I never thought a trip for some mince would end in a rant but, hey, such is life.

The woman at the till told me my total but got the numbers the wrong way round. We had a bit of a chuckle about it, and then she said “You’ll have to excuse me, I have that number-dyslexia”. Cue silence from me.

And so it is; dyscalculia is now the new dyslexia, so it seems. Everyone is a professional and is able to self diagnose themselves.

When I first started thinking about teaching basic skills, dyslexia was the big thing. Having finally gained public acceptance that it really was a genuine disability, more and more people were being diagnosed with it, and finally people who had suffered years, often decades, trying to hide their literacy problems were finally getting the support they needed. However, in our self-diagnosis culture, it was also a handy umbrella for certain people to hide behind:

“My spellings crap cos I’m dyslexic”. Oh, have you been certified? No. Has a professional told you you might be dyslexic? No. Why do you think you’re dyslexic? Because your spelling isn’t too good. Of course. So shall we do some work on your spelling to improve it, or are we going to hide behind this label for the rest of our lives?

Now of course we also have dyscalculia. So now the 99% of the population that hate maths have their own label to hide behind in the hope that we’ll leave them alone and not make them do sums. Please do not think I am having a pop at people who genuinely do suffer from dyslexia or dyscalculia, but we are living in the legacy of decades of uninspiring maths teaching in schools and as a result have been left with generations that hate maths. Some people genuinely have barriers to their numeracy and literacy, but by everyone else jumping on the bandwagon isn’t helping matters. If you think you are dyslexic or dyscalculiate, get tested. If not, do something about it. Stop hiding behind labels.

Another year, another Big Brother “Race Row”, this time from the unlikely source of Wendy Richard.

According to The Mirror (sorry, I like doing their crossword), “The former EastEnders actress sparked uproar with her “Chinese” outburst about Thai housemate Kat Kasisopa. She described Kat as “very fake” before adding: “What is it they say about these inscrutable Chinese? “And she is Thai, but it is all Oriental isn’t it? Well it is to me anyway. “They don’t betray their emotions on their face, that is what I meant.”

I honestly hadn’t heard anything about this until today. Either I haven’t been paying attention, or nobody seems that bothered about the whole thing. As the Avenue Q soundtrack in my car says, “everyone’s a little bit racist sometimes”.

“John Prescott played in a parliamentary football team in teh 1970s with Jonathan Aitken, Robert Kilroy-Silk and Neil Kinnock. And for shin guards he used copies of the parliamentary report, Hansard.”

BBCi 23/02/08

“The female G-spot can be located by ultrasound, say Italian Scientists.”

BBCi, 23/02/08 

Get the feeling Pamela knew something i didn’t? And do Currys do Ultrasounds?

Courtesy of the BBC News website today:

“A 16-year-old Argentine girl has given birth to female triplets – for the second time.

The girl, named only as Pamela, had her first set of female triplets aged 15, having first given birth to a son when she was just 14. All seven children were born prematurely but without any kind of fertility treatment. While doctors say the three newborns and their mother are well, the case has sparked debate across Argentina. In bars and cafes, as well as the letters pages of newspapers, there has been widespread criticism of Pamela’s alleged promiscuity.

Pamela’s family already receives help from the provincial authorities, which donated land and built them a house when the first set of triplets was born. Pamela’s mother, who cleans houses to support her daughter and rapidly increasing number of grandchildren, says they will now seek more assistance from the government for the new additions to the family. Some Argentines are arguing that perhaps what Pamela needs is more advice on contraception.”

No shit, Sherlock. The thing is, this story has only come to light due to the fact that she has been blessed with the gift of two sets of triplets. Had she only had single births each time we would have probably not heard anything about her, but it would still worry me that a 16 year old has just given birth to her third child. I have to confess to not knowing what the age of consent is in Argentina, but surely this is, to an extent, irrelevant – if the age of consent is 14, 16 or 18, a 16-year old has been pregnant each year for 3 years, and that to me is the most alarming point. Now please don’t think i’m having a pop at the Argentinians – I know that our sex-education system is far from perfect, and that is a personal bug-bear of mine, not just because of the teenagers that i teach. Worldwide, we appear to be returning to the dark-ages in terms of sex education, but I also think education in general should be doing more to help matters. Again, please do not think I am judging the many females that I went to school with who had children in their teens – I know their children are loved (planned or unplanned) and that for the majority of cases, their parents wouldn’t change things if they could. But you change so much i your teens, and often too your twenties. You are still finding out who you are, discovering your hopes and dreams. How is this 14 year-old going to do this with 7 children? Even with 3 children under 3 she’d be struggling. Of course, it’s a person’s choice if they want to have their children young, and enjoy your life once they are grown up, but I don’t think the youth of today are being shown the opportunities that are out their for them. The world is their oyster – if only we showed them that.

According to today’s Metro, “Lindsay Lohan has bared herself to fans as never before as she replicates the last ever photoshoot of her movie herione, Marilyn Monroe.

The 21-year-old shot the famous ‘Last Sitting’ for the same photographer who took those last pictures of Monroe back in 1962 – Bert Stern. Six weeks later, Monroe was dead.

Redhead Lohan is recovering from three bouts of rehab therapy last year and a spell in prison for drink-driving related offences. But she says she never wants to fall in the same tragic way as Monroe or recent Hollywood victim Heath Ledger. ‘They are both prime examples of what this industry can do to someone. I’m not them. But I sure as hell wouldn’t let it happen to me.’ “

The phrase “watch this space” springs to mind. I hope you realise I wish her no harm, but if you are interested in her fate, I feel the best way is to keep an eye on the tabloids as they chronicle her demise. Little bit of history repeating?

Funny breed.

I’ve spent most of the week interviewing perspective Skills for Life tutors to work in our department. Having been bitten in the past, less emphasis has been put on the need for a teaching question or even a relevant degree/ level 4 qualification. More emphasis has been put on a desire to work with the young people that i work with – You can be the most qualified or experienced teacher in the world, but if you don’t like the people you’re teaching, you’re screwed. Hence we’ve had a wide range of people in for interview, all with very different lives, experiences and backgrounds, but all have been equally amazing at the same time.

Running parallel to this has been my private life. My other half moved up from South London on Wednesday to live with me “oop Norf”. Yesterday he had an interview with a training provider in Doncaster, to do exactly the job that I do. He was very suprised he even got an interview, seeing as he has no teaching qualifications or experience, and his degree is in Sociology. He does, however, have experience of working with people with mental helath issues, an insiders view of the job from being with me, and a keen interest to do something similar himself. He is also keen to learn – he’d learnt things in the days preparing for his interview that the interviewees weren’t aware of – and is more than willing to work towards relevant qualifications once in the job. He felt the interview went until he had to do a presentation piece about how he’d deliver a particular subject to a given group of learners. He felt his lack of teaching experience let him down, although he had been honest with them from the start about this. He has written off getting the job. If they have had a similar experience to us with staffing, I still think he’s in with a chance.

So what does this say for the government’s agenda, to have all teachers qualified witha teaching qualification, and a relevant degree or level 4 qualification? All well and good if they are working towards them whilst already in the job. It’s becoming more aparent that you can teach someone how to teach, but you can’t make them like the people they are teaching – especially when they are teenagers.

“Golf slang: A Vinnie Jones is a nasty kick when least expected; a Paula Radcliffe finishes short of the target.”

The Guardian, 15/02/08.

www.guardian.co.uk

“Bryan Robson owned a sizable stake in the Bury-based Birthdays card shops, which he sold in the 1990’s.”

The Guardian, 15/02/08.

www.guardian.co.uk

And all who sail in her. First blog of many – get used to them.

A x