Tony tells us that his mother called him a genius. Some mum's are like that, not mine. My mother had me sectioned when I called myself a genius, she was/is not one to lavish praise or to allow you to become too full of yourself (to be fair there is more to the story than that).
I started at grammar school in 1974, I was one of two boys of West Indian background in my year. The other I thought was brilliant and excelled in most things, I struggled, after being a star pupil in primary school I didn't quite understand it.
Even in my grammar school there was the same attitude that Tony speaks about, no one wanted to be seen to be a' swot'. But be careful that you don't get taken in. These kids were doing the work on the quiet. Self-deprecation is a very British things, you have to make a show of 'effortless superiority'.
I like the definition of genius as 'an infinite capacity for taking pains'. I don't remember who said it but it does challenge the idea of genius as a natural gift. There's a quote from the artist Salvador Dali 'I spent many hours learning to be a genius'. He meant that he self-consciously tried to make himself a genius.
My mother grew up in Guyana, she did not have any further education but became a nurse (a contemporary of Tony's wife's mother I believe) she loved poetry, she can recite and quote the romantic poets from memory to this day. The Guyanese did very much value education. My mum did once say to me 'the heights of great men reached and kept are not attained by easy flight, but they while their companions slept were toiling upwards through the night' (I'm not sure where it came from).
My mother's sister, my aunt was a teacher she told me that options for women at that time were teaching or nursing. Education for her and others like her was a way or ‘the way' to a better life. My aunt did actually tell me that 'if you're black in this country you have to work twice as hard'. This struck me as unfair and I asserted my 'right to be mediocre'. However I've learnt that if you want to be great (not everybody does or can be), you have to put in the hours. People have often said that I'm 'laid-back', you'd be amazed at the effort I put in to even get this far.
Tony tells us that his mother called him a genius. Some mum's are like that, not mine. My mother had me sectioned when I called myself a genius, she was/is not one to lavish praise or to allow you to become too full of yourself (to be fair there is more to the story than that).
I started at grammar school in 1974, I was one of two boys of West Indian background in my year. The other I thought was brilliant and excelled in most things, I struggled, after being a star pupil in primary school I didn't quite understand it.
Even in my grammar school there was the same attitude that Tony speaks about, no one wanted to be seen to be a' swot'. But be careful that you don't get taken in. These kids were doing the work on the quiet. Self-deprecation is a very British things, you have to make a show of 'effortless superiority'.
I like the definition of genius as 'an infinite capacity for taking pains'. I don't remember who said it but it does challenge the idea of genius as a natural gift. There's a quote from the artist Salvador Dali 'I spent many hours learning to be a genius'. He meant that he self-consciously tried to make himself a genius.
My mother grew up in Guyana, she did not have any further education but became a nurse (a contemporary of Tony's wife's mother I believe) she loved poetry, she can recite and quote the romantic poets from memory to this day. The Guyanese did very much value education. My mum did once say to me 'the heights of great men reached and kept are not attained by easy flight, but they while their companions slept were toiling upwards through the night' (I'm not sure where it came from).
My mother's sister, my aunt was a teacher she told me that options for women at that time were teaching or nursing. Education for her and others like her was a way or ‘the way' to a better life. My aunt did actually tell me that 'if you're black in this country you have to work twice as hard'. This struck me as unfair and I asserted my 'right to be mediocre'. However I've learnt that if you want to be great (not everybody does or can be), you have to put in the hours. People have often said that I'm 'laid-back', you'd be amazed at the effort I put in to even get this far.