paul and corinna and lucas' blog

Ok, a bit slow to react to this one – maybe some people will think that negates my first point but anyway...

So girls thrash boys in school and college grades yet again – not exactly news I know – it's the same this time every year. It never sits right with me, and not just because I'm sexist...  :)  Doesn't it show state that our education system promotes and rewards feminine traits and devalues masculine ones? This is at A-Level too so I don't buy the excuse that it's "because boys develop slower than girls" – what you really mean is boys take longer to learn how to do things that come more naturally to girls – that I agree with, and it's kinda obvious when you put it like that. Boys goof around more? Maybe. But again isn't that a sign that the system just doesn't want to engage them? (It's a similar problem in the church, but that's a whole other blog!) I guess it's just another example of Britain attempting to emasculate itself.

When did university become an end rather than a means? Why is the government obsessed with giving as many people as possible degrees? I went to university as a path to career, and even then the universities were starting to flood with people trying to get degrees in things they have no intention of working in – just to get a degree! What a waste of 3 years! Really a lot of people would be so much better off going into work at 16/18 rather than keep getting qualifications in irrelevancy. Then a year or three later they would be in a much better position to make a choice over whether Uni would really be of benefit. And to top it off, the government insists on basing all this craziness on ladening kids with debt! (A whole other blog too...)

And what exactly is the point of league tables?! I know I've complained about them before but they annoy me... They're just an awful way to measure and compare schools. I've seen enough schools ruined by obsessive pursuit of targets. How do you know historically good grades are any indicator of how good a school would be for your child? And even if they did get you good grades, they could still be sculpting kids that are good at exams but otherwise dysfunctional! One thing I don't like about league tables and targets is they make the school focus on 'getting the average up' which invariably means cajoling every child to improve their worst grades – focus on their weaknesses. They really should be trying to bring out and sharpen their strengths – if you absolutely have to publish league tables, why not just publish the details of each pupil's top grade?