Alternatives

My friend Sleepy is sick as a dog again today. The way she describes the illness with dizziness and vomiting sounds like what I had three weeks ago.
The reason I mention this is because I am convinced that bugs - in the purely physical sense, can be transmitted over the internet. In spite of theories about sniffing each other's hormones, I am also convinced that we synch our periods over the internet too. The people I correspond with most frequently, seem to get bugs and illnesses just before or after I do.

But that's a stupid theory. It makes no sense. I'd like to say,
'And I'm a woman of science,' but all I can really say is,'and I'm a woman on the fringes of science, the outskirts, the suburbs.' But by Jupiter I believe in it.

Today was hot. The teacher with the afternoon programme was being hassled by a grumpy driver. Been there, know how that one goes. The thing is though, if you've booked a coach to take a field trip out in Britain, if the driver's an auld bugger, you might excuse him or her because s/he has drawn the short straw, could have got drunken footie fans, could have got lovely old ladies but what they got is your bunch of psychos.
Here, s/he is driving a big yellow thing that says 'School Bus' down the side. So if that's yer job, driving a SCHOOL BUS then don't pass on your pissiness to the poor bloody teacher.

Rob and I cleared up as quickly as possible (for Canglish speakers : cleaned up) and I got into the greenhouse on wheels to drive downtown. I had taken the precaution of getting some instructions on how to get to the Art Gallery. I hadn't taken the precaution of checking the provider of said instructions knew the difference between right and left. My bad. And since it was my bad, I paid for it by being continually in the wrong lane.
The car park I had been advised to park in was convenient enough. Until that is, I tried to get out of it as a pedestrian. I have been in one of these downtown car parks before with Kevin where we had difficulty finding how to get out. In the end I found a man in a uniform and he led me out.
I was wishing I had a bag of breadcrumbs with me so that I could find my way back.

The innards of the Art Gallery were no better. I thought I had been sent to the toilets, but no! The toilets are just a distraction, you had to go through them. I started talking to myself.
'Remember the ground floor is the first floor, don't go up too many floors.'
The lift didn't seem to have the floor I was sent to in any case, so I decided to follow someone who got in after me. Oddly, that worked as a strategy.

The talks were abysmal and dull. There were four speakers talking about their research.
One claimed that science education was too western, that it has an inbuilt bias.
What was that bias?
That time is linear, that science is objective, insists on measurability, claims to apply universally.
Er, well, duh! Yeah. That's kinda what science is yeah.
But Science Education needs to deal with an aboriginal view too.
So....what exactly does that mean?
That time isn't linear, that perception can be magical.
Sorry, what?
We must step outside of the bias.
So we must also step outside of discussing it?
Science thinks it can explain everything.
Well, it pretty much does, because that which can't be explained is outside of science. Not, however, incompatible with spirituality. Many scientists are very spiritual.

I didn't get it. It seems to be something which is always being stated, we should address the needs of the aboriginal viewpoint, and yet no answers are ever given as to how. Or even, for that matter, why.
I am quite interested in the idea of alternative viewpoints, but they have to work, they have to be put forward and able to be examined. Otherwise, to me I'm afraid, they fall into the same category as chopsticks. Completely pointless to anyone who hasn't used them all their lives as the sole means of eating food. The fork is a superior implement, a better invention and so to me, it doesn't make sense to use chopsticks.
I want to hear alternatives, but I want to decide which one is the best. And that, when it comes down to it, is how science works. That's how science always has worked. A theory is current until it is modified or replaced. Science explains how things work and because it is objective it is constantly under review, it is living, it is thriving and flourishing.

So when I talk about my stupid theory that is unscientific, I believe it only in the sense that I have observed some effects. Only if science somehow comes up with a theory that explains it will I ACTUALLY believe it. Until then, I maintain it, tongue-in-cheek.

Another alternative I want to mention today is my friend Dawn's class. Dawn, like Sleepy when she was at Mayhem, educates the students that mainstream didn't work out for as a result of a variety of reasons.
Dawn's this year's cohort graduated today. I think it's an amazing achievement to have given these youngsters a second chance, to have levelled the playing field for them. I know what a difficult job it is to keep them going through the year, be tough when tough is needed and have the wisdom to know when to bend. And I also know how fragile and on the edge alternative education is, it's the first thing to be cut, the last thing to receive funding.
Dawn's a star. It's such a contract to make, this temporary partnership between teacher and student.
This changing of lives.