I think we need to look to the next generation for real change. They look at the world so differently. They have so much energy. My daughter has been involved in the strikes but the teachers aren’t all that supportive. Can you believe that? I worry for them - my kids keep telling me the world is dying. In a way it’s our responsibility though. We can’t really ask them to sort things out. Its not fair is it? The problem is I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say to them either. That’s worse in a way.
I’m very interested in food economy, I’ve been learning so much about it. When I was at school, like lots of us probably, I was doing domestic science and I learned how to cook. And alright the boys should have been there too and weren’t, but anyway. Long ago, when I was teaching and the National Curriculum was just coming in, the cookery disappeared and instead food became a design material that was part of Design Technology. And there was no nutrition involved anymore, obviously. And the parts of the curriculum were all designed by different committees, set up by the department for education and on the Design Technology, brackets, food, committee was a certain J Sainsbury. So I think they set out their stall very early on then that we were going to stop being people who control our own food, where it came from, how we cook it, how we eat it, and just become consumers. And we’ve gone downhill since then and that was long ago.
The school strike thing has fizzled out really. There were only 5 of us, out of 800 in the school. And it was more disruptive than you think taking a day a month off school. Yeah, we were definitely thought of as the odd ones out. Most people in the school don’t worry about it at all.
There is just no way that kids are being educated for the future. The new curriculum is supposed to be better, but that’s not coming in properly for ages. Meantime its all exams and talking about jobs. What jobs?
My son, he’s 14, has just been spending every day working on the farm [during lockdown]. He loves it. I don’t think he’ll want to go back to school.
Yeah, young people with their banners! But what about the kids that leave all that litter by Llyn Padarn? People say its tourists but there aren’t any tourists at the moment. Its OUR kids doing that. Jesus.
I feel incredibly hopeful about the future. I’m talking of 300 years, 1000 years from now though. Not like 10 years. It’s not going to change while the people who are in power now - they aren’t going to let go of that power. We aren’t going to be able to make the world a better place while all this corruption is in place. Politics, the markets. Nothings going to change because they aren’t going to let go of their power. They are just using the world for their own interests. It’s going to be our generation, and then generations after us that change things. I think we’ve got better values than say your generation. And there’s more science fiction setting out ideas for how to live in the future, and we look at that, films and youtube and books and that, and we learn from it and start to think what we can invent or how we can live better. I’m not talking about school. I didn’t learn anything about it there. No disrespect, but I think we have more idea about what is going on and what we can do about it. And when we have kids, we’ll pass on better values to them and them onto theirs. I think its going to be about what we do with the land and also technology is going to help because new things like bitcoin are going to transform how the world works, and you’ll be able to trace every transaction and all that corruption and power will be disrupted. But yeah, I am talking long term. I’m really optimistic.
