Happiness: A Thing to be Gained?

After reading a few dozen poets I’m attempting to arrive at a conclusion here.  Is there such a thing as a happy childhood?  Does it take an unhappy childhood to create a good writer or are the only authors who write about their childhoods those who had an unhappy one?  Enquiring minds would like to know. 

 

When you are born your parents are issued a birth certificate; the church gives a baptismal certificate—the lack of one or the other makes collecting old age pension later in life problematic.  To drive a car one must pass an exam and obtain a driver’s license.  Marriage requires a license but cohabiting for a sufficient period of time seems to involve the same rights and duties.  Dying triggers issuance of a death certificate though with or without one the target remains inert.  The sex act and procreation, on the other hand, can be and are performed by hormonal teens on the back seat of parked cars or the living room couch without any by your leave. 

 

Young adults the world over embark upon the most important enterprise of their lives totally unprepared.  Oh, they get Sex Ed in health class and if they are lucky that talk about the birds and the bees from a guardian—nudge, nudge; wink, wink—but precious little training about how to be good parents.  Judging by the number of people who inveigh about their terrible childhoods they certainly don’t learn from parental example—unless in reaction to that experience.  Schools teach the importance of showing up on time, working within a structured environment, and if we’re lucky how to read and add—in other words how to be good factory workers; but when it comes to the practical matters of how to budget, eat nutritiously, choose recreational activities, and raise a family, education is sadly lacking. 

 

The educational system has become extremely efficient about separating religious experience from education—God forbid anyone be offended by the observance of Christmas or Easter; but we’ll take the holidays thank you, was Santa good to you, did the Easter Bunny leave you chocolate Eggs?  Unfortunately when it comes to practical matters such as health, the arts, and home economics; phys ed, music programmes, and cooking classes are the first things to get the axe when budgets get tight.  The objective of most academic programs is preparation for a university education and those who do not aspire to those lofty ideals are looked down on as second-class mortals.  This model ignores the fact that college is not the right or best goal for a large proportion of school populations.  Adherence to this model has led to a shortage of skilled trades people throughout North America.  Apprenticeship programmes go unfilled everywhere.  Have you tried to hire a plumber or electrician lately? 

 

If you look at the drop out rate between first and second year at any university you will know just how inappropriate the experience is for so many students—it is now an extremely expensive experiment as well.  Somehow, at some point hopefully sooner than later we must arrive at a model that sees the goal of education as being preparation for a satisfying and fulfilled adult life.  Promoting students who have inadequate literacy skills within an academic programme just because failing is bad for them serves to set them up for failure in later life.  We need to learn to do more than fill out forms for government programmes, unemployment insurance, and welfare.  What this model seems to ignore is that by the time a doctor or lawyer has graduated with a half-million dollar debt-load a plumber or electrician has already earned his first half million.   We need to rediscover the value of honest toil.