1 EAGLETON NOTES: October 2022

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Friday 28 October 2022

Winners and Losers

Something cropped up recently and a derisory remark was made about someone's poor performance in something completely trivial.  It was an unnecessary and cruel remark.

It reminded me of a situation in my life more than 60 years ago in a history class at school.

I was always near the top of the class in English Language, English Literature and did pretty well in Mathematics and Geography and was middling in most of the rest of the subjects. However, in the fifth year I came bottom in the school in the year end history exam. One spiteful little toerag decided to ask the Master who was bottom. I will always remember the History Master's response. "If you have a system where someone is top then there will inevitably be someone at the bottom."  That same toerag came to my house before the GCE asking me to help him with his maths. 

The subject of top or bottom was never mentioned again.

I'm told that nowadays no one is allowed to be 'top' or 'bottom' in school because it might mean some children having mental problems or low self worth.

The reality of life is that that in itself won't stop kids making fun of those they perceive to be less able in a particular way. If we want to do something about the problem then we have to have a positive system  and encourage people to do what they are good at and not necessarily persist with things for which they have no aptitude. 

After all when I was in New Zealand an electrician or plumber commanded a much higher hourly wage than a dentist. [The caveat there is that the fee for dental care included a vast amount of overheads compared with an electrician].

Wednesday 12 October 2022

Short Update

I returned home 10 days ago and Anna came with me and has now returned home. My next visitors have called off because of Covid. The last few days I've been catching up with friends here and today I'm trying desperately to catch up with a myriad of emails and letters I owe people. 

It's been hampered over the last few days by routine hospital and surgery appointments.

Today the weather is actually good enough to have gone into the garden to get some tidying and autumn/winter preparation done. That isn't going to happen until next week at the earliest though.

I have just been checking my spam folder and have discovered that, not only have some comments gone to Spam when they have been cleared but that my own comments have ended up in Spam too. I haven't looked yet but I suspect some have been duplicated because I though it was my poor memory and that I hadn't commented when, in fact,  I had. 

Technology is beginning to confound and irritate me.

No comments needed but hopefully I will write a meaningful post soon.