What has our schooling taught us.  After spending the best part of at least eleven years sitting in classrooms, bored out of our minds, what skills have been passed down from the curriculum into our tiny minds in order to help our lives in the twenty-first century?  Have I used Algebra or Pythagorus recently?  No.  Or have I been dissecting Handel’s ‘The Messiah’ in order to further my job prospects?  Mmm.  Or do the internal workings of the worm provide me the practical knowledge in which to carry out basic tasks?  Er…

That is the problem with school.  So many of us were taught so many subjects with theories that can lift off any household’s roof with hot air.  But how many of us were taught anything of practical value.  How about trying to make a healthy and tasty meal on a minimal budget?  How about the basic workings of a car or replacing the tap on a bathroom sink?  Actually, was anything that would have been of immense practical use to our modern lives ever taught to us in school?  All I can remember is irrelevance and boredom.

Just think how much richer my life would be with the knowledge of successful cooking.  How much cheaper my repair bills would be when my car needs to be serviced?  And imagine not having to panic when my toilet overflows.  But no, instead I was taught how to use a pipette in the chemistry lab.  Wow, the practicalities allows me to use a bottle of eye drops properly, it was worth that one hour of my life.

And so today, my house is a tip, my car does not run properly and a boiled egg is a treat beyond my own means.  But if you want to work out the square root of the hypotenuse, I am your star pupil!