Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for December 18, 2023

“The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn’t need to be reformed — it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.”― Ken Robinson, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

“The whole system was invented to meet the needs of industrialism.” – And it continues today in essence, the goal being to turn out minimally-qualified, compliant, docile workers for the factories of the wealthy.

You can’t neglect the arts. They are integral to learning. I was an A student back in the day, yet I sang, danced, and played instruments. Music feels like math to me. Chords and their progression are like operations to me. I can’t explain it any better.

Of course, I’m the one who thinks açai tastes purple. Just a touch of synesthesia.

Exactly…

All through school, university and med school it was all math and biology and biochemistry and such. But one day when I was in the 4th grade my uncle Bill played some Charlie Parker when we were visiting. I was hooked on Jazz after that day. It spread to other types of music and instruments other than the alto sax. Now in semi-retirement there are some days that I don’t practice medicine. But I practice sax or bassoon every day. RIP and thanks so very much, Bill.

I’m older, so the dancer I looked up to was Rudolph Nuriyev. Anyone who has ever seen films of him dancing and doing vaults and leaps would forever lose the idea that dancers are not world class athletes. Same way with tap dancers like Gene Kelly or Gregory Hines, you try tap at that speed for a full musical. . .

When I was college age, I wanted to be an engineer. I took all the science and math classes I could. I was hired right out of school. After a number of years I was moving up into management so I got an MBA. Near the end of my career I became more concerned with the human side of things and didn’t think American Business was doing a very good job with that. I no longer fit into the business mold. I retired and has since been on a self study course of reading philosophy, human motivation, and political essays.

The Humanities have a lot to teach us about why we seem to have gotten off on the wrong track, but they are probably not something that a young person can easily absorb. I think you need a fair amount of life experience to make sense of them and to put them into practice. We seem to have lost the notion of the Wise Man as a society resource. It shows in the results we have been getting.

OK, I’m going to climb down from my soap box, thanks for paying attention.

This is one of my best holiday favorites, honest!!

Bravo!

I don’t have synesthesia and no ability or inspiration to dance.

You’re work is always on point. Thank you!

If you liked this “Zen Pencils”, you might also like the movie “Billy Elliot” and the musical “Billy Elliott The Musical”. Much of this “Zen Pencils” parallels the “Billy Elliott” story. (I’m not claiming plagiarism, just the same basic theme.) https://en.wikipedia.Org/wiki/Billy_Elliot

I’m very good at relaxing; in fact I’d consider it a passion. Why is it that I can’t get anyone to pay me to do what really fulfills me? [Hint: The answer is not the one given in today’s strip and promoted by Karl Marx – namely, that “the whole system was invented to meet the needs of industrialism.” Instead, the answer is just common sense: why would you (or anyone else) pay me to do something that doesn’t benefit you in some way? The number of people who like watching dancers and are willing to pay them to dance just happens to be lower than the number of people who like eating, wearing clothing, finding shelter, getting medical care, and using iPhones – and are willing to pay other people to provide these things and make them work. An unusually good dancer could make an unusually good living by exercising his skill and passion; but school curricula are designed to teach skills necessary for entering professions that provide what most people need and are willing to pay for. On the other hand, it is the job of parents to provide extracurricular opportunities for their kids to try music, art, dancing and other such skills to see if these opportunities might awaken the unusual talent necessary for turning that talent into careers that people are willing to support after they have paid for their food, clothing, housing, medical care, and iPhones. So, sorry Gavin and Sir Ken; contrary to the thesis of this very creative presentation, we are not victims of an industrialist plot; we are beneficiaries of a system that allows us both to have our needs met and our passions satisfied. It is the most productive system known to mankind – free enterprise – a system served traditionally by our public and private schools and universities – and schools of the arts. Unfortunately, the publicly-funded parts of the system have largely been turned into Marxist propaganda mills. May God give voters the discernment to recognize and follow common sense and to reject political nonsense.]

I’m not in disagreement with the views expressed here, but I will point out that the number of jobs in the arts is minimal. Thus, I’m not in disagreement with discouraging people from pursuing it as a career — thus, only the ones for whom it is a true passion will continue to try and reducing the number of those who try, but are disappointed when it doesn’t work for them.

Answer: major in Math AND Art. Confuse the crap out of Everyone!