School of Life

At the risk of being seen to insult the education system -- most of the stuff I learned at school has hurt me more than helped me. And the stuff I really needed to know wasn't even mentioned at school. Or College for that matter

I mean, why teach a young girl all about the reproductive system of a frog, when all she is interested in is the reproductive system of the boy sitting at the desk alongside? Worse, she is not interested in whether her request for a "date" is grammatically correct -- despite the admonitions of the English teacher. She is only interested in how well he understands her niche, in marketingspeak. As for Maths, you can graduate knowing how to land a rocket ship on the wrong side of the Moon with a 1% variance, but you cannot calculate how much tax you owe this year, or how much your money will be worth next year! And I cannot recall a single thing I learnt in school that helped me to improve my dinner conversational ability one iota.

Don't get me wrong. I believe it is critically important that young people go to school -- especially today. When most kids feel the necessity to bunk, or carry arms into school or are just plain rude because its always easier to complain about where they are not going on holiday - rather then complain about how heavy the school work is. Schooling is vital in preventing adults from exploding.

However, that is quite beside the point I want to make. Your ability to be economically successful is based on one primary skill: your ability to communicate. Much as we would like to, sometimes, we cannot get away from the fact that the amount of money you have (or can make) determines the quality of your life -- at least until you reach a certain level.

Unfortunately, most of us do not reach that level, despite being extremely competent at what we do. LOL.. when I was in Iraq it was with guys who have a nil communication level most of the day and who got excited at what their reflection looked like in their newly cleaned rifle!

When last did you bump into a plumber, and after a long discussion over the state of your piping and tapping, felt assured that he must be totally incompetent, primarily because he barely had the ability to link three words together. (Pretty much the same applies to programmers, with that way they look at you as if you are a lower lifeform because you don't understand that a monitor is not someone who watches you work.) Or woe betide you run into a Logistics engineer who thinks he is God and you better understand that. And then of course you have the Intel guys who believe that if you are not into Intel speak - you are not worth conversing with.....

Of course, the reverse applies. There are a happy few with tremendous communication skills. They might be utterly useless, but they were so good during the initial chat they have with you, that you felt the need to snap them up as co-workers before anybody else did. Despite being barely competent at the skill they professed to possess, they are doing much better than vastly more competent person's whom, unfortunately, haven't progressed beyond monosyllabic speech.

And that's the point I want to make today. The success of what you do is not dependent upon how well you do the work you do. Your success is dependent on whether people think you do the work well. And the way they think is based on the way that you communicate. Unfortunately, the communication techniques you were taught at school are guaranteed to make anybody think that you are a drooling idiot.

I do try not to break every grammatical rule in the book, and I am often subjected to criticism for my catastrophic use of the apostrophe, to say nothing of my principles. Fortunately, for every one of these, a whole bunch of people write to say that I made them laugh today. That's communication! I really enjoy making people smile and to enjoy the life they have as much as possible. If shit happens along the way, well then go around it by taking a deep breath and pretending it never happened.

However, where did our communication skill appear - well it certainly wasn't in school. What we need is to change the school curriculam drastically in all the schools. Not everybody wants to be a rocket scientist and I can't believe this but unless kids today learn about the world - the world to them will consist of the USA only because Obama became the first African American President. Or Iraq because it was in the news. Or South Africa because Mandela "liberated" the oppressed.

It brings me to mind about an incident that happened to me in D.C a few years back. I had just returned from South Africa. I was in Denny's getting late night coffee and a biscuit and I was chatting to a waitress, and she asked me where I had just been - I told her South Africa and she said she had never heard of South Africa in Washington DC, was it a new suburb. I was absolutely shocked at her ignorance and I shook my head so she tried again and thought it might be in California then. I told her that it was in Africa and she had no idea where it was. I left soon after wondering what the heck the teachers were teaching students!

If our kids have no idea where countries are, their cultural differences, religions etc, what the heck are we paying teachers for? Maybe its better to teach kids at home then, because then they might get a better all round education. They will learn about tax, communication skills and all the other life skills that is so important in life today. We don't live in the middle ages anymore. Computers and the Internet and cellphones prove that we are trampling in a future generation and kids today and yes even adults need that skill to progress into the 21st century and beyond.

I on the other hand have good communications skills, and life experiences have taught me how to use them to my best advantage. And my hobby has come into great play. I use my skills writing. Even if I should die today, I will leave a legacy behind me, as I have already written several books. So at least my life as I know it, will not be forgotten. Where did I get my skills.....

The school of Life.

Which comes back to insulting the education system - until schools improve their communications skills and teach students the meaning of life and have life skills.... we will continue to have ignorant people running important companies that they have no business touching.

The stupid thing about all this is that in South Africa, the apartheid is now in reverse. The white skilled workers have been terminated and the the African people who go to school, who don't learn anything but graduate anyway- get their jobs - even though they have no experience and are totally ignorant of how business's and companies work. Its no wonder nothing works in this country.

Potholes in the road, no water, no electricity, no sanitation in most places. The cost of living has put most people in the poor house. Ratepayers are being hit for buildings that are now white elephants, or taxes for the poor (Who I don't believe get one penny). A lottery where they give out a little and keep the bulk instead of giving it to charity. And strikes by public servants regularly for more money - even though they don't deserve it.

Do I really want to live here?

Would you?