A lesson that stayed with you all your life

I have been reading a book written about the Chinese, post Mao. Amongst many remarkable things, the thirst for education has set the Chinese apart as parents brow beat their children into the need to progress through education. In this country we have been led to believe that any enforcement of our will on our children is a bad thing. We can negotiate but the willingness to embark on the educational high road has to be theirs and it might even be viewed as child abuse to bully them into doing things they don't want to do !!!
The Chinese, the Japanese, have no such qualms and the parents spend much of their time insisting that their children learn for the opportunity to advance.
It got me thinking of the attitude of many of our kids in the UK, towards matching their opportunities here with the conflicting claim of having the proverbial "good time". 
In my day, oh such a long time ago, we understood the balance and followed the example of our parents to take the only opportunity we had, as "working class" youngsters, to gain the foundations of higher education through "night school". 
My Dad was an exemplar of this route to expanding his opportunity. He had been put in an orphanage at 12, (economic pressure on his mother)  and then having had to go to work at a very early age, night school was his only option. Not having much money he would walk through the streets roughly 5 miles in and 5 miles out, from the suburbs to the centre of town to attend Bradfords Technical College.  As an indicator of the times he lived in he also did a course in Russian since, for the working class, what was happening in Russia, Communism, was considered a worthwhile alternative to the Capitalism that so many lived and suffered under.
His "copper plate" hand written notes were a joy of a logical exposition as each subject, particularly mathematics, each broken down to its basic component, transformed and then rebuilt into an equation to address the physical problem.  Through "Night School" he obtained the not insignificant qualification AMIMeE, which is equivalent to an Engineering Degree.
Bradford was a typical Northern town.   Industry, particularly the Woollen Industry was at the heart of Bradford and the Technical Collage was the heart of the educational input to Industry. The College, an imposing Victorian building clattered to the sound of feet as the students rushed to their classroom for the 7pm start.
The "seriousness  business of education" was reflected by the serious demeanor of the students attending. There was no sense of entitlement, no sense that this was something to take for granted, it was an "opportunity" and one had to grasp it with both hands. The building was built on a scale and with materials that were designed to last.
The staircases were wide and majestic, the lecture rooms were large, high ceiling rooms, some with tiered seating. 


A blackboard and chalk were the means to put over the theorems, no white boards no, interactive equipment. 
One thing they had (worth more that any computer derived image) was the hands-on experience given by the full sized machinery, generating plant, anything that the person being educated would need when out in the workplace.
It was for real and one is often struck today by the disconnect when youngsters are introduced to most things through the keyboard of a computer There is a world of difference between reality and the symbolism effected through the computer. At Night School one could feel the texture, one could be in awe by the size and the power of the equipment one would find in the workplace and very quickly discovered the damage that could be done by a thought-less act, no quick fix through the delete key.  
You were ushered into becoming a responsible adult, a lesson that stayed with you all your life !!!