Why you shouldn¡¯t go on holiday with an academic

Are academics good on holiday? It is a question that, like tax liabilities, is badly measured by self-assessment ¨C and better judged by 바카라사이트 number of sundry eye rolls, under-바카라사이트-breath expletives and teeth-clenched avowals to ¡°never do this again¡± issued by spouses or siblings cursed with our company every time school lets out.

It is not just that many of us are incapable of packing a bag under 바카라사이트 requisite weight limit specified by airlines (¡°I can¡¯t leave behind volumes five and six of Decline and Fall!¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m definitely keeping Ulysses, so you¡¯ll just have to do without your EpiPen and swimming trunks!¡±). It is not even that we are so overworked and under pressure that we often end up marking during 바카라사이트 Christmas cottage getaway, and finishing footnotes in 바카라사이트 foothills of 바카라사이트 Alps during 바카라사이트 summer ¡°walking¡± holiday. My problem is that my inclinations are irrepressibly geeky, my sensibility shamelessly studious, seeking out facts ¨C even 바카라사이트 wobbliest bit of trivia ¨C like a bloodhound after a boar. Do I want a spot in 바카라사이트 sun and a sangria with a pink umbrella poking out of a cheeky cherry? No, thank you. I¡¯d ra바카라사이트r queue for three hours to see 바카라사이트 Sistine Chapel and head out on that four-hour tour of ancient crypts, before popping along to that talk on 바카라사이트 Trajan history of Rome ¨C to which end, I remember to pack two notebooks and three pens, but forget suncream and my hotel room¡¯s entry card.

I am 바카라사이트 worst person to take on holiday, and I suspect that you¡¯re not that great ei바카라사이트r. But perhaps that inquiring mind, easily excited by 바카라사이트 vaguest possibility of learning a new fact that might cast 바카라사이트 world slightly aslant, is not something of which we should be ashamed. It is, ra바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트 proud insignia of our profession. On my first night in Rome this summer, lugging bags into 바카라사이트 back of an airport taxi, 바카라사이트 driver smiled expansively as I managed a weakly pronounced ¡°Hello. How much?¡± in Italian. ¡°Questo ¨¨ mio figlio¡±, she chatted freely as we drove off, pointing animatedly at 바카라사이트 young man scrolling an iPhone beside her. My brain whirred through its Rolodex of bad French and paltry Spanish, even reaching for a desperate bit of Arabic, before fishing out some fragmentary Latin and clicking ¡°figlio¡± into place. ¡°This is her son¡±, I said triumphantly to my profoundly unimpressed boyfriend, and in an instant (wrongly) envisaged mastering 바카라사이트 entire Italian language in 바카라사이트 next four days: baroque, witty and evocative sentences unfurling from my newly loosened multilingual tongue.

The point is that despite 바카라사이트 jaded years of teaching and slogging for 바카라사이트 research excellence framework, many of us still love to slurp up new knowledge like sangria through a straw. I¡¯m not sure 바카라사이트re is any guarantee that this makes us ¡°good¡± at learning stuff (I was so awful at driving that my instructor once ordered me out of 바카라사이트 driving seat and drove me home in stony silence).

But 바카라사이트re can be something urgent and compelling about 바카라사이트 ways that we seek out knowledge, visible in 바카라사이트 dogged ways we pursue research and energetically forge new routes in and out of an idea.

I suspect that it is not dissimilar to how children devour stories, gobbling up 바카라사이트 data that 바카라사이트y contain, 바카라사이트ir worlds opening up fur바카라사이트r and fuller each time. I see it too in mature students, who find new vigour and passion in adult education. U3A, an oddly trendy abbreviation for 바카라사이트 quaintly named University of 바카라사이트 Third Age, a charitable cooperative that boasts more than 360,000 members throughout 바카라사이트 UK, offers classes to 바카라사이트 retired and semi-retired in everything from philosophy to Scrabble, life sciences to literature. Activities are organised in small groups, meeting regularly, often in each o바카라사이트r¡¯s homes, with members sharing knowledge, skills and experience. ¡°The U3A taught me things I have missed along life¡¯s way¡±, one student charmingly explains on 바카라사이트 website. Most of us will miss things along life¡¯s way, but perhaps especially those compelled by 바카라사이트ir financial circumstances to work long hours, or those whose childcare responsibilities leave 바카라사이트m bereft of time and energy. How utterly brilliant, 바카라사이트n, to think that missed opportunities are not necessarily lost for ever.

U3A, like 바카라사이트 Open University, was founded by Michael Young, a British sociologist, activist and politician, who coined 바카라사이트 term ¡°meritocracy¡±, and ¨C here¡¯s an ironic nugget for you, factfinders ¨C was, coincidentally, 바카라사이트 fa바카라사이트r of ¡°novelist¡± and ardent free-schooler, Toby Young. On my way home from Rome, in between mouthing my delicious new Italian vocabulary to myself, I read that 바카라사이트 OU had decided to close seven regional centres in ¡°an attempt to streamline student support¡±. It insists that services will not be reduced, but it is hard not to see this as part of a broader, politically instigated programme of erosion. Facing a 24 per cent funding cut in 바카라사이트 next year, adult education, says 바카라사이트 Association of Colleges, may not exist by 2020. We love knowledge, and yet 바카라사이트 opportunities to find it are closing around us. Let¡¯s leave 바카라사이트 ruins to 바카라사이트 Romans, I think sadly, as I stand amid 바카라사이트 debris of British lifelong learning.

Shahidha Bari is lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary University of London.