Offender: ‘Seascapes’
Location: Queenscliff, Victoria

This one should be easy to pick up. It’s a pity that a sign designed to attract attention also highlights one’s inability to spell…

I went looking at Christmas lights with my girlfriend and her grandparents the other night, and it was a really beautiful night, not so much because of the lights, but because of a true cliche – good company.

I have some pics I shall post shortly, and I will write a lengthier post.

Perhaps I may even quote a yuletide song or two, depending on how strong my desire to be a wanker is…

By the time I got out of bed this morning at 6.30, most Year 12 students had likely spent a sleepless night awaiting their results. These results are not just a grade they receive, but more of a validation of their entire life to date. And that is supremely unfair and a massive burden to place on someone, especially as it’s not really accurate of the real world.

From about Year 9, I had it drummed into me that by getting a good VCE result (HSC to other Australian states), I’d get into uni and be able to get a degree. This degree would then make me much more employable and also allow me to get ahead and lead a rich and fulfilling life. My school and I suspect most others, pretty well implied that only by going to Uni would I actually be successful in life. In the six years since I graduated from High School, I can tell you that that is a complete crock and needs to be shattered here and now in order to allow our school students to relax and breathe easy, as they should.

Going straight to uni from High School is one of many, many pathways people can take. It is a crying shame that students are made to feel that if they don’t get into university then they have failed and wasted their time at school. It is also a very narrow definition of success.

Let’s suppose that success is measured in financial terms, because let’s face it, that’s how most of the world views it. So, you have a 17/18 year old who finishes uni, isn’t really sure about a career and decides to go on and do an Arts degree. They finish by the age of 20/21/22, and then enter the real world. They then find that a BA doesn’t give them an instant career, and that really it’s just a nice thing to put on your resume. Arts graduates are found working in cafes, supermarkets, retail chains, service stations, library help desks, call centres and other such institutions. They find themselves among other 18, 19 year olds who didn’t go to uni for three or four years but still earn the same amount of money as those who did.

Suppose a Business Management graduate leaves uni at 22. They can’t instantly become a Business Manager, because if all they did at uni was study, they have no practical experience, just a whole lot of knowledge on management models and reporting structures, with a side serving of basic accounts procedure. Suppose this graduate then finds themselves working at a supermarket in order to gain experience. They may do well, and the management team sees this, offering them a place in the company’s management training program. As part of this program, they complete workplace based assessments and end up doing Certificates and Diplomas – qualifications which are below the level of their hard-earned and expensive degree. Worth it?
Alternatively this graduate could be offered a place in the company management program, reiterate their qualifications and end up being fast-tracked up through the ranks. But this is entirely at the whim of the store management team – it is not a direct result of having qualifications.

Let’s suppose that someone drops out of High School at 16 and takes up an apprenticeship as a plumber. They finish this at around 20/21 and work for a couple of years as the younger person with an established business. They may then start their own business and be earning 80k a year by age 23, or they could gain employment with a large company as an in-house plumber and be on 60k at age 21, and continue to get a 4% pay rise each year, providing their union membership is kept up to date. They also do ‘cashies’ on weekends and after work, bringing their real income to 70k plus, at age 21.

None of this required a university degree, and all was done with teachers ‘tut-tut’ing them as they walked out of school after Year 10.

Let’s look then at success from a “contribution to society” perspective, as this too is a popular way of measuring one’s value and worth.

Suppose the Arts graduate does quite well and does a PhD, with their thesis being something like “The effect of Communism on 20th century American Literature” or “The impact of the music of John Lennon on the Vietnam War”. After completing such a page-turner, they are offered a Lecturer position at their university and go on to earn about 70k per year, at the age of 30. The previous twelve years have seen them with next to no money, crazy sleep-wake cycles and an annual bout of scurvy to beat. The next forty years of their life will be dedicated to books, caffeine and berets, and the occasional political rally. They will go on to educate two generations of university students.

If we look at the business manager, they could well be running a small business at the age of 25. Their contribution can be measured less readily; it is entirely dependent on their business itself and their practices. If they employ young people, they give them a chance to earn money for their own futures. If they provide valuable goods and services, the improvement to their customers’ lives will be testament to their contributions. They could go on to become members of their local business association and perhaps run for the municipal board or council. Or, they could simply run a business and that’s it.

The plumber’s contribution can in fact be summed up by looking at what they do: get rid of our shit. A pretty good contribution, wouldn’t you say?!

The common thread in all of the above scenarios is that a person’s success is best enhanced and developed by the person themselves. If they are a solid worker and thinker, they will improve and continue to grow as people and as employees and business operators. If they continue to develop themselves, they are forever improving and making more opportunities available to themselves.

No one teaches that at school though. There is no subject called “Being competitive”, “Stand out from the crowd” or even “Continual Development means Greater Success”. Why not? It is absurd that students are lead to believe that their VCE/HSC scores are the sole measurement that they must be defined by.

Personally, only one employer has asked to see my VCE results, and that was the local video store, whose owners were snobs and only wanted to pay terrible wages to the cream of the local youth.

I have plenty of friends who’ve not gone to uni after high school, either because they didn’t want to or they didn’t get the marks. Some have done a degree at a later age. Some have started work full time and now earn good money and are paying off a house and car at the age of 24. Some are still pissheads and work at the local fast-food joint. Some are at uni still, doing second degrees or happily and slowly getting through their first. The ones who staked their entire future on their VCE results, interestingly, have not gone on to become academic wunderkinds or revolutionary business barons. The ones who have changed the world the most or made the most money are in fact the ones who live on their wits and their talents, irrespective of a measurement they received six years ago.

So kids, lighten up and relax! Your life and its success is what you make of it. University degrees are only a part of that, if they are a part at all. It’s not life and death, it’s not really even life; it’s mostly just puff from an education system that’s so insular and pretends not to notice other available careers and professions.

The execution of Van Nguyen has me all mixed up – I feel different things for different reasons, and I’m still trying to make sense of how it’s affected me.