Teachers: a criticism

You cannot be what you cannot see. 

In many ways, in many situations, that is true - or true up to a point. 

When I was at high school, my English teacher urged me to consider a writing career, and I've often wondered - regret is too strong a term - how my life would have been had I followed that suggestion. 

I have no regrets or wondering about not following the other suggestion of being a teacher: I saw how other kids behaved, I saw the physical discipline that was used in those days, and I thought "no, thanks" - if someone made that suggestion if I was at high school in the last decades or so, maybe a bit longer, I would seriously have considered that. The times had changed, for the better, in that area of life. 

I also have no regrets about pursuing sailing as a "career". That would have been enjoyable (yacht deliveries would probably have been the main source of income), but I would have been doing nothing of any significant benefit to other people and the world. 

(The half day in primary school that I wanted to be an explorer of deserts, right up until I found out deserts are - mostly - hot, ended with the right decision.)

What I do regret is that no-one suggested the law, politics, or human rights as career choices. 

Human rights was a new field in the 70s, and careers didn't exist then in any clearly appreciable form, so that is understandable. Law, on the other hand, did, but I wonder if teachers then saw law in terms of property matters, commercial disputes and other uninspiring acts, so chose to ignore it because of their (mis)perceptions - or did they just think the kids at my school were too poor or too stupid to do law?

I suspect perceptions and misperceptions were also a reason that politics wasn't suggested. I suspect our teachers saw politics as a grubby power play, when, given that Whitlam was in power at the time (although I also saw the dismissal while still at high school), it should have been clear that politics was about shaping the life of the nation. 

I suspect teachers' personal biases affected the choices that were presented to us kids - for the worse. 

I have the impression those limitations no longer apply. 

I hope that is the case.