OxBowBusiness

Time is an illusion

When I say ‘time is an illusion’ I am not talking about pupils whose watches do not seem to show the same time as mine so that when they arrive late for classes they (they claim) are not really ‘late’ but merely ‘their time’ is different to mine.

No, I am not referring to pupils.

Neither am I intending on exploring a philosophical concept.

That may be a surprise to those of you who are familiar with the work of Huw Price :

“He concludes that the idea that the past is not influenced by the future is an anthropocentric illusion, a "projection of our own temporal asymmetry". By allowing signals from the future to play a part in determining the outcome of quantum experiments, he can resolve all the puzzles and paradoxes of the quantum world.”
Source: http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/John_Gribbin/timetrav.htm

No, I am in fact referring to the meaning of time, or more accurately, the meaning of the word ‘immediate’.

Yes, I know that economists go on about a ‘monetary period’ and how supply is perfectly inelastic etc.

But, to the layman, ‘immediate’ means now. Not tomorrow, not the next month but right now.

Yes, ‘immediate’ means just that ‘immediate’.

So if a teacher says, ‘I want you to do this task ‘immediately’ ‘then the teacher means immediately.

It would be disingenuous to pretend otherwise and it would be yet another example of how pupils today are being tricked, lied to, duped by teachers, parents – and society.

‘What?’ I hear you ask, ‘what are you on about? How are parents lying to the young?’

I made that comment because only this week a pupil of mine turned up for lessons having totally disregarded our contract i.e. to bring fees with him. I dispatched the male pupil home. His Mother then saw fit to phone our offices and – on ansaphone – say (summary):

“Feels you treated xxxxxx very badly-he went home crying-is disappointed in the way you played on his emotions- is sure this will affect your reputation-please do not treat other students like that”

That is a terrible accusation, that I should reduce a pupil to tears – especially when all I said was: “You have not brought your fees. You have ignored our contract. Goodbye.’

It was clear from the statement by the Mother that the poor child was immensely distraught and was going through an emotional crisis.

It takes at least 21 minutes for the pupil to leave the classroom and go home – and all that time (it seemed) he had been crying.

I felt like I was such a wicked person – and yet I did have serious doubts about the statement from the Mother.

But then, a parent wouldn’t lie, surely? The message on the OSL ansaphone was very clear though: “My son came home crying …you played on his emotions…”

As it happens someone else was in the class at the time when the cause of the crying, the swift ‘goodbye’ was said.

Was I really such a wicked teacher?

A few nights later the ‘crying pupil’ and the other pupil ‘chatted’ to each other via MSN – and the chat was saved.

Pupil: Did you really go bursting into tears when you got home?
Crying pupil: Who the hell said that?
Pupil: That’s what your Mum said in a message to OSL
Crying pupil: I did not cry. Why would I cry over a guy?
Pupil: Your Mum rang up OSL and said you burst into tears
Crying pupil: If my Mum said that I’m going to be vexed.
Pupil: Your Mum said you were crying
Crying pupil: My Mum lies too much. It annoys me. She always does it man. She lies to get her way. She lies all the time.
Pupil: I have a duty to tell OSL this.
Crying pupil: Every time she lies I say don’t lie – I say it every day.

I don’t know about you but this strikes me as being very sad – a pupil whose Mother deliberately lies about him to cause trouble for his school/teacher.

What sort of attitude will this ‘crying pupil’ have about life? He will know that it’s OK to lie; it’s OK to do anything to get his way.

Which brings me back to the word ‘immediate’.

To me that means ‘now’.

And yet there is a vacancy at Padworth College for an Economics teacher. What is interesting is that this is an ‘immediate vacancy’.

That means that the vacancy is ‘now’ – not tomorrow or next year but now.

And yet … the closing date is (incredibly) 25/12/2006

That’s not ‘now’.

It’s not ‘immediate’ but ‘sometime in the future – in fact ‘next year’.

Why can’t schools tell the truth?
Why can’t Mothers tell the truth?

I looked at other vacancies and saw one: “ECONOMICS Teacher of A level Economics required. Immediate start”

Where is this?

The ‘immediate start’ vacancy is at Bales College

The closing date is SIX WEEKS FROM NOW - so what happened to this ‘immediate start’?

So, if that’s how schools want to play, when you next get homework to hand in tomorrow, hand it in in 2 years time as surely, if ‘immediate’ means next year then ‘tomorrow’ probably never comes.

Truly time is an illusion …


Chris Sivewright

posted by Duncan Williamson @ 7:21 PM