Failing the Grade

Last week, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, in the UK, announced that new guidelines will be issued, under which pupils will grade each other's homework and will decide what will be asked on exams. Government ministers are studying the plan. Hopefully, they will have sense enough to give the scheme an F grade, for failure. This is the same group of dunces who announced, two months ago, that Winston Churchill would no longer be covered in history classes. Imagine that! In Britain, Winston Churchill would no longer be studied in history classes. The mind boggles. The government schools, in this country, are becoming a bad joke. Anyone who can afford to should send his or her children to private schools. I am sitting here, in front of my computer, holding my head in my hands. Never have the futures of so many been ruined by so few.

Nando Makes a Revelation

Nando and I were watching "Walk the Line," tonight, when I had one of my urges to ask him some questions. "Have you ever thought of being a musician?" I asked the relaxing Italian.
"No," he replied.
"Why not?" I continued.
"Because I don't know how to play an instrument," confessed Nando.
"What about a singing," I countered," have you thought of being a singer? You don't need to play an instrument to do that."
"No."
"You could always learn to play an instrument, now," I suggested.
"It's too late for that," he said.
"It's never too late," I observed.
"I tried to learn to play an instrument, when I was a kid," he revealed. "It wasn't for me." I thought I had gotten as much as I was going to get out of that topic and settled into watching the film again. After a brief pause, Nando spoke again. "There is one thing I thought about doing, when I was young."
"What?" I inquired.
"Be a journalist," Nando confided. What? Where the heck did that come from?
My interest rekindled, I said, "why don't you do it now?"
"Because I was stupid as a kid and didn't educate myself enough," Nando admitted.
"You could start now," I suggested. "You could educate yourself now and become a journalist." Nando just shook his head in response and went back to watching the film. Who would have guessed? Nando the journalist. This just goes to show there's still a lot I don't know about the guy.

Food Police Officer

On the "Breakfast Show," with Nick Ferrari (LBC 97.3, London), this morning, Nick had a guest on who was the headmaster of a school. This man searched the lunch boxes of his pupils to prevent "junk" food from being brought into school. It's too bad he doesn't put as much enthusiasm into teaching the kids reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history. This guy really takes the cake. Someone should chew him out. This shit's bananas. He's nutty as a fruitcake. Things are all going pear-shaped at this school. Such intervention won't amount to a hill of beans, in the long run. He thinks he can have their cake and eat it, too. It would be perfectly understandable if the students and their parents felt "sour grapes" over this. There might be an opportunity to market contraband food to the pupils.