I feel a lot of intrigue learning about the seeds of thought that lead you to your stories. The breakdown of your craft and choices is sometimes unexpected but always fitting (like your use of 'haecceity', which I had not heard before and did not pick up on in the story, but makes sense now).
Also, love the gems in your writing notes like this one: "those lonely souls would not be happy until the entire world idolises them".
In the story, I was curious about the signficance of the teacher, Mary. Maybe (probably) I missed something, but would you mind sharing what went behind your choice of her inclusion, and her significance?
Thanks for the comment, Sanja, and thanks for the question! A few influences went into the teacher. One is from my own time in school. I had a teacher that I believe wanted me to think for myself providing I agreed with them. I was rewarded for parroting their views back to them, and I did so. Funnily enough, those views were different to my parents. It’s a funny thing in our culture that parents pay taxes to a government or fees to a private school to ‘educate’ their children. We don’t really think much about it, but in other cultures, parents often remain more hands on in raising their children. In my case, my folks were paying for a teacher who ‘educated’ me that my own parents values were rotten. Who are they to say such a thing to me? Anyway, I did also have a teacher who really inspired me and treated me with more respect than I deserved. He genuinely taught me to think for myself, so I am certainly not disparaging the profession, just certain actors with their own motivations to correct children with ‘unsavoury’ parents, perhaps.
I don’t know if you hear the calls for schools to teach kids how to do taxes, iron clothes, cook, to live in the world. This to me is along the same lines. It’s a kind of admission in a way that parents are not expected to teach their kids anything. Outsource the whole mess of childrearing to the state! In a world where parents are even busier than previous generations—ours but also Ligma’s—the possibility and maybe need for teachers to play a more parental role is stronger than ever. In a bygone era, if some teacher started telling you moral lessons around your uncles, aunties, parents, cousins, they would not get very far if those values did not align with your own network’s. But if parents are absent, busy, stressed, incapable, and you are not raised by a village, but the state, then the temptation and possibility would be greater for bad actors to instil their own values on children against the parent’s wishes. Moreover, a child would also be more amenable. I wanted to impress my teacher and I love my parents. But if I was all alone and my teacher was telling me think this or I won’t approve of you, then I would. The teacher in that case would probably imagine themselves as a moral crusader rather than a narcissist.
Another influence was seeing this trend online. Quite vocal teachers openly talking about teaching the students topics the parents asked them not too, for example. It is an interesting societal question, I think, around what the role of schools are. I’m of the view that parents outsource teaching their kids subject matter to the state and that this is done in a social setting to aid socialisation. It’s your dad’s job to teach you to shave though, and your parents to teach you right from wrong.
A final influence was a few classmates I had in university and in my early career who did seem to think they were within their right—indeed it was their obligation—to educate the stupid masses. Some of them didn’t grow out of it and I would never let them near my children, were I ever lucky enough to have some.
Thanks as always for taking the time to read, Sanja. Looking forward to your book coming out soon!
Thanks Luke for the awesome response! Thanks for sharing your experience, and why you wove your thoughts into the story.
As a former high school teacher (of a very short career), I can definitely agree there were mixed expectations on how much teachers should be involved in ‘raising’ kids. It’s also hard to monitor bad actors.
I feel a lot of intrigue learning about the seeds of thought that lead you to your stories. The breakdown of your craft and choices is sometimes unexpected but always fitting (like your use of 'haecceity', which I had not heard before and did not pick up on in the story, but makes sense now).
Also, love the gems in your writing notes like this one: "those lonely souls would not be happy until the entire world idolises them".
In the story, I was curious about the signficance of the teacher, Mary. Maybe (probably) I missed something, but would you mind sharing what went behind your choice of her inclusion, and her significance?
Thanks for the comment, Sanja, and thanks for the question! A few influences went into the teacher. One is from my own time in school. I had a teacher that I believe wanted me to think for myself providing I agreed with them. I was rewarded for parroting their views back to them, and I did so. Funnily enough, those views were different to my parents. It’s a funny thing in our culture that parents pay taxes to a government or fees to a private school to ‘educate’ their children. We don’t really think much about it, but in other cultures, parents often remain more hands on in raising their children. In my case, my folks were paying for a teacher who ‘educated’ me that my own parents values were rotten. Who are they to say such a thing to me? Anyway, I did also have a teacher who really inspired me and treated me with more respect than I deserved. He genuinely taught me to think for myself, so I am certainly not disparaging the profession, just certain actors with their own motivations to correct children with ‘unsavoury’ parents, perhaps.
I don’t know if you hear the calls for schools to teach kids how to do taxes, iron clothes, cook, to live in the world. This to me is along the same lines. It’s a kind of admission in a way that parents are not expected to teach their kids anything. Outsource the whole mess of childrearing to the state! In a world where parents are even busier than previous generations—ours but also Ligma’s—the possibility and maybe need for teachers to play a more parental role is stronger than ever. In a bygone era, if some teacher started telling you moral lessons around your uncles, aunties, parents, cousins, they would not get very far if those values did not align with your own network’s. But if parents are absent, busy, stressed, incapable, and you are not raised by a village, but the state, then the temptation and possibility would be greater for bad actors to instil their own values on children against the parent’s wishes. Moreover, a child would also be more amenable. I wanted to impress my teacher and I love my parents. But if I was all alone and my teacher was telling me think this or I won’t approve of you, then I would. The teacher in that case would probably imagine themselves as a moral crusader rather than a narcissist.
Another influence was seeing this trend online. Quite vocal teachers openly talking about teaching the students topics the parents asked them not too, for example. It is an interesting societal question, I think, around what the role of schools are. I’m of the view that parents outsource teaching their kids subject matter to the state and that this is done in a social setting to aid socialisation. It’s your dad’s job to teach you to shave though, and your parents to teach you right from wrong.
A final influence was a few classmates I had in university and in my early career who did seem to think they were within their right—indeed it was their obligation—to educate the stupid masses. Some of them didn’t grow out of it and I would never let them near my children, were I ever lucky enough to have some.
Thanks as always for taking the time to read, Sanja. Looking forward to your book coming out soon!
Thanks Luke for the awesome response! Thanks for sharing your experience, and why you wove your thoughts into the story.
As a former high school teacher (of a very short career), I can definitely agree there were mixed expectations on how much teachers should be involved in ‘raising’ kids. It’s also hard to monitor bad actors.