The importance of not being dumb

While it may not always sound like it, we here in the McEldowney household are a well-educated bunch.
Boasting at least one university degree, two national diplomas, one Aunt Rosie Deportment School graduate and at least two half completed beginner Spanish courses - taught with an Irish lilt - between us, we like to think we can hold our own when it comes to quiz night at the local watering hole.

Keen subscribers to the 'you can never know enough' theory, each one of us has taken on some form of adult education.
Dog was the first to tread down this path when he was enrolled, albeit involuntarily, in canine obedience classes. Having grown up on the rough streets of South Sydney, Dog was not always the sharpest knife in the drawer. And while prior to his expulsion he still boasted a single digit IQ, he at least mastered the importance of peeing outside.

Next to sign up for additional tutelage was Scottish-extracted husband in training (SHIT). Keen to bolster his chances of scoring a journo gig at the impending Rugby World Cup in Paris, SHIT set about learning French during once-a-week night classes. And while he was later forced him into early retirement, clearly the lessons had the desired effect because as I write this he is holed up in the middle of a French village eating croissants and no doubt firing up the locals with his talk of an All Black victory.

Even I, a know-it-all of some standing, felt I could find some form of self-fulfillment through learning yoga. Obviously this has proven beneficial as not only can I now bend over and reach my toes but I can also annoy my work mates by insisting everyone address me as 'Yogi'.

However had Australia offered me same extra curricular classes in my youth as those in America, I am sure I would've been an early convert.

While most teens there spend their summer holidays in sports or music camps, an increasing number have signed up for a new type of program dubbed 'fashion camp'. Driven by the popularity of fashion-related majors at schools such as New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design, the camps give teenage girls the indulge their 'passion for fashion' by offering them chance to see whether they want to seriously pursue a job in the industry.

In New York a group of 35 girls, aged between 13 and 16, paid the equivalent of $A1320 each to join the first season of the camp which featured five days of lectures, seminars and store visits. Travelling from as far a field as Britain and Canada to attend, students heard lectures from a variety of sources in the industry covering such topics as design, sourcing, branding, art and illustration.

While I have no doubt these camps are run for purely commercial reasons, I can see real value in the concept of 'fashion camps'. I am sure getting a glimpse of the real industry will sort the chaff from the grain and if the students' hearts are not really in it, will help save them and their families from the burden of a wasted student debt at a later stage.

If done correctly the camps could also have the added bonus of showing these students there are many jobs in the industry rather than just the perceived glamorous positions of design and modelling. If the full array of positions are being "sexed up" in this manor then these students will see there truly is a position for all levels of talent and interest.
Then maybe just maybe the terrible global skills shortage of talented pattern makers, cutters, graders and machinists may just become a little less of a problem.

By Tracey McEldowney