My daughter is made for school. After 2 weeks at school, she made herself a workspace in the living room with table, chair and lamp, sitting there after school making school books for her teddies, marking their work. She already wants to be a teacher, and she probably will be.
School doesn’t suit my son (he’s mildly dyslexic – reading and writing are painful), and it’s been hard persuading him that adulthood offers loads more opportunities than the school curriculum.
After much discussion and thought, he’d like to be a Civil Helicopter Pilot: “something risky, but not where I’ll be shot at”.
But when he’s really settled at school, he wants to be an air traffic controller, and even works on his Spanish to get up the career ladder as an international controller.
Mostly things aren’t so good, and it’s helicopter pilot. When things are really bad at school, he wants to be a fighter pilot, and shoot the s**t out of everything.
He has the curse of talent. His teachers have picked up his aptitude for science, and he’s on “Gifted and talented” for art. But he skips the after-school clubs for science and misses the coach for Special Art away-days. What he really wants to be doing is climbing trees and learning to fly helicopters.
I suffer from the curse of wrong talent – I can do computer stuff better than almost anyone, but do I enjoy it? It’s tiring, frustrating, complicated, stuck in an office all day … but pays well, and is flexible.
I love art, and always have. But I have little talent: I really struggle at it, but I love it so much I put the work in. Even so, it will never pay the bills.
The most brilliant bits are group improvisations – music, painting, movement, whatever … it just sends me.
But what I discovered about 15 years ago was that officiating at sacred-style ceremonies is very similar, giving the same natural high.
It’s the sort of thing art therapists are paid for. So, why not do an art foundation and degree, then a 3 year art therapy training? 7 years of full time education? I’ve already spent 7 of my adult years in full time education. I can’t justify another 7 years of poverty ending with a debt I’ll never pay off, to halve my earning potential.
But there might be a way through this – occasional lecturing on therapy training courses. I’m not qualified, so I can’t offer therapy, and I can’t train therapists in therapy. But I can train therapists in ritual: “ … for personal development”.
I had some opportunities last year to do just this, and I’m beginning to get enquiries from training institutes. It’s fantastic work, and pays pretty well. But is there really enough of this work out there? Or will it always be another hobby I fit in around everything else?
I just hope my son manages to get his career sorted out younger than me …
