Art as a consumer product is not the stuff that dreamers can thrive on, unless, by some divine coincidence, they get that rare thing, a lucky break.

There is very little we can talk about without, eventually, getting political I’m afraid, is there?

I am not that sure about meritocracy in American society, Ty. But thanks for stopping by and adding your thoughts.

I just want to pick up on two points.

Firstly, as I am still a linguistics and TESOL student I know for a fact that Rosa’s lineage will work in her favour. Amongst my classmates, there is a bizarre fascination with the activities of the children of famous linguists/EL teachers.

As a group we all went to see a public lecture by David Crystal (also featuring his son Ben Crystal). As a whole, everyone was far more interested in what Ben was doing with his life, many people went out and bought Ben’s book, downloaded his play script etc.

So the fact that you are promoting Rosa amongst those who will recognise her father’s name will definitely gain her a fan base I think!

My second point is about the pervasiveness of mediocrity in society. It is also a problem we have here in the U.K (picked up by Ken) but it permeates every circle of life. I notice it at University, where “good enough” has become the standard. I especially noticed it in the workplace, promotions were rarely based on talent, the path to success came from being friendly with management, volunteering for every event possible, “blagging” (talking/faking your way into success without necessarily having the talent needed” -U.K slang).

It is perhaps the only thing I admire the Americans for, their society is far closer to a meritocracy than ours.

Getting political….time to stop!

It must have happened just as I was posting my response to Ken!

Thanks for the book suggestion. What Rosa needs though, is lessons in networking…and before those lessons, she needs lots of convincing about the value of networking!

But it’s in the DNA I guess!!!

And about undervalue, and underappreciation I personally found the book The Cost of Caring by Christina Maslach really helpful in this regard. In it she studies educators, social workers and others in the helping professions and talks about those feelings and why they happen. Great stuff, makes you realise you, me, Rosa and all those other great teachers are not alone.

No, it’s not a lame comment at all. She should be proud as I expect are Luke and Kyveli. Come to think of it I was proud and I had nothing to do with all this burning talent! What a flame she has!

The situation in Greece is not much different to the UK. Most talented young actors are unemployed. Many untalented ones are not.

I completely understand how Luke must have felt when Rosa announced that she wanted to be an actor. My daughter Anya not only said she wanted to work in theatre, she wanted to work in MY theatre! When I said she would have to go to drama school first, she relented, and decided that five years in further education would be enough.

The fact is that here in the UK, we have a wonderful well0-oiled system producing batch after batch of talented performers – and we also have an unemployment rate among professional actors of 75%.

This is going to sound very lame, but I think Rosa can be so proud of what she has done. And it’s better to have touched the hearts and minds of eight people than to decide not to give it a try in the first place.

Your suggestion is great, Karenne; are you doing anything along the same lines to get “noticed” as a writer? I hope so. I love teaching with a great passion too, but my first choice of a career was music, so, yeah, I feel for you and for Rosa. It shouldn’t be like that.

Mind you, this is the first time in years she has allowed me to write something about her or to mention her father’s name – not in vain I hope…

And all I ever wanted to do was be a writer, actually write movies… I love teaching and do it with passion, but I hear young Rosa’s silent longing.

The food has to be paid for, the roof over the head, the clothes on the body.

What can we really do about it though?

Karenne

p.s. my suggestion regarding the web and stuff, would be for your friends to film themselves and upload it into youtube, if they can get a following there… perhaps they will be able to reach a wider audience and get “noticed”

It is truly terrible that passionate teachers like your friend do not get paid well. I think educators are underpaid, especially for the significant job they hold. Educators empower the workforce. However, we are often under appreciated, not given enough resources, and definitely underpaid. This is a frustrating situation.