YOONI

[Neville Briggs]

Thanks Matt

[Heather]

Yoo no Neville, I don't think yooni taught me how to learn. Maybe I did the wrong course, had the wrong lecturers or something (definitely had some lazy and disinterested lecturers). A lot of my yooni course involved useless information - like having to remember the names of about 50 seaweeds. I didn't sign up to learn the names of seaweeds. I don't remember the name of one seaweed, I don't WANT to remember the name of any seaweeds and I have no need to do so. That's why I can't bring myself to go back there now (not because of the seaweeds) the process was disheartening. The course was impractical. One of the reasons I left was that in third year we actually did something hands on and practical and I thought "what the hell am I doing here?"

I think I taught myself to learn at a much later stage and when that happens you remember more - and thankfully, there were no seaweeds involved!

Heather

[Leonie]

Never went to Yooni, but I'm a great believer in the fact that we learn something new every day. I find the older I get the more new things I seem to learn - or maybe they're just things I used to know but forgot, dunno.

Seriously though that's a good poem Neville, one with a good strong message. I love the fun you had with the middle bit too, very clever.

[r.magnay]

Hey Heather, I reckon you probably already leaned to learn at school, you just didn't put it into practice until after you left uni!...
We have to have uni for some things of course, it is an extension of our formal education, however, as far as being more educated after going to uni, (as many who have been would have you believe) it makes you no more educated than someone who has done an apprenticeship or worked as a labourer but chosen to absorb what goes on, uni is just a job specific type of education from what I can see of it all, as you proved to yourself, you can only learn stuff if you want to!...

[Heather]

You are probably right Ross. At age 18/19 we are probably more interested in other things rather than learning. I wonder if it would be different if I went to yooni now? Probably. My childhood and teenage years were full of learning thanks to the opportunities my parents gave me. I was one for looking up books to find out more (we didn't have internet back then! ) I was having a clean up the other day and found a book on rocks and minerals that my parents gave me for my 13th birthday, and another on marsupials for my 16th. I think in my case it was the yooni course and some of the lecturers that put me off. I'll tell you a funny (sad?) story. I lived in college when I was at yooni and there was a fellow there who was a brilliant physicist but he had absolutely no life or social skills. At about age 23 he had moved into college to become more "independent" but went home each day for breakfast! True story.

[r.magnay]

Yeah, I started an apprenticeship at 17 and struggled with the theory/paperwork side of things, probably because I had just finished 11 years at school and partly because it was done by correspondence, (which was very hard from the bush with snail mail) the practical however, I loved and excelled at, come to think of it, I'm still not too bright with the paperwork, but I can make things work!....I guess the main thing I learned to learn was, get someone who knows what they are doing to do the things that you don't....so I married Sheryl....

[Bob Pacey]

Never even considered uni but wanted to be an electrician took a job in a supermarket as a fill in till the courses started and by the time I turned 26 was in charge of the division 16 stores.


Fate takes you where it will and common sense is a great asset.

Bob Oh my big brother was the smart one or so they always told me ?

[Neville Briggs]

I think I taught myself to learn at a much later stage and when that happens you remember more

That's it Heather like Ross says. you did get something.

My course was more about ideas and how to research and discuss and argue ideas. There was some sort of " facts " learning, but that was almost as useless as learning varieties of seaweed. I try to believe that learning to read, listen, observe and analyse and debate issues, was the valuable skill that I might have acquired, at least to some small degree.

Thanks for the reply Leonie.

Reminded me of Eccles (Spike Milligan ) in the Goons where he answers the phone while being undressed. Neddy says to him, Why are you naked Eccles, you don't have to get undressed to answer the phone.
There's a silence. Eccles laughs and says. OOOOh, you learn something new every day.
............ well I thought it was funny.

I think Ross, Heather, Bob that university in the beginning was never intended to impart skills. The most effective skills education, in my opinion, is the apprenticeship system and I mourn the way that system seems to have become lost or downgraded in some areas.
Leonardo da Vinci ,considered the greatest of the artists, started as an apprentice to his Master.

In my understanding the word university is formed from two words, unity and diversity.
The intention was that in the institution called university, people could find a unity in purpose, the search for knowledge and understanding while at the same time maintaining room for diversity of views, opinions and doctrines. Bit like being a member of a poets society