I’m not afraid to admit that one of the biggest issues I constantly face, especially in adult life, is a lack of focus. Now… this is not down to a lack of caring or effort. In fact, more often than not is is a result of caring or trying too much. I used to think it was a result of me not knowing exactly what I wanted from life and it would be amiss of me to dismiss that completely… but I feel that as a progress through life it all circles back to those core values that make up each and everyone one of us.
One of the biggest threads in my life has always been education and knowledge. Granted that for anybody that goes to university that all it is a large stepping stone as we spend almost 20 years, a quarter of our lives in education, but I have always had a more insatiable palette for discovering new things. This is one of the things that compelled me to try and teach. My biggest issue with teaching in the UK at least was that knowledge was never really the goal. Sure… for the pure of heart it was the thing that got them out of bed every morning: the child that shared every ounce of passion you had for your subject… or better still – the child that did not believe in themselves until you showed them how amazing they truly are…
But that’s not education in the U.K., or at least my experience. Schools are businesses. Their profit margin is determined by the lowest performing “stock” and they must ensure they sell a minimum quantity across the board. Something doing exceptionally well? Leave it to do well on it own. It probably will. Incase it’s not obvious… this was not something I felt over a prolonged period I could be a part of..
This leads me back to my point… why could I not focus my energy into the aspects I did enjoy? Because the school system was not driving me. It is my want to leave the world a better place that pulls me forward. Will I ever get there? I hope so. But for now my plans are to do everything I can in my leisure time to drive that goal forward. I have some ideas… some plans that I will start to inact in the very near future…
Watch this space…