On Monday I went with a busload of year 9 student’s to Melbourne for the day. We toured the Arts Centre. It was interesting and there were a lot of facts about how much and when that revolved around the cost and trouble of building it and I can’t remember them all but I got the general vibe that it was very expensive and involved. Now it is there for all Victorians to enjoy, the tour guide said.
It is a beautiful building, but I doubt all Victorians are able to enjoy it. Take that one class for instance. Not one student had ever been there before. Victoria is a big place. I don’t know what I was left feeling about it all.
I guess catching the water taxi from Southbank to the Polly Woodside was another experience that left me feeling a little amazed. It has all changed so much from when I worked in the city in the mid 80’s. It is unrecognisable actually. I used to walk across the bridge to an annexe in Sth Melbourne and I don’t even recognise where I would go now. The landscape has totally changed.
Progress?
Self Sufficiency
I have been reading about the bird flu and terrorism and other possible dangerous consequences of living in cities and thinking it might be time to revisit my old ideas. I don’t want to sit on a hill meditating with the herbal tea but I would like to have some contingency plans for getting away from the insanity of society, should some wastage hit the fan in my world as it is some places all around the planet with seeming regularity. As a teacher I would like to prepare my students to be resilient without scaring them or making them too fearful about thier future.
This article:http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/veneer-of-civilisation-is-easily-eroded/2005/09/08/1125772644245.html reminded me of a workshop we had with our year 8’s last year about Medieval times. The man who was teaching them about knights and castles told them that in three days our civilisation would boil down to basically what happened in New Orleans. When I first heard it from him, it rattled me and reading the above article has yet again rang a warning bell. There are so many fearful scenario’s that could play out.
I don’t want to live in fear. I don’t want to expect the worst. I don’t want to ignore signs and be unprepared though. I have people I love that I want to protect. Where would I draw that line though? I love many, many people.