[alberg30] Pearson returns like the Phoenix

[finnus505 at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/7/00 11:12:38 PM Eastern Standard Time, tristan at one.net 
writes:

<< 
 What is the answer?  I for one, think that we need to get off of our
 collective duffs and visit schools to discuss sailing, show videos or
 slides, get scout groups and community groups interested and involved.
 I have a real concern about the increasingly smaller numbers every year
 of new sailors entering our magical world.  Encouraging young people to
 sail, to get out and enjoy nature, to learn a quiet and strong way of
 leadership is to help build and facilitate tomorrow's leaders through
 sailing.  If George Bush and Al Gore put  >>

Hey Scott,
Nice surprise to see you on the A30 site.  You make a few very compelling 
arguments/suggestions in your letter.  The plan to get to kids by talking to 
them in school is a good one, and really reveals a much broader problem, that 
affects sailing, and us all in all ways.

In the wake of Columbine and similar events, interviews with kids today 
reveal one very major factor in their lives; they are for the most part bored 
to tears by the life they lead, and seem to have little concept of how to 
remedy the situation.  In the worst cases, kids that would have emotional 
problems regardless of what their environment was, get into a state of mind 
that lets them beleive that killing people is the only appropriate remedy to 
end their fustrations.

It is simply unbeleivably and tragicaly ironic that this state of affairs can 
coexist with the internet and tv, which puts all the information of the 
world, literaly, at their fingertips.  All the things that young minds should 
be immersed in, from art, science, history, etc etc, to show ;them what a big 
world it is, and tospark their curiosity, and help them discover where their 
many talents lie, and which ones they wish to pursue to fulfil them are there 
for the taking, but put most kids in front of a PC today, and the best video 
games and the best porn are the two main, and often only things they turn on. 
 

Its guidance that these kids need, pure and simple.  All kids are not 
destined to be Rhodes scholars,certainly, but there is much that could give 
them more satisfying and fullfilling things to fill out their lives. 

My earliest memories are of going to the Museum of Natural History, 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc. etc. with my folks.  This wasn't done as a 
chore-I had no lessons to memorize about the trips afterwards-where we were 
going to have lunch was as big a part  of the day as the huge elephants and 
other exhibits we were going to see.  But in the fun, it was all interesting. 
 By the time I got to High School, I had so many interests, from astronomy to 
debating, etc, drugs and mindless vandalism and violence were never a 
consideration. The time we spent on the boat from the time I could walk 
cultivated my interest and later obsession with the maritime world.

Its the two job family, single parent family, etc. that keeps parents from 
giving the time to their kids that the kids need, in most cases.  That is not 
going to change.  I know my folks were the exception, rather than the rule in 
the middle class neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY where I grew up.  

Schools have kids in their grasp from 9 to 3, 10 months a year, from age 6 or 
so on. There is an opportunity there to show kids the world, and turn them 
on. Smaller class sizes, lots of school trips, guidance councelors there for 
kids that begin to fall behind due to poor family situations etc. etc.is the 
logical approach to get to the kids, and get them interested. 

More conservative people may say it is not the role of public schools to 
teach kids about culture, civics, expose them to ethics etc, to get them 
thinking; that is the role of parents, according to them.  In a perfect 
world, of course I would agree.  Last time you checked, was this a perfect 
world?

This all sounds great, but I know it is not going to happen. Your plan to get 
sailors involved in a local, grass roots type of program is a step in the 
right direction, and even if it is only a few kids that are reached, it will 
be better than if no one had done anything at all.

speak soon,
Lee

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