be going clubbing with them, but I forsee coffee on the horizon!
Education is definately wasted on the young. Have I read that somewhere, or just paraphrased it badly? Whichever way, it's very true. At eighteen, even though I knew I needed an education to get a good job, and a good standard of living, I didn't actually want to learn. I left home and found boys, beer and staying out all night, and studying was pushed well and truly to the back of the picture. The result was, very bad results! I was fortunate enough to get a job, marry my soul mate, have the children we dreamed of and build a great life. Had I studied harder, maybe my life would have taken a different road and not been as personally successful! Who knows? I wouldn't recommend my path to my eighteen year old peers at University now, but I can more than sympathise with their desire to party hard and study less so.
My solution? Start in the middle! When re-designing the human race, the super-powers that be should switch around our teenage years and early twenties with our middle age. That way we could party when we're young, without fear of missing a deadline, and study when we are more keen to do so. At nearly 42, I have finished partying, hangovers are unbearable now so drinking tends to be an infrequent affair, and I have a thirst for knowledge, before the dementia sets in. I am also more financially stable, so student loans aren't so scary! All in all, being a student at 42 seems the far more logical choice!
Learning because you want to do it, and not because you feel you have to, is a fantastically rewarding experiene. I start each lesson like a puppy; excited and enthusiastic, desperate for recognition and praise. I silently pant 'Teach me, teach me!' at every Tutor and absorb every word they utter like old newspaper. I say I absorb it, that doesn't mean I understand all of it! Some of it is kind of confusing, yet still oddly enjoyable, and while twenty years ago I would have panicked at my inability to comprehend everything, I now don't care! If I don't 'get' something, it's not a sign of my personal failure, it's just something I need explained again! My grades are never going to be excellent, but why do they need to be? So long as I fulfill my own expectations, then I can do no more. I'm even fitting in with the other students, and have recently been 'Facebooked', if that's the correct verb! I won't be going clubbing with them, but I forsee coffee on the horizon!
Education is definately wasted on the young. Have I read that somewhere, or just paraphrased it badly? Whichever way, it's very true. At eighteen, even though I knew I needed an education to get a good job, and a good standard of living, I didn't actually want to learn. I left home and found boys, beer and staying out all night, and studying was pushed well and truly to the back of the picture. The result was, very bad results! I was fortunate enough to get a job, marry my soul mate, have the children we dreamed of and build a great life. Had I studied harder, maybe my life would have taken a different road and not been as personally successful! Who knows? I wouldn't recommend my path to my eighteen year old peers at University now, but I can more than sympathise with their desire to party hard and study less so.
My solution? Start in the middle! When re-designing the human race, the super-powers that be should switch around our teenage years and early twenties with our middle age. That way we could party when we're young, without fear of missing a deadline, and study when we are more keen to do so. At nearly 42, I have finished partying, hangovers are unbearable now so drinking tends to be an infrequent affair, and I have a thirst for knowledge, before the dementia sets in. I am also more financially stable, so student loans aren't so scary! All in all, being a student at 42 seems the far more logical choice!
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