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14/04/21
07:02
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when I read your posts I realise how privileged I was. How can one not want to read when your father leads you into mysteries and magic sitting around a cosy fire - with him adopting the different voices of the characters in the books. His love of them shone through. Our house was full of books. Hundreds of them. reading was part of our lives from a very young age. Mum and dad had both been to uni and dads grandfather was a scholar and world recognised botanist. His children were well educated. Mums father was the chief auditor for a large bank. Mums mother was a secretary at a time when more men did that work. Both sides of the family valued music and art. And food was a thing. So expectations and opportunity were high. but it actually meant I took education for granted. I was two years ahead of my age peers and that was agonising at times. I fluffed around at school and seldom did homework. In fact I did more homework for other kids who were struggling than I did for myself. I chose uni subjects so that I could undertake a liberated social education and those I chose came easily. I often thought afterwards that those who discovered the joy of learning got far more out of it than I did. I rather think I wasted the gifts I was given.
Originally posted by fdKen:
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Strangely enough many parallels. My handwriting was atrocious and still is. Without computers I would not have got through a business career. Teachers were digging up copy books and giving them to me in high school, despite them being phased out when I was in year 2. I think there may be a connection with a physical genetic disability that I have. English was my worst subject, and sentence construction was a failure until I was about 27/28. I then joined the public service for a small stint, Windows, a word processor and practice made all the difference. Whereas now I feel I could attempt any subject. Mathematics was my forte and still is. I was the first one on my side (and my wife's) to go to Uni. Having a free Uni education made all the difference. Though I wonder if I would have been happier leaving at Year 10 and becoming an electrician. I travelled an hour each way on the same train line when I was in high school, in university and then for about 6 years in the public service. After 15 years it is incredible the fiction books I read. I tend to be a spend reader. Therefore I would finish most books in about two days on the train. 1.5 days if it was short enough. Some of the good books I would read 3-4 times over the years. Since the internet, I spend so much time reading rubbish online that I have bought some books to read on a holiday that I haven't touched in over 12 months.
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Originally posted by Justis:
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LOL the library monitor I look back at my school days and seems I took little interest, for some reason my hand writing was terrible, that I pasted on to my sons. My first son's mother had the most beautiful hand writing, took to a calligraphy pen with no effort after I gifted a set to her as she had never used one. Yet my son has my horrible hand writing. Was not all that good with spelling either and I hated English classes at school, more so with the English teacher in high school. How ever, in primary school we had these comprehension cards to do as exercises. If I recall correctly you had to read them the answer question, I excelled doing them. Parent's were illiterate and placed little value on education so they were happy to for us kids to get a job and drop out of high school as soon as we could. I dropped out of year 9 high school not long after turning 14, non of my 4 brothers finished high school and not sure if my sister did. It was when I was working on the prawn trawlers that I took to reading books, just novels. Sending months at sea and having time to spare at time it was a good way to pass the hours. But I really got into reading and before long would looking to swap books with people on other trawlers. From there on in I would read often but mostly favourite authors and stuff recommended to me then I started using libraries, it was wonderful access to all those books without having to buy or swap. So it was in the libraries that I ventured into the non-fiction section and I started enjoying those, quite sure it was a book "Psychology 101" that really got me into the non-fiction. So got right into reading Psychology and related subjects to the point I considered getting into uni to study Psychology. I did look into it, twice in fact but the fact that I was a high school drop out meant it was a difficalt path to get in to Uni. LOL I had a similar issue getting into TAFE to do a business course, need to do an exam to show I had and education level of a year 10 student. Not sure what my result was but was enough to get me in, funny a young lass in that exam complained that the time we where given didn't allow her to do much more than one page. Gees think I got through more than ten. So I get into tafe for a certificate lll business course, got through that and was able to advance to certificate lV and then completed a Diploma. It was as I was finishing the Diploma that I found out that would make me eligible for entrance to Uni and I would have credits, oh what the hell I applied got in to Uni and graduated with a Commerce Degree, Double Major Management and Marketing Funny when I first mentioned to my mum I was going to Uni she said, how can you do that you have horrible hand writing. Why is it doctors are renowned for bad hand writing? Well I must say if not for word processor and computers I could not have got through Tafe an Uni, I still laugh that will over all I got good grades my grades for hand written essay exams was terrible. I am quite sure the examiner had so much trouble reading mine they just gave me 50%, fortunately essay exams where only a few. That was quite a few years of education as a mature aged student but I quiet enjoyed it
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