Back to School
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
For the summer.
It was partly to find a good reason to remain in Europe for a while longer and stop being a tourist. As Aric said, the jet-setting excitement can tire out.
London School of Journalism is what British education is all about; a solid, traditional academic foundation. In journalism, it is built on developing strong story angles, discipline (!), creative thinking, research techniques, interview skills, TV presentation, radio reading and good old writing skills. All this wrapped in tightening your logic and analytical skills, improving your ability to debate and challenge, all done in a unique style and eloquence. I grew up with this system and it yet again delivered the premise.
Where it failed badly is keeping up with the present days and reality: The Internet. Typically British, somewhat stuck in the past. I grew tired of hearing the lecturers (all well accomplished writers for top UK papers and magazines) refer to the internet like this big Bad Animal that came and ate up their cheese.
So they hired an American to tackle the ‘new stuff’, the incomprehensible animal called The Internet. He, a disoriented lecturer with a mediocre internet knowledge, was like a bad stand-up comedian. You just felt embarrased for him, wanted him to stop so we can all go home.
In all fairness, I have to admit learning a number of things and stretching my thinking beyond the set paradigm, which is what good education is all about.
One lecturer asked us if we pick and read papers to re-confirm our believes or to really expand them. Good point. It made me browse through magazines I never picked up before.
My favourite was a Creative Writing lecture ran by Lucy Caldwell, an Irish playwright. She made us write an early childhood memory in a few different styles, one of which was to tell the story through the eyes of one of the characters in the story. It created a real ‘wow moment’ for me, as Oprah would say. When told through the eyes of my mother, suddenly a whole new spectrum of emotions opened up. Try it now; close your eyes and remember something that happened to you. Now, do an inpersonalisation of one of the characters in the story and tell yourself the story from their seat.
Eye-opening.
See the empathy that came out?
I have not made many new friends which is pretty unusual, but then again, maybe it’s a reminder there is no blanket patterns to anything in life.
It was 3 weeks of hard work, the 4th week focused more on workshops like creating your own interviews, getting recorded and reviewed. It always helps to play-back to see yourself and learn new tricks. It’s official; I’m no radio reader material.
Beyond it all, spending a month in Europe’s most buzzing city, having a house of a person I don’t even know all to myself and hanging out with one of your best friends; made it all yet another memorable month of my life.