It's not very often that I read the morning' s news and think there's not a lot I want to say. This morning happens to be one such occasion. That may, of course, be because I need to go on holiday (coming, soon). And it may be that the world is already heading that way. What it did remind me of is a conversation I had recently.
The conversation was in a cafe, with a waiter. I was away (which is not uncommon) and the cafe proved to be a good spot to write for a while so I visited a couple of times, using my coffee as table rent. The waiter noted that I was always 'tapping away', as she put it, and asked what I was writing about. We got into conversation. During this she admitted she could not recall writing anything since she'd left school. My guess is she was in her mid thirties. She joked that she had English GCSE, and she admired her children's work, but if she wrote a shopping list it was amazing.
I asked her why if she could clearly write at one time she did not do so now. "What would I say?" was her response. It took very little time to discover there were issues, including both her own access to continuing education and the education of her children, that she was worried about. So I suggested she had got something to write about, after all, and a local paper, at least, to write to.
I had a variation on this conversation yesterday with Graham Hambly of PQ magazine, who also became an honorary fellow of the AIA yesterday. The discussion was on the difficulty of getting people with expertise and opinions to write them down. It seems that as soon as most people see a pen (remember them?) or keyboard they freeze.
Why is this? What is the paranoia about writing about? We insist that every child in this country learn English and insist that creative writing is a passport to success and yet a tiny proportion of the country feel the need to partake in the process. And the waiter in that cafe shocked me into realising that fact again, and made me realise that for many this is because they don't feel empowered to say anything and it is not that they have nothing to say. That, of course, is wrong. The whole process of writing, from a diary onwards, is about empowerment. I wish more would realise that and take the opportunity. The world would be a better place if they did.
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This is very true. I think it’s a fear of being wrong and (more importantly) the feeling that what you have to say is not worthwhile or important enough to take the time to say it. That’s a reflection, I would say, of one of the most damaging ideas of the last fifty years or so which is the notion of expertise. Not that there aren’t experts in the sense of people who have more than the average understanding of or knowledge about a certain topic or area. The bad idea is the notion that these people should only really talk to each other and not engage in conversation with the wider public. I would oppose to that the old Scottish idea of the ‘democratic intellect’ which was the belief that everyone had a right to engage in and contribute to the public conversation and the general culture and that there should not be a high culture and higher level conversation that they were excluded from.
Agreed
A few years ago we visited Ben Law (the woodsman who was on Grand Designs years ago). He gives guided tours of the wood he manages and the house he built.
He said that he has spent so long observing and working his land that he is, without doubt, the world’s leading expert on that piece of woodland. He knows stuff about it that no-one else on the planet knows.
In the same way we’re all the leading experts on our own lives, places and how local and national policies affect us personally and should therefore all be confident to write and speak about these things.
We just have to be careful to recognise the difference between stuff we have actually experienced and therefore know for sure and stuff we’ve heard or read or seen on the telly/internet and therefore could be misinformed about.
I agree with that
I sometimes fail but I like to look for the merit in opinion offered
It’s why even trolls get on here for a while before it becomes obvious what their true motive is
And yet, understanding is more important than experience in a lot of contexts. You can spend a lifetime doing something that works, and still have a completely wrong idea about why it does, which can start to matter when you try to apply your mistaken knowledge in a different context. While someone with a correct, but merely theoretical knowledge of the subject is in a position to reason soundly.
Schooling in the UK does not empower kids (from my time at school) to express themselves or think independently. It is more about chugging through the curriculum and ticking as many boxes as possible. I’m not criticising teachers here as they have to navigate their way through a minefield of conflicting pressures and it is a difficult and under appreciated (underpaid) profession.
My grandchildren, three of primary-school age, are invited and required to write about themselves, their friends and their likes at school.
Since most schools work from the same agenda, most children will be doing the same. Unless we have a continuation of this government!
When you teach and encourage children to write…you have to start with what they know…hence their friends and their families. It is teaching them to move on beyond that which is important and difficult… when you meet a child who is able to do that it is a very satisfying momnet
Agreed
Absolutely right about the importance of writing, but it goes even deeper than you suggest. Writing down ideas is a key part of testing fleeting ideas and forming them into coherent practical (or political) strategies.
There was a time when any idea for change would require a full report to be written supported by detailed analysis, which made both the person proposing it, and those empowered to make decisions very thorough and disciplined. But in the fast paced “sound-bite” World today with lean structures and no resource to do any detailed analysis, everything is decided in shouting matches based on media stereotypes and ideology. Just look at the way the Brexit vote happened, when the government didn’t even have a strategy for what would happen if “vote leave” won. Or even more extreme, the farce now playing out in Washington as the Senate debates healthcare vital to the future of millions of Americans, and accounting for 17% of US GDP, without any reports, advanced proposals, or committee stages.
Verbal lies and partisan sound bites are great at creating media “bumpers” for the news headlines, but written down in detail they can be exposed for what they are. Perhaps this explains the difference between the Tory and Labour manifestos at the last general election?
Anything you write down will be used against you.
Especially these days, on twitter, even police officers. Use the wrong word and everyone attacks you.
So social media has destroyed freedom of speech?
Social media has destroyed freedom of articulated, reasoned and detailed speech. You’re free to express opinion as long as it’s short, lacks detail and is easy for the masses to absorb. (Generalised obviously, blogs like this are the exception nowadays)
It takes some resolution and a mighty thick skin to survive eleven years of blogging, I admit
I wonder if this a legacy of English class reticence. I often read American websites, and , while I don’t want to make a cheap nationalistic point, I do note a lot of people there don’t seem inhibited by a lack of grasp of facts and this is matched by their poor grammatical and spelling skills.
I reckon the education system differences are part of the reason too.
Whilst I have no ‘real’ knowledge (oh crikes should I therefore be expresing an opinion … omg), what I see in films for example and documentaries is that in US schools they are encouraged to express opinions, they have debating clubs and students are encouraged – maybe even compelled to some extent – to particpate in these debates. I don’t think that is so true in the UK. I think it’s moved on a lot and my kids were much more able and encouraged to express opinions at school than in my day, but still a way to go I feel compard to the US.
Of course in the past – and maybe not as far back as we would like to think – there is still the mantra of children should be seen and not heard!
I think this is incredibly important
One of the great social divides is that some are taught, subliminally or otherwise, that their opinions matter
And others are not
For me education is the idea that you learn to question.
I started and failed a law degree because it was all rote learning, which having read AJP Taylor for history A level I thought was not what any degree ought to be about.
I may be wrong but I think the question why is important. In fact I’ve learnt since that in life the most important is ‘when’ you ask why?
I seem to have asked it continually since becoming conscious – which I’ve learnt since is not ideal!
At 1950s Powick primary school,Worc’s, our headteacher Roger Vaughan promoted debating competitions. To make it really interesting contestants were given no chioce in either subject matter or from which side to present a case. One of the best experiences of my education that is still benefits me. And……..
Congratulations on your recent well deserved appointment Richard
Thanks
I would be inclined to agree that most people should embrace the act of writing but looking at the seemingly limitless amount of vitriol flowing on the internet, it needs to be targeted in a productive way. Developing ideas and arguments is a tremendous power, but one that is rarely exercised in sentence long comments.