Whoa, who's that who snuck in and wrote yesterday's "Saturday Ruminations"? The 45-year-old alcoholic Kerouac temporarily resurrected? Or Victor Meldrew?
We all have a bit of the Victor Meldrew in us, my boys, and as we get older the portion increases. But all the person I have woken up as this morning (you can never step in the same human twice) would change about yesterday's post is the language--though I'm not going to. The language is too aggressive. It uses too many of the buzz words of the right wing hatemongers.
I do believe that education has let young people down, and I also believe that as more emphasis is placed on vocational training in schools and colleges, the further let down the young people will be: education should be designed to create a rounded man or woman who can be trained to work once he or she is ready.
And I also believe that boundaries need to be set. This doesn't sit comfortably with my well-rooted libertarian streak--and I know A.S. Neil would probably disagree with me--but a child or youth who hasn't been made properly mature by a human (as opposed to vocational) education, and lacks the articulacy and the insight to control his wilder urges, is going to think he can take over the world if he knows nobody is allowed to curtail his excesses.
That's what I believe. And though age can play tricks on your memory, I think that's what I believed 20 years ago as well.
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