Continued from Post No 132.
Dear Dave JB, we were getting to an interesting point of interest with regard to the difficulties people experience when they first encounter this topic.
To make it even worse, when we go to school, we are taught all the topics that the Education Authorities deem necessary for us to learn and be taught and to absorb by whatever means to enable us to sit GCSEs because in this way it can be seen that the nation has been educated. Is that not right ? It means at a surface level that the holder of certificates has been educated . Is this correct ?
In my view it is not correct. What has happened is that the nation has been subjected to book learning. Education is something very different. We could now say that anyone who aspires to become a trader can not use anything he has learnt as part of his book learning odessey in any tangible or constructive way except for Mathematics, particularly Arithmetic, Trigonometry and Geometry.
There is no frame of reference to be found to assist in English Language, English Literature, Biology, Art, History of Art, Geography, Chemistry, Physics ?, French, Spanish, German, or Latin. (I hated Latin, always got a 0 for Latin ~ simply refused to "accept it", never mind learn it), and so on. We now come to the conclusion that any individual may receive what ostensively is a "Classical Education" but is it ? I can tell you that the Classical Education I recieved, having been taught by Christian Brothers, in hindsight, for what I wanted to do, which is what I have ended up doing turned out to be ~ USELESS !
What I craved, and as a teenager was unable to express and vocalise, was something completely different. Something ~ a different kind of knowledge, a different education that could empower me to be free, to be independent, to be able to learn to accumulate wealth, so that I could lead a life of Riley exemplified by others who were to be seen at every barbecue, polo match, dinner dance, speedboat race, party, horse race, hunt, sailing regatta, go kart race, funfair, fancy dress party, crocquet game, flying club, vintage rally, etc.,
What I wanted was not what I got. None of us get what we want. We get what we are given, which is very useful for the intent of putting us on treadmills, but not for us to be able to break through the glasswall enabling us to attain true freedom.
This, in ordinary life is not in the sphere of reference aspiring traders need and seek.
They may search, but it is nowhere to be found, because what everybody ends up with is a good dose of book learning, and ultimately not education. This is a huge let down if you are aware.
If you are not aware you could argue there is no difference. But there is you see, there is a great difference. And the fact that book learning is given spin to make it appear as education has the ability to confuse the non discerning.
I must admit, I was very lucky to have had the mother I did, as I now recognise that what I was taught by her outside the school curriculum was true education. The most significant part of it had two main components, one was to self stimulate curiosity, and the other was that I was trained to question everything that arose out of that curiosity, and not to be satisfied until the correct answer had been attained.
This is never taught properly as part of the national curriculum, therefore the end product is not the fault of the end product.
The end product is prevented from knowing any better in the self satisfied belief or assumption that if, for example you forge ahead and ultimately attain a degree, that this is the pinnacle of education.
It may be the pinnacle of book learning in that particular topic but it is nowhere near what true education should be.
I have heard an individual tell one of my people over lunch, "well if you do not have a degree, then you are not a gentleman !". I am sure that if this had not been said in an elegant, fashionable restaurant, someone certainly would have received a black eye he would have cause to remember for some time.
And I digress, because the blurter of this pronouncement can to a certain extent be excused as we have to recognise his limits. This extreme example may be extreme but the underlying belief structure that underpins it is not uncommon, that is, that the holder of a degree or higher qualification considers himself to be not just well informed according to his professional niche, but educated as well !
I wiil be expanding on this theme later on, but at this juncture it is important to note that the markets are not able to recognise who is a gentleman, who has a degree, who has not, who went to grammar school or who went to technical college, no, the market only recognises who is sufficiently open minded and able to accept what it is it delivers when it delivers it.
This is why also people find market action shocking. They are unprepared for it so far, intellectually, emotionally, culturally and socially. They are totally unprepared. This sets the stage for them to have a series of really serious frights......
More later..... Now continued on Post 218 of this thread.....