People don't think like we think they should think

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Jack Gardner — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:13:50 GMT

Stop patronising fish Kevin!

Ant. I'm sorry not only is there no discount there is in fact a higher price charged if you are working class. Sorry but it's the system.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

John W. — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:53:36 GMT

I kinda have had the same conversation with a friend of mine. He makes his kid play crusty dead composer stuff and he quite clearly isn't enjoying it. I told him some joplin etc would help pep it up a bit but deaf ears and all that jazz.

Dave touched on it once when he mentioned the difference between america and here seemed to be that over the other side the pond they focus on your strengths whilst here it seems the opposite. Having said that I'm assuming to get a 1st with honours at one of the best unis for music your boy needed to brush up his bach and beethoven etc as well? No surprise to hear he tapped into the underlying current that is the republic of mancunia;s legacy. Marx and Engels did meet there after all.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Kevin Gordon — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:04:51 GMT

Ha!

Absolutely!

At the ripe old age of 13 I don't think my music teacher was too impressed with me when I turned up at his bungalow in a pair of white levi's sta prest and a pair of Doctor Martens. I gave up after 6 lessons. Playing the piano was okay, it was just the look on his contorted face every time I touched his grand piano as if he was saying: "You are scum, unworthy of touching MY Grand Piano".

A hardnut friend of mine got such a caning in music classes from an Aussie teacher, he could not sit down all lesson, and when he did he cried. The teacher screamed at him: "Go to the headmaster for a caning you little bxxxxxx!" (Those were his actual words.) We all behaved after that, but you can see the common thread of the control freak in music teachers developing.

So Philip had some unfinished family business to settle with music teachers.

He started playing at 5 years of age. It was fun. His teacher was a woman my wife found. She was odd. She had a pretty face masked by pent-up anger, and you could see she was struggling to keep it all in. She tried to make him do classical music. More tears. He nearly gave up at 12, so I asked him what the problem was, knowing how much he loved his music. He shrieked: "I just want to play Jazz!" So we had a word with the frustrated spinster.

Now Philip plays Piano and Sax extremely well and finds it a pleasure to play.

Music is something you can enjoy all your life, like Art, or certain sports. It's so important to be free to express yourself. Years later, we discovered his music teacher had a massive hatred for men because of how her father treated her mother. Music was her way of controlling her anger and escaping that pain.

Her father spent a fotune on her, and yet she still refuses to talk to him even to this day.

Small facial expressions and little eye movements are the tell tale signs to identify if people are thinking the opposite or telling the truth, like tiny high pitch flutters at the top end of a Grand Piano. The same goes for convincing acting as Michael Caine once demonstrated on Parkinson: how small expressions can be so powerful to convey a thought or an idea, or simply a feeling.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

John W. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:18:32 GMT

Did you get your kid into music lessons early doors then Kev?

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Kevin Gordon — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:59:16 GMT

Hi Dave,

I have seen Ken Robinson's talk now. He is so right.

I wonder if Ken Robinson was inspired by the film: 'The Dead Poet's Society"

When my son took his 11+ he jumped into the car in tears.

I asked him what was wrong, and he told me it was awful because he could not answer 3 questions, one of which he had never heard of.

It was "Describe Pie as a fraction".

I said: "What did you put down?"

He told me "22 over 7".

I told him he was right. he still cried.

I asked him how many questions were there?

He told me "100".

I asked "So why are you crying?"

His reply: "I think I only got 98 right !!!!!!"

When the 11+ results came through, they rated Philip with an IQ of 198.

He went to MENSA, got bored and left.

It didn't stop there.

Philip was being pushed to go to Cambridge or Oxford by the headmaster.

He hated the head, and so did I.

Philip was just a bonus and tick in a box to him.

I told him to go where he wanted to go:

He ended up with a 1st Class Hons in Music from Manchester.

He loves Manchester so much he's even got a Mancunian accent now.

Then he didn't want to perform in public, so he decided to take a degree in Physiotherapy because he wanted a job working for a non-profit-making organisation. He's now being interviewed by the NHS with the long term

ambition of becoming a Music Therapist. He is very happy within himself,

very happy working for the career of his vocation.

Nobody could tell when he started his Music degree where it would end.

Education should be an end to a means not a means to an end.

Forced Education limits the freedom of choice for people to think for themself.

That's ironic when the whole idea of education is to teach people to do just this.

Teachers told my daughter she could not study A level Biology when she has set her heart on being a Doctor, so she just turned up for Biology anyway.

Now she's at the top of the class.

The teachers were horrified.

She still worries herself stupid about exam results like other kids.

Kids up and down the country get so stressed-out about their results.Some have even taken their own lives. That's not education, it's a terrible pressure at an age when people are highly vulnerable. They should be allowed to enjoy, not endure that vulnerability. Education should be fun.

My cousin always used to say: "The purpose of education is to teach you how to think, not how to get a job". It should not form the basis of judging intelligence either, which brings us back to two of your favourite subjects:

D&AD Awards

The Gunn Report.

I'd much rather have a conversation with an intelligent Bricklayer than an educated idiot because one will enrich my life while the other leaves me empty.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Ant Melder — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:45:48 GMT

Hi Dave - I had to give an inspirational presentation to the whole agency and cheated a bit by showing that Ken Robinson talk. It went down a storm and I'm still basking in the reflected glory!

Jack - haha, you don't know how right you are! Any discount for bulk purchase?

re: People don't think like we think they should think

John W. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:58:17 GMT

"I am trying to fry an egg in here…give me a break" - Ken Robinson. Classic.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Dave Trott — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:04:06 GMT

Hi Gordon,

That sounds like a story from this link.

You've probably already heard Ken Robinson's talk on TED.com but, if you haven't, I think you'll love it.

www.ted.com/.../ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

re: People don't think like we think they should think

John W. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:25:45 GMT

Back to the egg thang. In Switzerland I used to order a Rösti mit Speck und Ei (Fried Potato with Bacon and Egg). Now they thought you were mad if you broke into your egg right from the off. You were supposed to eat all around the egg and only then could you break the yoke. Quite mad. All just goes to show that people don't think like we think they should think and long may it continue.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Kevin Gordon — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:51:27 GMT

Hi Dave,

When I was 5 my Dad bought this strange box called a television. He stuck it in the corner and turned a knob, and a white light appeared in the middle of the glass screen. Having got used to it in a matter of weeks as "the new relative in the corner of the living room" apparently I was watching a film that had me glued.

5 year-olds have a habit of unexpectedly getting cut short.

My brother and sister tell me one day I suddenly...

jumped out of the seat,

turned off the telly,

ran to the loo,

ran back downstairs

turned it back on...

expecting the film to wait for my return.

Children don't think like adults.

Yet adults often think they should.

It's a real "creative spanner in the works".

Adults can kill creativity stone dead.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Kevin Gordon — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:05:41 GMT

Hi John,

Long answer:-

The Portugese used to love to put an egg on top of everything. Hamburger with Egg on top of the burger, Cod & chips with egg on top. They lived by the sea, but even imported the Cod becasue they loved it so much. It's quite delicious. Especially when washed down with a glass of the local Mateus Rose.

In Oporto they had a special liqueur called Bagasso. It was like drinking paint stripper. The local shoe shine boy (pensioner) would also use it to break down shoe polish to give their leather shoes a shine like Guardsmen's boots. He would wring his cloth tight in the local Cafe, and as he did it would make a peculiar squeaking sound like rope creaking tight around a mast. That was in 1985 when three legged dogs roamed the streets. It's probably changed a bit since then.

Short answer:- El Chef is Portugese, Brasilian, or Hungover.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

John W. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:21:29 GMT

Bought an english breakfast today and it arrived with the egg on the beans.

I mean who does that. I would never of thought of doing that. It always has to be either the bacon or sausage keeping the eggs apart from the beans.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Jack Gardner — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:24:35 GMT

Ant, with that description of your background you could probably do with some new mugs as all yours are probably chipped.

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Kevin Gordon — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:50:29 GMT

Hi John,

Seen it. However, we'll never know the real truth. Iraq was and is a problem, but the real tinderbox is here: www.youtube.com/watch

re: People don't think like we think they should think

Kevin Gordon — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:16:41 GMT

Hi John,

No, but I stumbled upon this whilst doing a search: