Agree with you on this one. arthur
-----Original Message----- From: Harry Pollard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 6:07 PM To: Karen Watters Cole; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Selma Singer; Cordell, Arthur: ECOM; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Fw: [Futurework] The world of work Karen, Thoroughly enjoyed this post. Your last part I particularly noted. I am less certain that a class about nature will do a lot. Perhaps they should learn the basic skills of taking care of themselves and then be dropped in the wilds (well, not quite but certainly placed on a trail which they have to use to get back home). I was fortunate enough to become a Cub and then a Scout. I learned how to hike and camp early. After Dunkirk, maps disappeared, as did signposts, village names, and suchlike. (Even though the Nazi Paratroops probably had better maps than us.) I was 16 and hiking across country in Surrey when the evening began to get wet. I came across barbed wire, stepped over it and decided it was getting too dark to go much further. So, I stopped, erected my tent and, as the rain began to torrent, decided to forgo supper. I collected some wood to take to bed with me (it would be dry for the breakfast fire) and went to sleep. I was awaked by a loud voice and a bayonet poking into the tent. I had camped on an ammunition dump. After a while, they decided I wasn't a spy and I was rushed off the site. I soon found myself in a place called Virginia Water, a genteel place for the retired. I went into the local small hotel dumped my equipment in the hall and went in to breakfast. The guests smiled at this grubby kid, but the waiter was unbearably supercilious and made it clear I wasn't wanted. I left him a penny as a tip Still remember it after more than 50 years. It happened because I had often camped as a Cub and a Scout. I had trekked around the countryside hauling a cart with other Scouts. Learned that if one wakes up and finds the field was flooding and you were wet, one turns over and goes back to sleep. And that there simply nothing better than the smell of eggs and bacon frying on the camp fire on a cold morning. I wish more kids learned to backpack and became skilled at taking care of themselves on the trails that abound in the US. That's the way to come to grips with nature - by walking through it. On the other hand, I walked 12 miles from a Dorset town to the seaside town of Swanage - all the way by absolutely delicious footpaths. It was summer and tens of thousands come to Dorset. Yet, I didn't meet a soul on the paths. Maybe, on both sides of the Atlantic, many of us have forgotten the joy of adventuring by ourselves and with others. My idea of socialization is meeting others on the trail and sharing experiences, information, and perhaps a sandwich. Harry ----------------------------------------------------------- Karen wrote: >Do you think it might be productive for us to play around with ideas about >how to incorporate this feeling into the socialization process and the >educational process in general? > Selma > >Do you mean on Futurework or society at large? If on Futurework, I >sometimes imagine a food fight with jello, preferably all natural flavors, >maybe the frozen vodka recipe. Most of the time, however, I imagine a >long evening dinner in comfortable chairs, a fireplace, rambling >conversation and a few good stories. If I were a wealthy, I would create >a weekend retreat center somewhere near the trees and water just for that >purpose, my own kind of interactive B&B. Alternatively, an urban retreat >designed like a Japanese inn, but we'd have to have afternoon >conversations before dinner and the hot ofuro. > >Okay, enough playful imagining. > >In schools I think there is some but not enough activity such as younger >students working on a school garden, learning math and business skills, >and becoming little farmers in the process, donating the produce to food >banks. I was very encouraged here in Oregon to learn that high schools >seniors are strongly urged to incorporate volunteer work before >graduation, as college application enhancements, certainly, but the >benefits are much deeper than that. My youngest daughter trained as a >domestic abuse counselor and served shifts at a local halfway house. This >work softened the hard edges of her ambitions and may or may not have >contributed to where she is today, a rookie Teach for America classroom >teacher of children with autism in NE Washington DC., beginning a MA in >education. > >Parents are of course responsible to their own children for their >emotional maturity that includes an appetite for the larger world and >traditions that are meaningful, but all adults should be mindful of the >example they give to children as they come across them everyday. We >elders have great opportunity that should not be squandered. I have never >had any patience for adults who raised their children to be just like them >and or forbade independent thought. Of course, I did such a good job on >that issue with my own daughters that they hardly ever listen to me >now. Smile. I'm waiting for the rewards of that to kick in, and see >positive signs already. > >Incidentally, after living overseas for 22 years and away from their grown >children, when my parents relocated to the Pacific Northwest three of >their four children migrated together here for different reasons. The >seven grandchildren benefited from this close family unit (perhaps more so >that the grown siblings on occasion) as did the grandparents - >reestablishing a multi generation experience my siblings and I did not >have ourselves growing up overseas, I might add. We have two >step-grandchildren and two great-grandchildren now, so family dinners are >not simple. By the way, my other daughter is training to be a nurse, and >she keeps an eye on her grandparents' health with me now. > >As someone else pointed out elsewhere, I think, parents don't know all the >answers and these days the kids can show them the ropes on their >computers, so that this is a good chance for mutually open learning, when >grandparents do not feel the same pressures as parents do. Elders are an >important source of continuity and learning to value longevity. Why >should retirees vegetate in cloistered communities? Rest, yes, but for >goodness sake, we are talking a vast resource of wisdom and experience in >senior citizens, not just the academic and inquisitive kind we enjoy here >on FW. As an example, I read several years ago that the Peace Corps is >thrilled that almost half of their recruits have come from middle aged and >older people with career and life experiences that balance and enhance the >youthfulness and energy of their traditional volunteer. > >I am a firm believer in travel not only to enlarge the horizon of young >people but to make them appreciate their own native environment. My >daughters did not get the opportunity I had for that and it shows in their >vision, their horizons, in spite of everything. They are still young, >however. Overseas travel should be mandatory for college graduation, if >not high school, at least a summer tour somewhere. We should encourage >balance, as in yin and yang, recognizing that the two are always present >in life, though we may not always recognize them together. There has been >too much emphasis on growth and "progress" at all costs, for its own sake. > >Notice the popularity of poetry among young people. Witness the enduring >sustainability of religious and secular communities/communes for families >and singles. I live in a region where recycling and daily >environmentalism are facts of life, even with the inherent conflicts. As >much as Oregon's schools have been disparaged lately, one enduring quality >that all support is Outdoor School, when six graders from across the state >are placed in cabins in the woods or marshes along the coastline, with >sixth graders from a deliberately different school system, given science >classes in streams and under trees by counselors they only know as Sky >Hawk or Fern. It has certainly contributed to several generations here >living and understanding the connection of man with nature. We are not >hopelessly lost. Yet. > >Karen **************************************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 -- Fax: (818) 353-2242 http://home.comcast.net/~haledward **************************************************** _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
