Academics

As kids, we all knocked about on some rough ground, buildng dens, and being mildly antisocial, at what point did seperation take place where some kids aspired to a path to Academia, and others took a path to Mainstreamism, and was this a natural process?.

Re: Academics

As usual, this thread was inspired by the telly programme on in the background.

Re: Academics

I think for some of us separation took place with the 11+ exam.

Yes I think it was a natural process, each to his own as they say
There is a need for those who work with their brains and for those who work with their hands, all contribute to society as a whole.
Sometimes I think this fact may have been forgotten in the rush to send the majority of children to university.

Re: Academics

When I was growing up a a kid we all had poverty in common, any very clever ones learned how to speak the Irish language and got cushy jobs in the civil service for life, the rest of us had to take pot luck I'm afraid, I can only remember one young lad going to college after his Dad won the Irish Sweepstakes.

Re: Academics

With posterity in mind I looked today at a school photo taken of my class aged about 8. We were a mixed bunch and taken from most social groups, although there were no genuine toffs .

Two stood out even then as having something about them that made them different. One became a scientist, the other an international evangelist. Another had nothing to mark him out yet became a chief constable .

One boy was killed in a car crash. The boy who was difficult and unruly became a social worker, still another became a top chef. Two ended up in prison. Some died young of heart attacks & cancer.

“Terry” won the football pools , bought a mansion house and a fleet of Rolls Royce’s, became bored and hired them out for weddings with him as the driver.

The rest, including me lived quiet lives in everyday jobs, raising families, getting older and frailer and living out their lives according to their circumstances.

All things become relative as the years grow in number.

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Strange how tragedy strikes in all quarters Robert, I knew two young lads who drowned in the local river, another 17 year old who worked and saved hard to get a motorbike and was killed in a crash on his first day out riding it.
The chap who's Dad won on the sweeps threw a party in the school hall for all the neighbours and their kids, it was talked about for years afterwards, and the educated Son wrote a book about the history of the area, no best seller but enjoyable and well written.

Re: Academics

When I were a lad... education was looked upon as a ticket to a better life.
From the small street of terraced houses where I lived, came 2 university lecturers, a professor of theology, a GP, a university bursar, an RAF officer - and us. I studied engineering at university and went into I.T. My sister went into nursing and ended up as director of nursing in a hospital. (she once told me that she wanted to be a French teacher, but opportunities for girls from 'working class' families were limited in the 50's)

Of my school chums (that I know of), two became modestly successful rock musicians - one is now a successful folk musician. One runs the lighting at a national theatre and one is a cemetary superintendant. At least he wont be out of a job!

Re: Academics

I think chance plays the greater part in deciding your path through life, from the accident of your birth through to the accident of your inherent nature, to the accident of life's coincidences.

I was the youngest of three children born to working class parents, who taught us to read and write before we had started at school and encouraged us all to do the best we could at school. Two of us had the good fortune to pass the 11+ and went to the local grammar, but unfortunately I wasn't academically minded, all I wanted to do was make things rather than study, so I left school at 15 without taking exams. I then spent my whole working life doing things and building things, and I wouldn't have changed a thing. My sister, on the other hand, was academic and proceeded to do very well with her education and her life in high level commerce. My brother who didn't pass his 11+ also has had a fulfilling life in the haulage industry and has done very well for himself by his own efforts.

So you see three siblings, all with separate paths through life using what they were accidentally born with and the twists and turns of providence, and three happy endings to very diverse life journeys.

So I guess we've all been very lucky in our own way, and the biggest piece of luck was being born to parents who, although quite poor, loved us dearly, guided us as best they could and encouraged us to be the best we could be.

How lucky is that....

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I think that maybe thats the best and most valuable of luck, Barry. The attitude of our parents and what they show us cannot be underestimated.

Re: Academics

Big question is it nature or nurture, why were who we are
and what we are able to achieve?

What do others think?

Sarah (new on here and saga!)