Showing the path to take up
Buoyed in part by my declaration yesterday that schools weren’t as violent as some in the media would have us believe, I went back to class today. In some ways, I was the student, because we can’t help but learn from those in front of us. In other ways, my role was to inform, to elicit, to confirm, to “teach”. How easily we can wear the hat that fits the scene.
Seriously, I had been invited about a month ago to take part in a Career Day, where those who get paid for the fun we have each day explain to impressionable youth about the glories of full employment. Forget the despair engendered by the “generation X, or Y or Z”; mathematics never was my forte. My temporal (and very temporary) task was to help a group of kids the age of my own son to wade through the endless choices that lead to a steady gig. I wasn’t alone – there were police, soldiers, financial planning specialists, journalists, biologists and a few other representatives of the world that awaits the youth with a willingness to commit (please forgive the pluralization, as we were one of a kind, each, except for the police that seem to travel in pairs).
Talking about the prerequisites for a career. That’s not so hard to do; after all, my own path has been highly irregular. There’s nothing like telling those who want to become computer technicians that the path lies in weak math grades and a formation as an elementary music teacher. My favourite song has always been the one about “Confusion will be my epitaph“. I don’t think they were left with any false impressions. A job that you like is always easier on the soul.
My “take” on the short time we spent together was that they were all intensely polite and much smaller than I’d remembered; perhaps I had the short gang, or maybe son #3 is taller than the median. To have people shake your hand and thank you after the bell has rung is a fine way to end any teaching situation. I came away with a good impression, should the school principal want to know.
