2015
June 4
On Demand – I want it and I want it now
Sorry I haven’t moaned for a while, well just over a fortnight, but I have been settling in to my new role as spokesperson for Grumpy Old Grandads. As I explained I can only devote a small amount of time to this onerous, important position. Therefore, unlike nearly everything else in our world, my posts will not be ON DEMAND but when I am able.
ON DEMAND, ON DEMAND, ON DEMAND. Your TV programmes are ON DEMAND; movies are ON DEMAND; news and weather, ON DEMAND; you can even order your groceries ON DEMAND and even social contact can be ON DEMAND, almost. How wonderful it is that this current generation can have everything, ON DEMAND.
Or is it? Now please don’t get me wrong with this next statement. I have nothing against the younger generation at all. They are simply using what is there to be used and why shouldn’t they? But if, for your formative years, everything has been ON DEMAND, will you not expect that it is how life is? Will you not expect everything to be ON DEMAND. Success in life, ON DEMAND. Achievements in life, ON DEMAND. Educational success, ON DEMAND.
We are breeding a nation of people who will expect everything, ON DEMAND. This new government is a one-nation government, preaching one-nation Conservatism. Unfortunately, if you combine this with our ON DEMAND culture you do have certain problems. I am not sure that Sybil would have approved. The idea of us all helping those less fortunate than ourselves is wonderful. The idea that we should all be able to aspire to the same heghts, ON DEMAND, is less so.
In my day, oops there it is again, a university education was for those who could afford it or those clever enough to be offered a scholarship or help to afford it. It was the pinnacle of education. As soon as you make it possible for everyone to achieve the pinnacle, ON DEMAND, it is no longer such an achievement. If you flatten out the route to the top of Mount Everest so that we all can get there, getting there isn’t so much of an achievement. Lovely view from the top, but little else.
Football managers lose their jobs because success is expected, ON DEMAND, Mangers in business cut corners because success is expected ON DEMAND. Journalists commit horrific acts because success, selling papers, is expected ON DEMAND. We no longer judge with any sense of what is good, what is right, just what is demanded.
I was always taught never to demand, always to ask; never to expect success, simply to work for it. And I was also taught how to cope with failing to achieve. Sadly while giving us everything ON DEMAND, we no longer seem to bother how we should react if what we demand doesn’t happen for whatever reason.
We need to teach our young people that there are more aspects of life that are not ON DEMAND than those that are. And in the same way that success is more unlikely than likely, we need to know how to deal with all of this.
June 18
Please don't move, you might hurt yourself
I understand that a school in Devon, and it was named by ITV as Old Priory Junior Academy in Plympton, has banned handstands and cartwheels in the playground. Taking it a stage further, all gymnastic activities have been temporarily banned until further notice.
Interim head-teacher Emma Hermon-Wright said the decision had been taken after a number of pupils sustained minor injuries to their wrists and backs. Note the word “minor”.
OMG, in the modern vernacular, what next?
We have banned eating and drinking as pupils might choke; we have banned movement as pupils might sustain an injury by banging into another pupil or, horror of horrors, a wall; thinking has been banned in case pupils get headaches. Pupils may not climb or descend stairs unless holding hands with a teacher. Teachers may not hold pupils’ hands in case the teacher trips and pulls the pupil down. Finally we have banned pupils from going to the toilet as it is up to the school to produce all crap that is on our premises.
I actually believe this school and its interim head-teacher should be reported for child abuse. Kids love to play; they have accidents, they learn from this. The interim head said that “In PE Lessons in primary schools they (children) are carefully supported and carefully controlled to help learn skills of this nature and we have very good gymnastic capabilities in our school. I hope and trust therefore that all teachers taking these gymnastic lessons are fully qualified to BAGA standards and have the appropriate certificates.
No wonder we are producing such helpless people. If you shelter every child in cotton wool for their formative years, that is how they will think they should live and sadly they will not be aware of dangerous situations because you, interim head-teacher, have removed this part of life’s learning process.
Let’s get our priorities right please. All exams, SAT tests and homework have been banned as they might cause some pupils minor, note the word, minor stress. Now, that feels better doesn’t it?