Thursday, February 12, 2009

In Reply To Matt: Lodestar Ideals

[Matt has left a new comment on your post
"Live In A Different World": In a similar vein
I did better at school when I realized the goal
was to get good scores on tests, not to learn.
Sigh. Ideals go the wayside pretty quick.]

Hi Matt, I did pretty average at school and
university because I refused to do what it takes
to get good scores, namely focus only on the
essentials. I wanted to know everything about
a subject - while fellow students drilled high-
scoring facts into their heads, I read reams of
books about the subject and thus could not
provide word-perfect replies to questions –
but knew a lot about the subject. And I keep
my childhood ideals alive, firstly because I
chose them myself, not acquired from church,
I existed in a vacuum until I found my own set
of ideals –since then I have guarded them
jealously. I reread my books where I found
these ideals every few years and seek similar
books to read. When I came across a fictional
hero who stood for nobility, learning, aspiring
to the sublime and highest ideals, I emulated
him – albeit imperfectly – even had a nervous
breakdown as he did. I tried deviating from
these ideals in my twenties, trying a flower-child
lifestyle, but it did not work for me, so I returned
to first ideals as my lodestar, never fulfilling my
ideals, but always aiming for them.

See my next posting, “Flame Ignited In My Mind”
in which I describe this dream of mine, remaining
true to my first and forever fictional hero, the
personification of my lodestar ideals.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you again for responding to a comment I made.

I can relate to what you are saying here and in the posts that follow.

I continue to read and contemplate ...

As far as school, I guess it depends on where you go. At least in some schools trying to learn is like trying to play baseball at a basket ball match. It's not entirely fun.

The answer I think lies in working to gradually improve the system (or game).

:-)

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