A lunchtime blog post.

Not surfing leaves free time. Newspapers can provide an interesting take on what’s happening, even if stepping back a little tells you the story is being spun faster than a child’s top.

The Daily Mail has provided a particular insight into the total hypocrisy of papers, detailing the less salubrious side of Heather Mills (Mrs. Paul McCartney for non-British readers) as a working girl. It was bad enough that I had to stop reading. A little further on in the same edition was a columnist discussing how “we all make mistakes” and how deeply wrong it was that the papers should be raking over the sordid details. Seems to me that if you’re going to publish salacious content purely to titillate then you ought at least be brazen about it, rather than excite with one hand and then deflate with the other.

Then there’s all the goings on with footballers WAGs (Wives And Girlfriends).

They really ARE short of news right now, and there’s nothing really happening in the Joeball world cup either.

The Times is a bit more interesting, with recent articles on giving fish oils to school children to improve intellectual performance (a ‘proven’ fact that’s never been demonstrated in a properly blind trial).

And following the education theme, how modern education has been specifically adapted to advantage girls and disadvantage boys. This is an observation we made when choosing GCSEs with Ben – how everything is tailored to steady coursework and continual review (which suits female working practice) and a de-emphasis on achieving in stress/burst competitive situations which suits the male psyche. When I was a teenager I remember there being talk about how girls were disadvantaged in education, especially in subjects where passes were exam-based. It seems that in the 30 years since then things really have been turned around, with girls doing well and boys under-achieving.

There may be something of a backlash, but it will be too late for Ben, leaving within a few weeks. Whether education has let him down or not could be debated, but it certainly failed to excite him or catch his imagination, and he tolerated it, producing the minimum necessary course work to get by. Most of the time.

The idea of a career in science does not look to be on the cards, which is a shame, as I believe him to have just the right mix of the practical and intellectual that would enable him to do well. Handling and using wood has been in my family genes for many generations. At the moment favourite possibilities are some kind of career in fine furniture making. All the artistic, creative and practical skills combined together. And little or no coursework required documenting design, equipment and process. Sounds pretty enticing to me too, if only I didn’t have a life-style to support.

Right, back to work. Our ‘guest’ from the US should be here soon.