OBLONG

When I was at Primary School we learned all about shapes. Circles, triangles, squares, diamonds, stars, and oblongs.

Some years later shapes became geometry, diamonds became rhombuses, oblongs became rectangles and the subject became much, much more dull. The transition from a childhood full of fun and laughter to an adulthood often full of stress and boredom often seemed to be marked by such sudden changes. Why do they have to occur?

Oblong is so clearly the better word for me. There is something cuddly about the word. Rectangle is harsh and clinical and dull.

Another example which sticks clearly in my mind is that the dinosaur which for many years was known affectionately to a young lad fascinated by dinosaurs as a diplodocus, suddenly started to be called a diplodocus by all the teachers. I don't know what it is about it. But that saddens me.

I have a fairly serious point to make here. Above are just little examples which stick in my mind. Somewhere between early childhood and adulthood, most people forget what it is like to just have fun, to be interested in everything. To have that Friday feeling every single day of every single week because the world is a wonderful place to be savoured.

Now you may argue that this is because kids have no responsibilities and in adult life we are overwhelmed by things that we have to think about so we don't have time for the things we want to think about. Is that really the case in our affluent modern world? If you have so much responsibility, how have you got time to find and read this?

I would argue that the education system I remember is responsible for systematically squeezing all the fun out of children until they reach adulthood drained of all creativity and free thought, ready to be 'good citizens'. Don't think for yourself, learn how to pass exams. Don't question the teacher or the text book. Just repeat what they say at the end of the year.

Thankfully, there are some exceptional and remarkable teachers who understand how the retention of an eager, questioning mind is crucial for a successful and happy adult life. These heroes stand out like beacons, in spite of the constraints of an ever increasingly bureaucratic education system. Like lifeguards plucking beautiful minds from a sea of mediocrity and sending them out into the world to light the way and give us hope.

It is a shame that this is necessary. It is a terrible shame that all children are not encouraged to retain their child-like enthusiasm. I think that humanity would be in a much better place if they were.

But life is as it is. To the heroic lifeguards: I salute you. To any parents reading, teach your beautiful children to swim against the tide.

That there is a diplodocus.

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