How do you measure your happiness?

[scotia]

or other such fora?

Ah - the advantage of a classical education. That puts you in line for the next vacancy as PM.

How do you measure a classical education?

A big comprehensive school, followed by a degree and a career in STEM subjects?

That was my own (and my wife's) career path - and it included (Scottish Higher) Latin.
We both decided to skip the job of PM.

[Itsallaguess]

I suppose it's very naïve to suggest it's possible to measure happiness?

Every now and then I'll calibrate myself against this national misery-guage, and often come away feeling much better about my own relatively minor concerns...

https://tinyurl.com/yhku5qgg

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[UncleEbenezer]

Ah - the advantage of a classical education. That puts you in line for the next vacancy as PM.

How do you measure a classical education?

A big comprehensive school, followed by a degree and a career in STEM subjects?

That was my own (and my wife's) career path - and it included (Scottish Higher) Latin.
We both decided to skip the job of PM.

Interesting. I kind-of thought Latin was the big difference between grammar schools and the rest of the state sector. You're saying you had it in a comprehensive?

It certainly seems elusive now. A few (and I mean few) years ago I looked around for any kind of course I could sign up for locally, but found none.

[tjh290633]

Interesting. I kind-of thought Latin was the big difference between grammar schools and the rest of the state sector. You're saying you had it in a comprehensive?

It certainly seems elusive now. A few (and I mean few) years ago I looked around for any kind of course I could sign up for locally, but found none.

Back in the days when education was education, as my old headmaster was wont to say in 1943, if you wanted to go to Oxford or Cambridge you had to have a Credit in Latin at School Certificate. Consequently the A stream had Latin and the lower streams had German, later Spanish. We all did French, of course (with oral). Only one got a Credit in 1948, I got a Pass, so had to resit in December. Our Latin Master being absent for that year with a nervous breakdown did not help.

I see that Sussex University offers language courses to all-comers.

TJH

[Lootman]

How do you measure a classical education?

A big comprehensive school, followed by a degree and a career in STEM subjects?

That was my own (and my wife's) career path - and it included (Scottish Higher) Latin.
We both decided to skip the job of PM.

Interesting. I kind-of thought Latin was the big difference between grammar schools and the rest of the state sector. You're saying you had it in a comprehensive?

My school actually had a "Classics" sixth form department. You could go for the trifecta of Latin, Greek and Ancient History at A level. As I recall in my year just one pupil chose that option, so he basically had individual tuition from the one teacher who could teach all three.

That teacher was "as bent as a nine bob note" as was said in the day. Whether that was a factor in the number of boys choosing that option is something I could not possibly comment on. He also ran the school swimming pool which was probably not a coincidence.

[Clariman]

I prefer the notion of "contentment" to "happiness". I don't know what the theoretical difference is between the two, but happiness always seems associated with striving to achieve. Whereas contentment is more of a state of mind i.e. more about being rather than striving.

Clariman

[stevensfo]

How do you measure a classical education?

A big comprehensive school, followed by a degree and a career in STEM subjects?

That was my own (and my wife's) career path - and it included (Scottish Higher) Latin.
We both decided to skip the job of PM.

Interesting. I kind-of thought Latin was the big difference between grammar schools and the rest of the state sector. You're saying you had it in a comprehensive?
It certainly seems elusive now. A few (and I mean few) years ago I looked around for any kind of course I could sign up for locally, but found none.

I went to a Comprehensive and we could do Latin and Greek. In those days we had streaming so the decision had to be made after the 1st year. Although the Latin grammar was taught exceedingly badly, I don't regret it. This was the 1970s when all sorts of weird ideas about education were becoming fashionable. It was the most difficult subject I had and I only really appreciated it years later when I re-taught myself about grammar and how it works. As people say, my real education started when I left school.

Steve

[genou]

We could have some referenda on these questions?
ps Classical education too!

Wait, wait, I know this.... Referendum is a gerundive, and can therefore have no plural form. So both referendums and referenda are English words.

[scrumpyjack]

We could have some referenda on these questions?
ps Classical education too!

Wait, wait, I know this.... Referendum is a gerundive, and can therefore have no plural form. So both referendums and referenda are English words.

Well done, quite so. There is no plural of Referendum if on a single issue (eg Scottish Independence), but if there is a plurality of issues then the plural is appropriate and would be referenda, except that as I recall the BBC decided that it should be referendums, presumably because their announcers, not having been properly educated, kept using 'ums' not 'a'!

Whilst I read Classics (Latin, Greek and Ancient History) at Uni over 50 years ago, I'm ashamed to say I have increasingly forgotten it all. Incidentally I do recall the incomprehension I encountered as a student in Greece when trying to communicate with my ancient Greek. Modern Greek has a lot of Turkish words in it, following their lengthy occupation of the country. Probably a little like someone trying to speak Chaucerian English today

[genou]

Well done, quite so. There is no plural of Referendum if on a single issue (eg Scottish Independence), but if there is a plurality of issues then the plural is appropriate and would be referenda,

But that would that not be English? I think there just is no plural in Latin. Stuff that must be decided is singular.

Whilst I read Classics (Latin, Greek and Ancient History) at Uni over 50 years ago, I'm ashamed to say I have increasingly forgotten it all.

Never got beyond school Latin and Greek, so respect.

Incidentally I do recall the incomprehension I encountered as a student in Greece when trying to communicate with my ancient Greek. Modern Greek has a lot of Turkish words in it, following their lengthy occupation of the country. Probably a little like someone trying to speak Chaucerian English today

Been there, done that " Ho Sailors, when does the next galley leave for the island of ..... "

But, on the other hand, I could read where the buses were going.

[tjh290633]

My school actually had a "Classics" sixth form department. You could go for the trifecta of Latin, Greek and Ancient History at A level. As I recall in my year just one pupil chose that option, so he basically had individual tuition from the one teacher who could teach all three.

That teacher was "as bent as a nine bob note" as was said in the day. Whether that was a factor in the number of boys choosing that option is something I could not possibly comment on. He also ran the school swimming pool which was probably not a coincidence.

We had to make the choice between Classics and Science in the second form, as I recall. Very few elected for Classics, which entailed learning Greek. The A stream did Physics, Maths and Chemistry, while the B stream did General Science, Maths and Biology. Later we had a C stream, known as the "Agricultural" form, but that was two years below me, and I never discovered what they really did. They formed a Young Farmers' Club for them. In the 4th form we had to choose between History and Geography. This was because of the limit on numbers of subjects (8) that you could take in one sitting at School Certificate. From memory English Language was compulsory, you had to take a foreign language and you had to take some form of maths exam. Even so I had to drop two subjects, English Literature and Divinity. I think that I took English Language, French and Latin, Maths, Additional Maths (Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus), Physics and Chemistry, and History.

I took Higher School Certificate in Physics, Group 4 Maths and Chemistry, then the first A-level in Physics, Group 3 Maths (counted as two subjects) and Chemistry, taking the S-level papers, in the following year.

TJH

[scotia]

How do you measure a classical education?

A big comprehensive school, followed by a degree and a career in STEM subjects?

That was my own (and my wife's) career path - and it included (Scottish Higher) Latin.
We both decided to skip the job of PM.

Interesting. I kind-of thought Latin was the big difference between grammar schools and the rest of the state sector. You're saying you had it in a comprehensive?

It certainly seems elusive now. A few (and I mean few) years ago I looked around for any kind of course I could sign up for locally, but found none.

Yes - In the 1950s, the Scottish State Co-Educational Secondary (11+) Schools had classes streamed by ability with Latin included in the curriculum for the top cohort. In rural districts with a low density population there was only a single (Comprehensive) Secondary School - for all pupils. My wife attended such a school in the North of Scotland. In more densely populated areas there was a history of separate Junior and Senior Secondary Schools - again streamed by ability, but with only the higher ability pupils attending the Senior Secondary (for up to 6 years), while the others attended the Junior Secondary for 3 years. However this structure was, around that time, being converted to the Comprehensive model - as had been the one I attended in Central Scotland.
In my day, for the Lower Latin Certificate you studied Caesar's De Bello Gallico. For the Higher Latin Certificate you studied Virgil's Aeneid.

Moving on a number of years - both my children attended a Scottish State Co-Educational Comprehensive Secondary School - but they only received a Latin "taster", which did not proceed to an examinable level.

As to names - High School, Grammar School, Academy - in Scotland they are simply names (and are still used). However the structure of Scottish State Schools is Comprehensive, no matter their name - and has been for a long time.

Well - that seems to have veered well off topic. So back to happiness. I wouldn't say that my school days were the happiest days of my life - but they were reasonably happy apart from the odd contact with a few teachers who should not have been in teaching employment. Some, however, were excellent, including my Latin teacher.

How do I measure happiness - well nostalgia plays a substantial part. I like to think back over occasions that I really enjoyed - and get forgetful of the parts that weren't so enjoyable

[CliffEdge]

If I have to deal with the ns&i Website I'm pretty unhappy

[AleisterCrowley]

Don't go anywhere near the back arrow and you''ll be fine...

[stewamax]

If you are not a Christian, assume you are.

On arrival at the Pearly Gates, St Peter – after consulting the Big Black Book – marks you as ‘suitable for upgrade’ so you turn left ... into Elysium; your personal cloud is waiting.

You could now enjoy perpetual contentment. No striving, no challenges, just peace perfect peace. The Greek ‘locus amoenus’.
This would be my turning right into cattle class, with Satan or the baby-burning Bishop of Bath and Wells brandishing his red hot poker in readiness.

My idea of contentment is what follows from achieving something, preferably something challenging.
The sort of contentment that seeps through you when you sit down in front of the fire with a glass of Laphroaig (or whatever your tipple is) AFTER a mammoth session of snow clearing or AFTER fixing a very difficult and pressing problem on someone else’s PC.

I once remarked to a somewhat older relative that the greatest pleasure in life is imaginative play with my children and now my grandchildren. Much of the pleasure is in the interplay of ideas and observing how they develop and become more complex and ‘lateral’ with the passage of time.

JRR Tolkien intimated that timelessness was Hell when in the very last paragraph of Silmarillion he records that Morgoth* [was] was thrust … beyond the Walls of the World into the Timeless Void.

Change and development imply that time elapses. Contentment is fine - for a short time. But for eternity?


* the fallen ‘angel’ and source of all evil

[gnawsome]

If I have to deal with the ns&i Website I'm pretty unhappy

SNAP

[AsleepInYorkshire]

I prefer the notion of "contentment" to "happiness". I don't know what the theoretical difference is between the two, but happiness always seems associated with striving to achieve. Whereas contentment is more of a state of mind i.e. more about being rather than striving.

Clariman

Yes. I think that's a good point. I feel as if I strive for happiness, instead of reaching for contentment

AiY

[roger4]

Why would you want to measure "your happiness"?
I remember the expression "happiness is egg-shaped" and that describes it.
If you want to measure something as ephemeral as "happiness" does it not imply dissatisfaction?

For me, I am either happy or not.


Roger

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Why would you want to measure "your happiness"?
I remember the expression "happiness is egg-shaped" and that describes it.
If you want to measure something as ephemeral as "happiness" does it not imply dissatisfaction?

For me, I am either happy or not.


Roger

An interesting point. It could imply dissatisfaction. If it did then surely one is measuring one's happiness or indeed otherwise?

AiY

[Lootman]

If you want to measure something as ephemeral as "happiness" does it not imply dissatisfaction?

To me, happiness is not ephemeral. A good mood may come and go, just like a bad mood. But true contentedness transcends that and endures because it is based on one's life being fundamentally well lived.

For me, I am either happy or not.

So is happiness binary like pregnancy then? You either are or are not?

Could it not be different from pregnancy in that you might be somewhat happy, fairly happy, very happy etc.?