Some years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about the downturn in popularity of trades as a career option for young people. In the thirty-odd years that I've taught as a technical teacher, I've noticed the gradual thinning of ranks in the apprenticeship system. There have been a number of causes for this, but when I went to high school, if you were practically minded, you chose subjects that would complement your strengths as well as the 3 Rs. In recent years it has sometimes seemed that to pursue a trade is only an option where nothing else is available. The friend I was speaking to was involved in an academic field. He agreed on where I was coming from and some time later passed on the following story.
I Must Have a Degree
Before we start let us make one point clear about the statement and the title of this talk; the words "I must have a degree" do not refer to myself. Nor did I utter them. Also, I have not the slightest intention, nor the temerity or impudence to offer any views publicly on the question of education. I become far too indignant when I read in the press or listen radio-wise to people offering opinions on subjects of which I feel I have some practical knowledge and they have none, and I have no practical knowledge of education and how it should be pursued by the young. Certainly we have all read so much in the press that we are apt to be a bit confused as to what is really needed: Overcrowded universities - we are in need of so many more we are told - Wyndham Report in New South Wales, Martin Report in Victoria - all a bit confusing to many of us for sure.
It happened this way. Recently I gave a lift to three very nice country High School boys - they had missed their school bus through playing cricket. We talked cricket, we talked football out of season, and we had a word about tennis, until I brought the conversation round to the boys' future, when they left school - always an interesting subject if you like young people.
They were all going on to the Uni if they got their Matric, one to do an Arts Course, another to do Science; the third admitted he was not as bright as the other two, he'd take whatever course was the easiest, because as he put it - "I must have a degree". From then on the conversation went something like this. Me - "Why a degree?" "To get a good job." "Who said so?" "Only have to look at the ads in Saturday's paper - all the jobs state academic qualifications. If you haven't got one, you're on the outer." "What sort of firms or institutions demand these qualifications?" "Private firms, the Government - even the ABC offers a bonus if you've got a couple of letters after your name."
This was most interesting to me. My next question - "What happens when we reach a stage when there are more degrees than degree jobs?" That was a funny one - They'd worry about that one when it happened. Did the self-dubbed dull one really want to go on to the Uni? Not really, it would be fun, and then after all, as he said before "I must have a degree".
By this time we'd arrived at the boys' destination. I reached for my briefcase from the back seat of the car, took out a very old and faded script with a quote read some 10 or 12 yars ago in a Countryman's Session, but to my knowledge in Victoria only. One of the boys read it aloud. Feeling a bit out of character myself as I loathe being preached to, and trust I don't do any myself, I suggested that they give some thought to the message. This was it.
Some years ago at a University Dinner, given to mark the end of University life for the students, an astounding speech was made by a man who claimed never to have a made a speech before in his life. He was one of a company of 150 students who had just closed their University life, some with Honours and not a few without.
This speech was published in a periodical "Teachers World" by a Mr. A. Irvine very many years ago, and this was the speech:
"Gentlemen, I have never made a speech in my life before and I don't intend to begin now. I have something to say, and in saying it I will follow Luther's three-fold rule, Stand up straight, speak out boldly, and sit down quickly.
"We are in one of the famous banquetting halls of the world. Belshazzar's Hall compared to this was a lodging on the third floor back. No such Art existed in those days as we see around this room. What was there was elegant for that day, but we live in another age, an age of art, craftsmanship and luxury. From the four corners of the earth came the things on this table. From the lowest forms of day labour to the highest forms of art we have around us samples of at least a hundred forms of human work.
"Take this tablecloth to begin with. It is of the most exquisite workmanship. It involves - to go no further back, bleaching, smoothing, designing. It is a damask linen, and most pleasing to the eye. I want to ask you a question: Is there anyone here who knows from personal experience anything about the labour involved? Have any of you ever contributed any labour to the manufacture of table linen? I'm serious, gentlemen. If any of you have, I should like him to say so."
There was absolute silence. I understand then he continued:
"That the making of such things is beyond your ken. Let me draw your attention to the samples of pottery here. Surely the men and women who produce such things are artists. What a joy it must be for a man to hold such a thing in his hand, complete, and say "I made it". Many forms of labour are involved here, also the digging of the clay, the carting, fashioning, painting, burning, baking and finishing. If there is a man here who has ever touched this form of labour, let him answer."
No one.
"There are samples of the most exquisite, and I know costly, cut glass. That also involves much labour and great art. It is a unique industry in itself; I would be rather surprised to find a man among you who had ever touched this industry at any angle."
He drew attention to the carpet and rugs on the floor, to the beautiful curtains and the drapery ofthe great windows, to the mural decorations executed bythe greatest mural painter. When he had gone over most of the things in the room he called attention to the table.
"These cut flowers here," he said, "Most of you spent some years in the study of botany, but I don't think any of you would undertake to give the complete classification of what we see on the table."
There was a disposition to laugh, but he wiped the smile from every face around the table by quietly saying:
"Perhaps you are to be congratulated when a sense of humour covers a multitude of sins, but personally I cannot enjoy that which gives me pain. I am a respresentative university man, seriously asking myself - and you - whether the system we call education - educates."
The silence was oppressive, the men were thinking.
"Perhaps," he continued, "I should have put you more at your ease by telling at the beginning that I have never experienced the joy of fashioning articles with my own hands. Nor anything useful for that matter. Here we are then, a group of men on whom the University has set its stamp. We produce nothing we eat. We could not lend a hand in making anything we see around us. Truth compels me to venture the suggestion that in 99 cases out of 100, the chief motive of a College education is to escape actual participation in just such work as gives, or should give, joy to the worker.
"A time keeper performs a useful function, but the function of education is not to turn out time keepers or cash registers. It has been truly said that if ten Bachelors of Arts were wrecked in mid-ocean they could not build a pontoon to save their lives. They would be equally helpless in any criticial emergency where practical knowledge of the ordinary things around us was imperatively necessary. A statement of the problem is not a solution, and we do not gain much by stating that the system is to blame and we are not. You are certainly not to blame. You are the victims of whatever system we have. I cannot say that I'm blameless. I do not believe that a smattering of languages or mathematics or history is education. I believe that the cramming of these things to pass an examination is pernicious. So having been asked for the first time in my life to deliver an address, I made it an opportunity to enter my protest. Education is to prepare and to equip for the responsibilities and duties of life, not to turn out industrial and commercial bosses, gaffers, time keepers, and cash registers. I would be hardly justified in taking up your time with these observations alone. So, in addition, most of you are destined to be masters of men. You will organise and mobilise their labour; you will oversee it. When you see men around you actually creating beautiful things with their hands, I want you to remember that it was my opinion that actual labour in the arts and crafts and industries is an infinitely nobler contribution to the happiness of mankind than clipping coupons and living in the sweat of other men's brows. It will not come in our day but the world will ultimately come to understand that the training of the mind is as necessary as the training of the body. Why should it be considered an unthinkable thing that a blacksmith, a carpenter or a farmer should need education?
"Why should College men think it degrading to handle tools, and make useful and beautiful things.
"I want to point out to you that the highest forms of culture and refinement known to mankind was ultimately associated with tools and labour.
"In order to do that I must present a picture, imaginative, but in accord with the facts of history and experience."
He pushed back his chair and stood a few feet from the table. His face betrayed deep emotion, his voice became wonderfully soft and irresistibly appealing. The audience had been interested; they were now spellbound. He raised his hand and went through the motion of drawing aside a curtain.
"Gentlemen, may I introduce a young Galilean who was a Master Builder - Jesus of Nazareth."
It was a weird act and the silence was oppressive. As if addressing an actual person of flesh and blood, he continued,
"Master, may I ask You as I asked these young men, whether there is anything in this room You could make with Your hands as other men do?"
There was a pause for a brief moment or two, then with a slow measured tread of an Oriental, he went to the end of the table, took the tablecloth in his hand and made bare the corner and carved leg of the great oak table. In that position he looked into the faces of the men and said:
"The Master says, 'Yes, I could make this table - I am a Carpenter.'"
-Fraser Parkes, broadcast on 2FC & Regs, 8.45 a.m., 6 February 1966
Welcome to my Watering Hole
Years ago, I heard a man say, “You will be the same in five years’ time as you are today, except for two things—the people you meet and the books you read.” When I look back over the past 32 years of following Jesus, I would have to say that I agree. If not for the people who have come into my life and the books I have read over the years, my life would have changed very little.
The first book that I read was the Bible. I picked it up, after making a decision to follow Jesus, and to this day I have been unable to put it down. The second book I read was called Where Is God When It Hurts? by Philip Yancey. I think we all struggle to find ways to understand what God is trying to tell us. For me, one of the most effective ways is through what I read. Over time I have kept a journal of quotations that have had an impact on me. Often I reflect on something I recorded years ago and see that in some areas of my life I have grown and in others there is still much work to do. Sometimes I have been motivated, encouraged and inspired by what I read, sometimes frightened and overwhelmed, but never, never discouraged or without hope.
In my conversations with men, more often than not, other than the odd newspaper or magazine, many read very little if at all. My suggestions is, before you read on, take time out to pray, ask yourself and God what are the challenges at this time in your life and then read, expecting the Holy Spirit to bring alive what is relevant to you. Don’t read for reading’s sake. See it as a watering hole where your thirst for life’s answers can be quenched. As time goes by, I will add to the site. I want it to be living.
In conclusion, I have to say that there are many things I don’t know. One thing I do know is that God would want me to share with you what He has shared with me. I pray that He will bring alive these writings and burn them in your heart. I wish you well. Life is very demanding for many, and at times it seems that society is demanding more than we’re able to give. But don’t give up. To borrow the title of Wayne Bennett’s autobiography, Don’t Die with the Music in You. That would be a tragedy.
In His name,
Grahame
The first book that I read was the Bible. I picked it up, after making a decision to follow Jesus, and to this day I have been unable to put it down. The second book I read was called Where Is God When It Hurts? by Philip Yancey. I think we all struggle to find ways to understand what God is trying to tell us. For me, one of the most effective ways is through what I read. Over time I have kept a journal of quotations that have had an impact on me. Often I reflect on something I recorded years ago and see that in some areas of my life I have grown and in others there is still much work to do. Sometimes I have been motivated, encouraged and inspired by what I read, sometimes frightened and overwhelmed, but never, never discouraged or without hope.
In my conversations with men, more often than not, other than the odd newspaper or magazine, many read very little if at all. My suggestions is, before you read on, take time out to pray, ask yourself and God what are the challenges at this time in your life and then read, expecting the Holy Spirit to bring alive what is relevant to you. Don’t read for reading’s sake. See it as a watering hole where your thirst for life’s answers can be quenched. As time goes by, I will add to the site. I want it to be living.
In conclusion, I have to say that there are many things I don’t know. One thing I do know is that God would want me to share with you what He has shared with me. I pray that He will bring alive these writings and burn them in your heart. I wish you well. Life is very demanding for many, and at times it seems that society is demanding more than we’re able to give. But don’t give up. To borrow the title of Wayne Bennett’s autobiography, Don’t Die with the Music in You. That would be a tragedy.
In His name,
Grahame
