School Days

Every so often, you come across something you completely forgot you still had. I felt that way when I discovered some old school work, when unpacking an old box after moving house.

Here we have some Biology A-level notes (top) where I was dissecting a male rat (pathogen free & preserved in honkin' formaldehyde, no less), and a project I put together for O-level called 'The History of Dyes'. There's a bigger version of it if you use the magnifying glass. Please don't read too much or you'll nod off - it's not really scintillating stuff.

Hand drawn & labelled - these days they'd probably whip out their iphone, take a snap, bring it up in Photoshop, label it & print it out. Not that they get to mess around with dead things any more.

I was a pretty quiet, shy kid, picked on for being 'stuck up' because I was quiet & shy and not in a 'gang' (I hesitate to use that word because it conjures up a different image to what it actually meant back then - gangs these days have weapons). I didn't really enjoy school that much, moving on to 6th form college was better, as they were kids who actually wanted to be there and to learn. Then I went off to University - studied Geology. Back then, full grants were available and I was lucky enough to get one.

I feel for kids graduating these days, leaving the place they spent the last 3 or 4 years, clutching their degree certificates, out looking for work & lumbered in debt for so many years after. However, I do feel there are a lot of 'place filling' courses on offer - courses that serve little purpose but to fill the spaces & generate money for the University or College - many of these courses offering little incentive to employers once completed. It's getting to the point now that a postgraduate degree is rated at the level a degree used to be, and to just have a degree is not really enough any more.

It's difficult to know the answer to that.