Fear of the Known

I am making an assumption here but I think it is fair to say that most of us, from a very early age whilst at school, had impressed upon us, very much like a red-hot branding iron would do to cattle, to do our utmost when it came to doing anything that we had to put our hands to. If not, fear of the known was sure to follow.

Like an Gregorian chant passed down from generation to generation, the somewhat encouraging inspirational phrases of, “Heads down, tails up” and “knuckle down” were recited to us on countless occasions by many a teacher determined to set us straight and still echoes in my mind to this very day.

We were indoctrinated into believing that we had four things to fear if we failed to meet great expectations within a catholic education.

They were the fear of God, the fear of receiving six of the best via the cane, the fear of having to scrape bubble gum off school playgrounds and lastly the fear of having to take that dreaded letter marked “confidential”, back to our parents.

Seeing that avoiding immediate pain from the cane was the most compelling of the four, this took precedence over you know who. Who in our books, was supposed to be a pretty good bloke and loved all children, no matter whether they were good or bad and, as such, would probably leave us alone for the time being.

"Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Saint Francis of Assisi

The other two could be explained away with a lie and a cute serious face that explained to the ones that we held dear, “It’s all gone, Sir!” and “What letter! Mum!”.

You have all heard the old adage, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” But is it? May be, may be not. I’ll let you stew over that and perhaps you can let me know of your thoughts on that one.

These days, with humorous tone and without a hint of old school dictatorial overtones, I’m more likely to say to others and to myself on the quiet, “I don’t want excuses, I want results!”

On a serious note, I often wonder if my schooling days were nothing more than a fear driven exercise in order to get us to succeed.

I had hoped things would changed, but going on today’s alarming headlines that reveal a growing trend amongst senior high school students to contemplate life-threatening actions because of the excessive pressures placed upon them by unrealistic expectations from family, society and final exams that will determine their life path, it has only gotten worse.

I realise we only want the best for our children but at what cost will they have to pay for our fear.

To be continued...