BS: You are a student of what things?

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 12 Mar 16 - 07:58 PM

Your points about teachers are very interesting Keberoxu. I have been a teacher for most of my life and have truly loved it because I learned so much! The most wonderful things I have learned have not been from courses or seminars, but from getting off track on academic things... I have read hundreds of letters, wills and diaries from the Middle Ages and I see us of this time and place being no different. it was a huge gift to learn that. I am ( or was until retirement) passionate about talking to students about that . don,t over value the present nor underestimate the past.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Mar 16 - 08:15 PM

Being a good teacher has nothing to do with perpetuating the standards and norms of others. It's not about stuffing people's brains with information either. It's about giving people the skills and the enthusiasm and the curiosity to go and grab knowledge (not information) for themselves. We can all be teachers if we have something to offer. The greatest teacher I ever had was Kery Dalby*, a botanist who had the rare knack of simultaneously losing himself in his own enthusiasms and infecting everyone around him with those same enthusiasms. He died quite recently, in his late nineties. My regret is that I never told him how he'd been the making of me. Another chap was called Kenny Alvin, a palaeobotanist of the first order, whose wide-eyed enthusiasm for his field of endeavour trumped any need for sophisticated teaching skills.

*Kery was short for Dunkery, a first name bestowed on him because he was born within sight of Dunkery Beacon, the highest point on Exmoor. Poignantly, that area was the favourite of my late father-in-law, and Mrs Steve and I go once a year to walk to the top of Dunkery Beacon, where we spell out "dad" in pebbles just by the summit cairn.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: DMcG
Date: 13 Mar 16 - 03:03 AM

When I was thirteen, if I remember rightly, a maths teacher remarked in passing that a Pythagorean triangle with integer sides always has one of those sides divisible by 5 - as you do! What intrigued me was that I realised I simply did not know how you would go about proving something like that, so around twenty minutes later I asked him. He stopped the class and went through proof, which relies on techniques that are way off syllabus, but opened my eyes (if maybe no-one elses!) to different ways of thinking about problems. It is, perhaps, the moment I moved from 'school maths' to 'real maths'.

I agree with Steve that that is a 'good teacher'. I am also painfully aware that the ofsted-driven, preplanned approach of today would declare the opposite.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 13 Mar 16 - 03:57 AM

I was going to write beer and pickled eggs. I notice GUEST said that last year. Must have been me then, as I happen to know neither of my doppelgängers like pickled eggs.

On a fairly honest assessment? (Damn! Missed an
Opportunity to write "an honest")

Music (in a rather wide sense, but especially one voice and guitar, T Rex and Bach. Mrs Musket tried to engage me in opera but with little success to date.

Playing guitar and most string based instruments. Prior to an accident that stiffened my wrist, I played violin (second generally) in a number of youth orchestras. These days, GAS means I have far too many guitars. (And still adding.)

I was involved in research of mechanical vibration for many years, a director of a manufacturing company and wrote a PhD thesis on the subject.

I have spent the last fifteen years interfering in healthcare governance though, and being married to a surgeon, doubt that'll change any time soon. Having a break right now, (tried retiring, got bored) but still involved with a medical school in system improvement.

Sheffield Wednesday. (Regular pilgrimage since I was six years old.)

Skiing. (We are fortunate enough to be able to have two ski trips a year. France back in January and Canada in a few weeks time.

Pottering in the garden, growing our own veg and as my time is more free than Mrs Musket's I have really got into cooking over the last few years.



There. A normal post with no knob gags, no taking the piss. Booorrriiinnggg.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Mar 16 - 04:29 AM

I came across a phrase the other day. If you cannot explain it to a five year old, you don't really understand it :-) I thought it very true and I am pretty sure some of the teachers on here will agree. My list, early on, included UNIX. I did not realise how much I did not know until I taught a beginners course. For any serious students of anything I would recommend teaching it to others. You will come on in leaps and bounds!

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST,Donuel
Date: 13 Mar 16 - 08:21 AM

there is a saying "by teaching you are taught."

My habit is to condense a hundred words down to less than 10.
I may think that clarity is enhanced but no one else may see or understand the implied entendres or scope of the statement. It is probably an artifact of dyslexia.

I may think I have said what Max has said with more cleverness and brevity but to the reader, an overabundance of words is probably better understood. No one wants to work that hard to get the point and no one else is thinking with my brain.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Mar 16 - 11:07 AM

I have the opposite probem to Donuel. My tendency is to say... or type... long explanations of my ideas & opinions, with explications of the explanations as I go. There never seems to enough time or words to adequately explore all the byways.

When I was in graduate school, we had 2 hour seminars. My favorite philosophy professor was always surprised when someone noted the class time had expired..... he had this web of interlocking concepts and clarifications in his head, and there was no obvious place to stop. I empathasize with him.
Sadly these days, many kids don't want that long version of ANY area of study, and education 'seems' to be cooperating.

♫"Give me the simple life"♫

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Mar 16 - 03:42 PM

One of the subjects of my perpetual studenthood is song lyrics in any language. The study of languages interested me in school; but it had to be admitted, in the end, that my interest was not in the language itself as much as in the poetry or music-lyrics in said language. I'm not all that thrilled with counting money in another country, or explaining in a language other than mine that the ladies' room needs attention because a toilet is overflowing, and on and on. Song lyrics is one of the main things that brought me to the Mudcat Café in the first place.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Mar 16 - 03:07 PM

Don't let this thread die just because of something I said....

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST,Strider
Date: 15 Mar 16 - 10:32 PM

Ronnie Tolkien, for instance:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Fits perfect with the tune My Bonnie Lays Over the Ocean

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Mar 16 - 11:09 PM

All That Is Gold (click)

---

That being said, I'd say I've been a student of languages all my life, since a took Spanish on Saturdays from a cute nun when I was in eighth grade and approaching puberty. But that's another story...

Besides my one year of Spanish, I studied Latin for 6 years, Greek for 2, and German forever. I worked as a German linguist in the U.S. Army in Berlin, and I've tutored Latin and German.

Through the years, I've developed my own Holy Grail of linguistics to seek. I'm convinced that there's a key to the development of languages, and a synergistic role of language in the development of cultures and peoples and philosophies. We are limited by what our languages cannot express, but we are also empowered by what our languages CAN express - and those abilities and inabilities serve to direct the development of our cultures and philosophies and who knows what else.

I think this holy grail key is a very simple thing that nobody has found yet. But it's interesting to ponder and explore.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Mar 16 - 12:00 AM

8th grade and a Army GED here, Joe Offer, but I read ya.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Mar 16 - 02:57 AM

Let's go a little further. There's a secret to language, and I haven't found it yet - at least not in a way that I can express. But I studied Latin, and seem to be able to pick up Romantic languages (with Latin roots) very easily. And I really know German, so Yiddish and other Germanic languages came to me very naturally.

And I married a Rhode Island woman whose first language was Polish, so I thought I was all set when I went to Poland. Not so - I didn't understand a thing. And when I took her to Poland the next year, she didn't understand much more. She said she forgot it all because she hadn't spoken Polish since she finished high school and moved out of Rhode Island. So, maybe Slavic languages follow different rules.

The only thing Greek helped me with, was learning the Russian alphabet and reading signs in Greece. Couldn't understand a word they said - but sometimes they thought I was German and they addressed me in that language, and then I was fine.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Mar 16 - 03:59 AM

Working at a handicap is a good exercise in persistence. You stumble along, people look at you and shake their heads, then, when the times right, the Holy Grail. Love your stuff Joe Offer

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Mar 16 - 04:14 AM

The first thing I do when I go to a new country, is figure out how to order a beer. After that, who cares?

...but in Switzerland, I found many places where the beer had no alcohol, so maybe I'd better re-think the previous principle.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 16 Mar 16 - 08:41 PM

Joe Offer: "The first thing I do when I go to a new country, is figure out how to order a beer. After that, who cares?
Let's go a little further. There's a secret to language, and I haven't found it yet - at least not in a way that I can express."

Hmmm...Related??....

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: Mooh
Date: 16 Mar 16 - 09:14 PM

Various styles of music, music theory, history, etc.
Guitars, and fretted instruments in general.
Carpentry.
I don't read much about labour relations anymore, I no longer work in the field, but it interests me.
History, nothing very specific, but generally Canadian.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 16 - 12:09 PM

A person can be a total amateur/beginner student or a fully qualified practioner, yet you will still be a student. Does any field of study permit one to say I know everything? The day a person sits in the rocking chair and ceases to study is the day they start to die.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Mar 16 - 12:23 PM

This is where the better angels of who we wish to be, live and breathe.

If only I had the energy to do them all.

I am exactly the same age as Robin Williams but avoided the sun all my life. With an eye job I could lie about being 48.

In the end I would rather feel good than look good.

I want to refurbish and modify 3 cellos and two violin.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 17 Mar 16 - 11:52 PM

Donuel: "I want to refurbish and modify 3 cellos and two violin."

Bless You!!!

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 01:25 AM

The Arts [as they call them] in general -- Maths and Science are, alas, a closed book to me; a lack of which I am by no means proud, but to which I have just had to reconcile myself over a long life.

My tastes in what I study (which of course is what the 'student' of the thread title does) are subject to a certain exclusiveness, summed up in what I call my "Boring Old Fart's credo", to which at age of 80+ I consider myself entitled, which states as follows:-

"BOF says that my Literature shall be Comprehensible; my Art Representational; my Music Tonal: naught else shall penetrate my attention zone."

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 05:50 PM

It has been said, and I find true, that it is best to always be a student, because once you you think you know it all, you are living in the past.

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST,rookie
Date: 24 Mar 16 - 11:44 PM

Ronnie Tolkien, for instance :

Song of The Fall of Gil-galad

Gil-galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing:
the last whose realm was fair and free
between the Mountains and the Sea.

His sword was long, his lance was keen,
his shining helm afar was seen;
the countless stars of heaven's field
were mirrored in his silver shield.

But long ago he rode away,
and where he dwelleth none can say;
for into darkness fell his star
in Mordor where the shadows are.

Fits with the tune Yankee Doodle

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Mar 16 - 04:03 AM

I think all one needs is an insatiable curiosity about the world and everything therein. If you're extremely nosy (like me) you never stop being a student. It's when you no longer care to investigate or explore that you don't learn anything new.

I love the film 'Umrao Jahn, Courtesan of Lucknow', and in it there's a song (in Hindi) which translated means,
"I never did find what I was looking for, but in the seeking I learned much about the world." That sums me up I suppose.

Subject: RE: BS: You are a student of what things?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Mar 16 - 07:33 AM

"I think all one needs is an insatiable curiosity about the world and everything therein"
Absolutely.
I work actively in researching folk-song, which is my first love, but regularly travel 200 miles to see a few good films in a bunch because they don't make it to this side of the country.
Apart from these, I become a (very mature) student in whatever catches my interest.
I've added to that list considerably thanks to some of the topics I've become involved in on this forum.
Jim Carroll