This week, Pieces rediscovered the virtues of cakes, and the perils of coming down from a dizzying sugar-induced high.We’re firmly into August now, which still immediately makes me think I’m on holiday even though I haven’t been in education for quite a while now. There’s something about this time of year that, whether through programming from an early age or something in the weather, just rings with the feeling of wanting to do nothing but sit on grass in sun with drink. Every year there are new calls for the long summer holiday to be revised, to break school and university terms into shorter semesters and have more extended breaks throughout the year. And every year pretty much everyone cries out against those calls. Here are my three reasons for wanting to keep things as they are, and as I’ve always known them:
1) 6 weeks doing nothing teaches you the value of…doing nothing. Which is important, and too many adults forget just how important. It’s a peculiarly 21st-Century malady that most of us constantly feel as if we have to be doing something, even when we give ourselves a chance to do ‘nothing’ for a little while. I know that there are so many times when I get home, and tell myself I’ll have a rest and a cup of tea, thinking it’ll refresh me and get me ready for the next thing I have to do, and the following will inevitably happen: sure, enough, I’ll sit down with a cup of tea, and I’ll put the TV on. And I’ll pick up the newspaper and read the letters page. And the cricket’s on, so I’ll put the radio on and listen to some commentary. And I’ll have a notebook next to me and start writing little notes about what’s in the paper. And by the time I’ve drunk my tea I have a mind that’s more overloaded than it was before because I’ve done so many things at once and tried to absorb all of them equally. How much do I wish I’d learned properly to just sit and do nothing just for a little while when I was a kid? Quite a lot.
2) 6 weeks of no school, just after you’ve finished a year’s worth of learning, gives you a chance to start your education from scratch. Who can honestly say they did any kind of homework while on summer holiday? Even if the intention was there, there’d be precious little point because all your teachers would change anyway, so there’d be noone to mark the precious work you’d slaved over while all your friends were at the park kicking a ball around. And, more importantly, if you had a dud year at school (which, let’s face it, most of us did. At least one), the 6 week gap meant that you had a chance to regroup, figure out where you’d gone wrong, or if it was actually you’re your fault at all but down to crappy teachers or something else beyond your control. I know so many people who had epiphanies in summer holidays – they woke up in the middle of 6 weeks of holiday, and decided that they were going to work hard at school, to focus more, to develop themselves rather than just glide through the days to get to the end and leave. When will you ever get the opportunity to forge a completely clean break with your approach to life like that, without having to totally change your circumstances? It’s incredibly rare, but when kids are at school they get that chance at the start of every new school year. That’s too valuable to ever abandon.
3) The most important of all: once you’ve introduced children to an institution like a school, you have to show them the alternative: absolute freedom. If you want free-thinking adults, you always have to balance the education of your children so that they are able to decide for themselves, and that includes giving them the opportunity to see how the structure that school brings actually helps them to achieve. Yes, they might get a swimming certificate or a football trophy, but on the whole school holidays are pretty unproductive (and that’s great – see above). Once you realise that the people at school are actually there to give you something to do, rather than sit bored and restless, education becomes something you can engage with rather than endure. Sure, not everyone ends up loving their education once they’ve had a taste of doing nothing, but at least they’ve had the opportunity to choose for themselves rather than being blindly shepherded towards an institutional goal.
Now that’s all out of the way, I’m off to get an ice-cream.
This week's playlist includes, among other delights, a Kraftwerk cover performed on 8-bit video game consoles. Oh yes. Click below to hear it.
1. Bobby McFerrin - Cara Mia
2. Afrikaa Banbaataa & The Soul Sonic Force - Who Do You Think You're Funkin' With?
3. Femi Anikulapo Kuti - Sorry Sorry
4. Salif Keita - Djembe
5. DJ Shadow - Changeling
6. The Barbara Moore Singers - Hey Robin
7. Eddie Cantor - If You Knew Suzie (Like I Know Suzie)
8. Freddie & The Dreamers - You Were Made For Me
9. Billie Holiday - Lover Come Back To Me
10. The Pretty Things - L.S.D.
11. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Rock The House
12. Telex - We Are All Getting Old
13. The Buggles - Kid Dynamo
14. Bubblyfish - It's More Fun To Compute
15. Soulwax/Tracy Bonham - I Go To Sleep
http://open.spotify.com/user/blownawish/playlist/5zOyzEDEUQgPjgIFTQBKDs
See you next week for more.
Pieces x
