There is a sense of expectation in the air, the proverbial “calm before the storm”, which is somehow more poignant due to Ottawa’s general winter-weariness. I can’t really blame the city for giving up on clearing the sidewalks; it feels like we’ve all just wrung our hands, shrugged our shoulders and let out a collective sigh of resignation. Weird. However, the additional dumping will give me more reason for snowshoeing.
Mandatory Health & Safety workshop yesterday; this “training” probably reduces insurance premiums but I’m still not able to identify the many dangers lurking behind my cubicle wall. Boredom perhaps? A paper cut? The speaker opened the session with the following helpful tidbit:
“If you fall off a building, you might die”.
It never fails to amaze me how many dollars and how many bright, scientific minds are wasted on the silliest of studies. Take this one: “Are Smart People Drawn To The Arts Or Does Arts Training Make People Smarter?” I love these “chicken-or-the-egg” questions because the answer can almost never be proven, and if discovered, is almost always irrelevant. This 3-year study could shed no light on any “causal relationship” and pleads again the correlation between intelligence and interest in the arts. Big deal. There would be a correlation between intelligence and interest in any cerebral activity, as well as between intelligence and personal drive, and between intelligence and self-actualization (loathe as I am to use that word in Maslow’s context).
If you want to give your kids the best start in life—genetics notwithstanding—should you not try to expose them to a wide variety of activities (arts & music, sports, culture & languages, civic & community pursuits)? I’m not suggesting an over-burdening of schedules and enrolments that threaten to give the kid a stress-induced disorder... just limit time on the boob tube and spend more time with them yourself.
After all… there will be plenty of time to specialize later. Modern society is completely honeymooned over the idea of a quick fix: a magic pill that will make you smarter, thinner, prettier, richer… Just teach your children to enjoy the outdoors and to protect the environment, because we are intimately connected with—and depend on—this physical world. Let them be free to wonder, to imagine, and to play. Foster a curious mind. Don’t be afraid to learn something new. Demonstrate balance, patience and kindness in your own life. Above all, enjoy what you are doing and with whom you are doing it! Simple.
Oh, and thanks to PK for suggesting that “Granularity” would be a good name for the next high-fibre breakfast cereal.
