It’s Gone!

Something like this

Yes, all that hard work , a brief glimpse of the bottom of the kitchen sink, and it’s gone.

This morning I woke, took one look at yesterday’s dishes, made my coffee and fled from the scene of the crime.

Raining hard again today, Threw all my plans right out the window. Although there is a pause right now (just as I started a post…. shit happens) I could make a dash to pay the bills, but that means gulping down good coffee, putting my pants on, and deserting this post. I’ll have to think about that.

Yesterday I read an article in the news that teachers are the most valued in China, even NZ only gets 10th place but above the USA, Canada and England; Brazil didn’t even get on the short list.

It made me think, when I was at school, I didn’t understand why; teachers were a necessary evil and school a great place to eat lunch. I didn’t really like school, it was a place that you had to go five days a week; so, begrudgingly, I went. I question now, did I actually learn anything? Probably, but most of my learning in core subjects came from my home activities; I read a lot. Something that most kids don’t do today, unless it’s involved with FaceBook, or chatroom-type things.

Take English, I hated English. English as a subject made me hate it even more. I could speak English well, my vocabulary was better than most of my peers. I also wrote well and used punctuation correctly. English at high school was a tedious bore. I couldn’t see the point. As for the mechanics/grammar of the language, I had no more idea of grammar until I was 50+ when I had to learn it to teach the language in Peru around 2001. That opened my eyes and I now, 10+ years later, see my language as a passion, I understand it; better than most teachers and I have never been to university.

Maths was a little different, algebra was handy when I began using Excel, and other snippets have been useful throughout my computer dealings.

Science, was cool, but I learned more at home than I did at school. In chemistry in particular I was streets ahead of my classmates.

I was more interested in dinosaurs, lycanthropy (generated by Bram Stoker’s Dracula), astronomy, palaeontology, archaeology, and flying saucers and life elsewhere(through Eric von Daniken’s books).

I also had hobbies, I collected stamps and coins, both create a keen sense of the world. Aviation was also eagerly investigated and through it and my collections I learned history. Geography was always a top subject. My parents also sought to expand our horizons, we had a 1963 set of Britannica Encyclopedia at home, it was a Christmas present; the same year as I read the entire Bible and discarded it as rubbish at the age of 12.

I never understood the necessity of school. I just knew that my mother was happy to see the end of us for the day as we filed out the door.

Now, looking back, the most important thing about school is never taught. That is the reason why we have school, probably considered too philosophical for kids.

The rain is still holding off, so I am off to pay the bills.

Later.