Human Affection

It will be Mother's Day soon. Both my sons are affectionate, but the younger one is still a child, not yet ten, very much like the child in this poem.  It is still hard to believe that in a couple of years things will likely be quite different, harder still to imagine that it is only six short years before my elder boy is grown up and will, I learnt in the supermarket yesterday, be able to...buy matches!  Those walks to school with my youngest, thinking about both of my sons, reminded me of this quiet poem of much power:

Human Affection

Mother, I love you so.
Said the child, I love you more than I know.
She laid her head on her mother’s arm,
And the love between them kept them warm.
                                                                                  - Stevie Smith

Public education

Walking through the park with my younger son, and especially coming home with him is the highlight of my day and of my life.  My twelve year old now likes to make his own way to and from school.  For many years I have had the privilege of that warm little hand, pressing mine and glancing at me with a smile if he wants to send a silent message.  I have felt the skip in his step, heard his bubbly conversation, seen that ready smile, the glint of gold in his hair, the quick light in his eyes and known that strong mutual bond of love that if anything grows as he gets older.  Better yet, I get to do it twice a day.

Several days last week were sunny and gorgeous, though chilly. Going to school one day we walked across the railway bridge over the full and rushing Tay, the sun full in our faces. Our river is also tidal so we see its ebb and rise over the day as well as across the seasons.

The Tay, St Matthew's church and Smeaton's Bridge, Perth

I was reminded of Ted Hughes’ poem, The river in March. It begins.

In the Riverside park we saw the new blossom in the park and the daffodils, so much earlier now than they used to be.  We heard the birds chirping in the trees and bushes; beauty on all sides. We paused to pet the friendly dogs on their morning walks and exchange remarks or greetings with the owners. On my way home, I paused to remind myself of the symbolism on the Geddes monument.

Geddes monument in Rodney Gardens, Perth

Patrick Geddes was brought up in Perth. He became an ecologist and town planner. He believed we should "Live by the leaf" - use nature as a guide and inspiration in out lives.  He thought we should look within and without - this applied to ourselves and our surroundings and to our place in the wider world. In this he is remembered for the slogan, still modern today: Think global, act local. The park in which this monument is found is a fusion of art and nature.  

Millais' viewpoint, Perth

The inclusion of sculpture in the park is a reminder of stories and opportunities for reflection on ideas. Some scultpures are not particularly beautiful or profound but others are.  Millais' viewpoint for instance. The view across the scented heather garden, is a picturesque one of the town and a reminder that Millais was a painter, a member of the pre-Raphaelites that his wife, Effie, is buried in the graveyard within that view.  Thinking of Effie one cannot be reminded of the sad story of Effie and her first husband, John Ruskin.  The cut edges of the frame are a reminder of mortality. 

Autumn Leaves

The leaves around the frame of the sculpture recall one of Millais' paintings, Autumn Leaves in which young girls, burning leaves might evoke a similar sense of the transience of life.

From Millais' viewpoint, you can almost see the art gallery containing some of his work.  Waking and Effie Millais nee Gray.  Thus, are we reminded of the layers and richnesses all around. 

Public education means different things to different people.  Some Americans may think of it as state-provided education.  A public school in Britain means a private, fee-paying school.  But I think public education is that which is around us, available to the general public by which, through an engaged and interested mind and a natural facility to make connections we may make our own education and learn independently.  It is the only real way.  It is only when the mind is allowed to spark itself into interest that we take anything further or are simply truly engaged.  School is merely a way in which children are repeatedly subjected to stimuli, some of which may catch some of their interest.  But too often in school, that spark fails or ingite.  Or it is put out through routine, the unnecessary repetition of spelling and sums that children already know or simply noise, fear of bullies or being told what is and what to do and when and how to do it. 

Geddes had something to say about teaching:  "Good teaching begins neither with knowledge or discipline, but through delight".

I scented a fellow enthusiast for learning over teaching. How fitting then that I discovered by chance that in Edinburgh a "plaster shield, above the entrance to the inner pend, is a replica of the one which Geddes would have commissioned when he created University Hall at Riddle’s Court in 1890." The motto,carved into the arch of the pend, is ascribed to Geddes himself:

 Vivendo Discimus - By Living We Learn.