Sponsored by
AM I the only one to be gobsmacked (as the kids would put it) to learn that school children are going to be taught how to twitter?
For the ornithologists amongst you, this doesn't mean they're about to become mini experts in bird life.
Twittering is the new blogging. In other words, it's a way of using the internet to talk to mates they've just spoken to at school a few minutes ago. It seems that those in charge of the national curriculum, think children need more lessons in life skills. What rubbish! Or at least, that's what I thought at first. What's wrong with long division and maps of the world. But then I got thinking. What exactly did I learn at school that really helped me as an adult? Well for a start, you can't count long division. Despite the best efforts of a certain Miss Gare at school (who loathed me because I preferred writing stories in the back row), I never did master that particular skill. Not that that did me any disfavours as an adult, because I simply whip out a calculator, or ask my 17 year old. Then there's geography, which has never been my strongest point. Indeed all I can recall from geography classes was several weeks work on the importance of rail routes across America - a fact which hasn't really helped me on my own particular journey through life. 'So what do you wish you'd learned instead?' demanded my daughter who's just started teaching herself.
I wish I'd learned how to stand up for myself in the office (in my first job as a journalist, I had an editor who barked at me). I wish I'd learned how to cook properly. (My cauliflower cheese is to die for.) I'd have liked lessons on how to cope when your marriage tips upside down without a moment's warning. (I'm talking about my first one here.) And I'd have liked a couple of exams on the art of juggling (and I don't mean balls).
Maybe, if those in charge of schools really wanted to get real, they ought to start inviting in guest speakers from all paths of life – and not just the great and the good which make the rest of us feel inferior.
How about people who have made big mis-judgments in life and can now share their experiences so we don't do the same? Meanwhile, I'm off to sign up for a class on twittering and - while I'm at it - a texting session. (New Husband says my texts are hysterical.) Now that would be a lot more useful than American rail roads...
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Hemel Hempstead
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: South west
