Skip's point is that most schools had become so overcrowded and volatile that only the children of the very rich could learn anything. Educational technology addressed this problem but seems to have replaced education with mere training.
Skip himself, the kind of well informed, omnicompetent Poul Anderson hero who can survive in any social set up:
reads Robinson Jeffers;
is the son of an electronics engineer and a computer programmer;
had a college education and was offered a scholarship but did not want to be tied down before seeing the world;
became a sigaroon, a migratory worker;
is a decorator, carpenter, mechanic, repairman, gardener, singer and story-teller;
has an idea about the alien that he wants to convey to the highest authorities.
I salute such people but would have to live as a "'George, Staid tax-payer type...'" (p. 10)
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Like you, I would be a "George," the kind of itinerant, migratory life led by Skip as a sigaroon does not appeal to me! (Smiles)
I would have listed among Skip's abilities his talents as an artist, a painter.
Sean
Sean,
My heart is with the itinerants but I lack all those practical skills and aptitudes.
You were right to include Skip's artistry.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly! Most of us are not and cannot be sigaroons.
Sean
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