Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

The sound I make when marking mid year exams.  See the following graph for further enlightenment:

Two tier education system.

While there is much ado in the media about various highly visible (and lucrative to some folks) projects such as this and this, I am feeling rather cynical (perhaps more than usual) and am inclined to suggest that it's another case of all the King's men trying to patch up old Humpty Dumpty at the bottom of the wall.  Trying to teach into the soul-sucking vacuum of disinterest and disengagement that is all too common at my place of employment, I can only conclude that the damage has been done a long time ago.  Reading a bit about some of the D's (ADHD, ODD etc) reinforces that view.  I think we already have a two tier system: parents who genuinely care about their childrens' education, and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, and those who don't, or more rarely, can't.  Everything else is just polishing the brass on the Titanic, unless sufficient resources can be put in really early, before so many of these kids are messed up and put so far behind that their options are virtually eliminated before they even hit high school.  And I'm not blaming the primary schools here - it's the parents and families that it all begins from.

That's a bit of a rambling grumble about my current state of mind.  Need to sort it out in my noggin a bit better.

Looking forward to writing reports soon, after my kiddies all fail their exams.

Is that the time?

OMG, six whole months have passed since I last blogged!  How time flies.  There was some fun involved.

Succinct review of Happy Feet

UTTER CRAP

Watched Angels and Demons the other week and concluded that Dan Brown is like Neil Stephenson for the mentally retarded.

RIP da Bomb

Big bad Bomb, Reb's teenage-hood cat, who was about 20 years old & mostly deaf and blind but still bad-ass, finally gave up the ghost today. Poor kitteh had collapsed on the path and was limp & unresponsive, and she died a few minutes later. We wondered if she had a stroke. We buried her in a nice spot in the back garden. Freya was good, she didn't get upset and seemed to understand what was going on. Reb & I were sad, but the old beastie had a very good innings.



On a better note, Holidays are here again...

I WANT MUMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Freya chucked the screaming wobblies in the bath tonight, probably being a bit overtired from Charley's snaketastic party yesterday, and maybe being not quite over her cold.  She calmed down eventually, and then fell asleep on my lap on the couch!  Poor chick.

Finally finished reports for the goblins at Mt Doom SC... what a hideous task it is too.

Ow Freya! Sorry Freya!

Freya was being rather funny this evening, as she brushed her own hair and pretended to complain to herself and then apologize to herself.  Then Reb brushed her hair for real & the complaining was real (and less funny) too.

Good news from the heartiologist today that my ticker is no longer dicky, in fact it was "completely normal" or words to that effect.  I celebrated with a double grease-ball burger with extra lard.

Thank gosh that term two is almost over at Mt Doom SC... the goblins have been getting fairly tiresome of late.  Slowly getting the goblin powered vehicle team active again.