The bear is just adding interest to the photo. The penguin march continues towards the west. (Let's not confuse ourselves with left and right... .)
Two pens today.
They work!It occurred to me the other day that, post-teaching, I never now speak to anyone of a different race; not even to someone of a different nationality. This isn't deliberate - it's just the way things are. My friends and neighbours are mainly Scottish, only a few even anything as exotic as English. At college, in contrast, we had lots of foreign students. Now I'm living in a little bubble of white Scots. A very little bubble.
This struck me the other day when there was a chap called Mohammed interviewed on the news, and I thought of some of the very many Mohammeds I'd taught. And lots of other students from all over the world: Poland and Slovakia and Zimbabwe and Malawi and Germany and Brazil and Russia and Japan and China and Malasia and ... not many Americans and I don't remember anyone from Iceland, but such a diverse selection of students over the years. And I felt rather sad that it's all over; and yet very privileged to have met and talked to and taught them all. They taught me a lot too.
They were mainly, though not exclusively, young people. And apart from the family, my daily life is currently pretty short of young people as well, or at least reasons to talk to young people. It's not that I have anything against those who aren't young. But my world has narrowed. We had many students with disabilities, too: some in wheelchairs, some with sight or hearing impairment, some with learning difficulties. Again, there's no one like that in our little street and again, I feel very blessed to have taught them and maybe helped them a bit. I feel immeasurably enriched by the experience.
I really didn't appreciate all this quite so much while it was happening as I do now. I took it for granted. But now I think - wow, how lucky, how interesting.
I've always been amused, though, by those who scoff at the narrowness of the outlook of someone who's gone from school to university to teacher training college and then spent a life in teaching. You meet huge numbers of people from such a vast array of backgrounds if you're a teacher in public education.
Life's simpler now in many ways. But duller.
It must be a huge adjustment for you to have all that time on your hands. I think it's time you took up patchwork and quilting! You have legions of us out here eager to get you started! I'm pretty sure there are quilt guilds in Scotland, especially in a place like Edinburgh. Time to check them out.....well maybe in the new year.
ReplyDeleteI'm Welsh. Does that count?
ReplyDeleteAlas, I don't have time on my hands. I spend vast amounts of time dealing with my mother in various ways, none of which is conducive to doing anything productive at all....
ReplyDeleteAh, Veg Artist, that's the nice thing about blogging. Variety - that which my life horribly lacks at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI'm Kiwi as you know and you have spoken in person to me and R this year!
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could learn to speak Penguin!
Dear Isabelle, what with one thing and another I have been remiss with blog-reading and have just spent a very enjoyable20 minutes catching up on your December doings. I love your advent series, the penguins, the dysanimalia, the snow, the offspring on the couch and your lack of patchwork. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteWell, if you need any australian peculiarities, just give me a hoy.
ReplyDeleteA Dutch expat who has lived in the UK for many years - is that foreign enough to engage in cross border communications ?! Love the blog & read as often as possible.
ReplyDeleteBut, Dear Isabelle, that's why you have US! I know we're not up close and personal, but we are a varied lot.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely need to get you quilting. I'm thinking Molly and I need to come for a quilting retreat at your house! ;-D
You've said that you don't have much spare time, but when and if you do, why not try volunteering for an organisation where you can help people who have similar backgrounds to the ones you taught? Your church would probably know best where to direct your skills. You would undoubtedly find young people and disabled people who need help or even just friendship, and life would be dull no longer.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teacher in California there was very little diversity, mainly Mexican children and a few Pakastani, the rest were just your 'run of the mill" American kids. Not many with disabilities, though when I was a teacher's aide before becoming a teacher I worked in Special Ed.
ReplyDeleteI missed teaching at first but the longer I was retired the more I appreciated the time I had for me.
I know what you mean. My job before I retired recently was in a university with a diverse student population. These days, the diverse it gets here is two cats and a dog.
ReplyDelete