I like to help people. I always believed educating yourself is the best way forward. But teaching people and children to read, write and pass tests isn’t going to cut it in the cesspool of reality that most of the strugglers inhabit.
Gothboy was educated. He got good grades, could play various instruments, could understand poetry and had good mental arithmetic. Didn’t get him further than a grave.
There are other examples I’ve met in life. Immigrant parents with nothing but a microwave and butter knives, trying to figure out how to cook the raw root veg from the food bank. Divorced thirty something’s with degrees and cars trying to unlearn the narcissism their parents passed down to them. Twenty somethings with Iphones and barely enough secure family members to rub together to make a decent human, trying to make their life look like the ones they see on their screen. The 60+ with frown lines of confusion at the world around them that isnt what they were promised.
Never underestimate the value of a secure roof over your head where you can cultivate your skills. Or a secure mind to know how to navigate learning the skills to begin with. Without it, ‘education’ just makes you that much more aware of what you can’t.
So it’s not just about educating yourself, it’s also about providing yourself with a nest to build from.
Sounds easy, no? Most people I know who are stuggling, also have some mental challenges. Things like ADHD and PTSD scatter your brain. You read a ton of things, want to do them all, probably could if you had the ability to concentrate for five. Sodding. Minutes.
And who helps?
Who helps someone that -SHOULD- be able to help themselves?
Not many. Probably because they don’t know how. Suggestions go in one ear and out the other. Thats frustrating. And, as shocking as it may seem, not everyone has the skills to teach. Teaching isn’t just imparting information.
People want to feel autonomous. It’s hard to mix that with ‘help’, just ask ANY parent.
So I guess this is for everyone. Parents. Friends. Strangers on the internet. Frustrated Industry professionals. Show that person the tools they need to do the thing they probably could do. Show them how to use that thing that you grew up playing with, instead of shaming them for not ‘picking it up’. Show them what secure and resilient looks like instead of infantilising them. Show them how to make do with what they have instead of throwing money at them hoping they will know what to do with it.
The internet is educating the shit out of the world. Facilitating the world to do something with that education, might be helpful next.
FaerieFalls 