Joe is the younger of my two English sons. That's him on the right, playing rhythm guitar at a school function when he was sixteen. It was less than three years ago.
I miss both my sons. They are both in college in the UK and we keep in touch via phone and Facebook. The older boy, Tom, is studying for a degree in Public Administration, and Joe is studying for a BA in Professional Musicianship (Guitar).
Joe often makes thoughtful comments and I have been moved to Diary about him in the past.
As a parent you always hope that your kids will take the best of you, then move it forwards in ways you cannot comprehend, yet leaving you hopeful both for your children, and the next generation. They will have their time to run the planet, and there are distinct signs that they will make a better job of it than we were able to.
This was the message Joe posted as his Facebook status earlier today:
The whole way our educational system works is all wrong.
Why make children read and write when we can make them want to read and write?
Why force them to learn basic maths when we can inspire them to want to understand?
Inspire kids to want to learn how to fix a motorbike or hear more about Egyptian history. Hell, kids always want to write stories or build fucking lego! Why shouldn't education be just an extensions of what it is to play?
Always wanting to move onto bigger and better things, building a bigger ramp for your bike, or playing guitar a little more like Slash every day.
Soon there would be a space shuttle on Saturn and when asked how it got there, some guy would just say, "Ahh I'll tidy it up after dinner, mum".
When we find ourselves confronting so much that is wrong with our current approach to society and social justice, there is one young person out there who
gets it, and I know there are so many others who get it too.
They are our future, and it looks bright.