Now all this came from a little boy who lived on an isolated farm. A weekly trip to the small village of 50, but sometimes the kids didn't go for weeks. A couple of times a year we went to a larger center (2000 people) for shopping and the odd dentist appointment. My world was on the little isolated farm. We went to one room school. Our playground was around the land we lived on.
Well, you can see the reason for thinking I lived in the center of the world. We didn't go anyplace and were not exposed to anything outside of our local area. The convenient explanation was that we were the best.
Now I did not stay on the little farm. I ventured away from the farm and village. I was completely unprepared to cope in a small urban area. I discovered that students had been to better schools. Other young people were much more socially prepared to cope in post secondary situations.
So after one year I left the urban area and went back to the comforts of the rural setting. I still had some things in my head that we were best in. Wasn't our provincial football team the best?
Now the final part of my delusion was destroyed when I first taught in a large school. We had 51 teachers. There were teachers from each province in Canada. We had many British teachers. There was the odd American. We also had a couple of Australians. This is one of the best experiences I ever had. Many great discussions were held with people who came from very different areas and backgrounds. I began to understand that the other guys had come from great systems. Once I got it through my head that I didn't come from the best place in the world, I could learn and understand how others thought and lived.
Now this was a good eye opener and there's nothing wrong with an eye opener. The little farm and village were taken out of me and put in their perspective.
How about you? Did you grow up thinking you were the center of the universe?
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| The old farmhouse |
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| Grade three |
I didn't just grow up thinking I came from the centre of the universe - I grew up knowing that I did. You see Mr Red, I am from Yorkshire - God's own county.
ReplyDeleteThis explains my wife. She was born and raised in Yorkshire and she's still twisted!!!! Hey I know they're good people.
DeleteI was brought up in a small, isolated village. I suppose that is why when I retired I went to live in an isolated place after a life spent mostly in a big city.
ReplyDeleteI had intended to go back but it'll never happen now.
DeleteWe moved a lot in my early years, so home was made up many times. I laugh when people ask me about growing up on a farm from belief everyone was a farmer in my area. I laugh and think we were always in the city.a trip to a farm was a treat.I always wanted similarity from former homes in my new ones, and even kept with that when I moved on my own.
ReplyDeleteYou benefited from moving around.
DeleteI grew up in a town of 300. Some of my classmates never left, some went on to seek education and another life, some never looked back, and now that we're in retirement some have moved back to our little town. I wonder how your way of growing up is affected by TV, and media?
ReplyDeleteWe certainly didn't have TV and only a weekly paper. No TV helps us to socialize with others.
DeleteI grew up in a big city and was exposed to many different communities and cultures, which I loved. Exposure to different types of people is one of the best educations in the world!
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I found out once I got going.
DeleteMy dad was in the Air Force and I moved around all the time growing up. I lived in Puerto Rico from three to six, and all my playmates were Puerto Rican. I was fluent in Spanish, but that is long gone. I still love the language, though. I never had many close friends because I was always moving away. :-)
ReplyDeleteI taught kids who moved many times. Some thrived on it and some were completely destroyed.
Deletein light of recent dallas events (less than an hour away), i long for the simple, 'protected', innocent existence i had growing up in wisconsin.
ReplyDeletei like how your teaching staff of 51 equaled the population of your nearby village.
We have to be out on the streets and interacting with one another.When I walk I rarely meet anybody on the street. that's wrong.
DeleteYour childhood was very much like mine. We did go to the big city of Denver once or twice a year and I found it very exciting, but loved my little farm town and then had to grow up when I went to college.
ReplyDeleteHey, you're a westerner too!
DeleteI grew up thinking America was the best country on earth and everyone should understand that, but the more I traveled around the world the more I realized that we did many things right, but many things wrong.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. We get a different perspective when we travel and interact with others.
DeleteNo I knew nothing of the real world until high school...I was a farm kid :)
ReplyDeleteNo, I grew up in a city with different people living there and my parents were great travellers, they took us abroad and I always have had the desire to explore other countries and meet other people.
ReplyDeleteWait...you mean I am not the center of the universe?????
ReplyDeleteI'm an inner city kid. Took the subway to school in downtown Toronto! now I live in the middle of a wetland on 16 acres!!!
ReplyDeleteI think it's normal, when you're a child, to think your world is all there is. Even when you're abstractly aware of other cultures and nationalities, they aren't really real to you. What concerns me is that many ADULTS never leave their hometowns and so never gain an appreciation for the wider world.
ReplyDeleteI loved where I was sort of a wee town. Lived there till I got married. Dad owned the old house.It actually was the first navigation for the army. They used to use those army codes. Tap, tap.In one of the rooms back there. I am sure you Red can direct me as what it is. It is like a type writer but it is like they say Art 45 Handle. How interesting. It still stands there to this day the house. Someone has bought it. Then brothers bought the property aside my parents and up the driveway back then. Near the rubbish where dad took his peelings from Mother and his cut branches. Then came a Motel. I got my first job cleaning the units. Hopped over the fence. Now the Motel is a Walfare motel for the poor. We did move to the city but my heart was in the country. And now many moves since married. The kids it never made them less students. In fact. They got honors and my daughter skipped grade 7. So now Sid and I are in Senior building. We enjoy it. The lake is close . We have the lake, tourist in summer and through the days. One meets alot of people. We have fairs, fruit markets, all types of art and crafts in the park five minutes walking. . Art University close by. All stores in walking distance . We love it here. People have nurses help and care workers if needed. Our Apt is spotless the halls, stairs. We are proud . Doctors will come if needed for apt calls. They come in and everyone is so friendly. If I want the city. My grown kids live in the city. A weekend there. We cant wait to get back to the country living. Traffic is awful, stores crowded.
ReplyDeleteNothing like home. So I still feel at home part of the Universe and being a Canadian.
I was brought up in a large multi-cultural city. Life could not have been further from the life you describe.
ReplyDeleteNot really. I grew up in the countryside northwest of Toronto- the city thought it was the centre of the universe, mind you.
ReplyDeleteHi Red, This is an interesting post. I sure thought I was in the center of the universe when I was a kid. I also thought I knew more than just about anyone else in the world when I was a teenager. Getting older has sure turned almost all of that around. Ha ha. One question: Is that farmhouse the *original* Hiawatha House?
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