The Christmas weekend was fun and despite it being a pseudo-festival, I still ate and drank plenty to keep up the pretence. For my Dad's 70th we (my brothers and I) bought him tickets to see Don McLean at the Royal Albert Hall next year. When I was very young, my Dad would play the album "American Pie" on rotation in the car, so it's ingrained in my brain. Pete and I will accompany my Mum and Dad to the concert.
A few of the family watched the Festival of Remembrance on the BBC on Saturday night. It's always a touching programme and I was surprised that two of my nephews watched it, when computers and iphones were an alternative. One nephew who is 13 understood the history behind the First World War in particular, but I was surprised that he had never been taught the Lords Prayer at school and didn't know the words to the National Anthem! Our schools appear to be actively avoiding anything too British and traditional and didn't even have a poppy sale. This is not acceptable in my view.
I also feel that all radio and TV channels and public buildings should take part in the 2 minutes silence on Remembrance Sunday. It's not too much to ask for 2 minutes of the nations time.
Also on the topic of teaching, a friend of Pete's has two children who go to a school in Milton Keynes where the children call the teachers by their first names. I think that this sets a dangerous precedent for children - you need the divide between teachers and pupils to install respect. The comment "Dave was OK when I said my homework would be in a day late" just didn't sound right. Pete's friend said it's great because the teachers are more like friends! They are not friends, they are teachers that should be respected and obeyed. The trouble that they have had in their school with children answering back, swearing at teachers and even violence has to be partly attributed to this laid back approach in my opinion.
On a lighter note, I heard that Fernando Torres has a groin injury. I have emailed Liverpool FC to see if they need someone to apply ointment to the affected area.
To end todays blog entry, I thought I would provide some definitions for success:
At age 4 success is not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is having friends.
At age 16 success is having a drivers license.
At age 20 success is having sex.
At age 35 success is having money.
At age 50 success is having money.
At age 60 success is having sex.
At age 70 success is having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is having friends.
At age 80 success is not peeing in your pants
:) as always I enjoyed my visit.
ReplyDeleteI'm 35 next week... and by most definitions there, I'm an abject failure. There's another knock to my fragile self esteem...
ReplyDeleteYou're mostly right, but a couple of things I take issue with. No children should be taught the Lord's prayer in any schools. Children should be able to make up their own mind when it comes to their faith, not have something drilled into them. Especially as when I was taught the Lord's prayer there was a complete lack of context, so it didn't mean anyhting anyway, it was just random words to be repeated parrot fashion. Plus, kids who are of other faiths should not be made to feel that their religion is somehow inferior because everyone is made to learn a Christian prayer. As for the national anthem, well, I'm anti-monarchy so I'll never get on board with that particular song.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not taught a wide range of "things", how can you decide what you like and dislike?
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I am not pro-royalty and would prefer Rule Britannia as our national anthem, but while we have something else, I think the kids should at least know it.