Awake and up all night

Hope you have lots of positive vibes around you tomorrow. 

Your plans sound fab and just right.

This is only a public goodbye. You still have him and always will.

Lots of love 

Hope this starts to sort out what is causing your distress. Good luck.

I'll try that then Shimmer, and try to think myself beautiful at the same time  

...It hasn't worked love, as I caught sight of my mug in the kettle. Back to the drawing board...

Rome wasn't built in a day

Cheers

 xxx

No one rides a bike from the first instance they sit on the saddle.

I was vaguely listening the news the other morning and Scots kids were receiving their exam results. It struck me that it must be MUCH harder these days to engender effective study habits in today's youth. As opposed to learning, studying for exams is all about deferred reward ... do this now to get that later.

Pushed at us from every angle these days,  is 'want it, have it' 'get it, get it now' and so many TV shows etc where folk can be almost anything despite being too old, never having trained or qualified etc and even after a life of squandering their own opportunities or plundering other people's.

How do we persuade youngsters to grind through a night of revision rather than being with their pals, or online, or plugged into their music while mainlining junk food treats? Not just one night, most nights.

Koo! Anybody here got teenagers?

Cheers

Sending hugs Dingg I hope it goes as well as it can do tomorrow xxx

Not now hon, as my 'kids' are 44 and 46.  

But, when they were teens my eldest found just about everything came easily, a fluent and prolific reader aged 2, playing musical instruments from 6, a swimmer from a similar age, etc. so when it came to swotting up it was already in her head, ergo she didn't do any, and by the time she reached GCSE and A levels she was out at night with her mates in the pub and still passed them all. Lucky gal.

Youngest wasn't quite so academically minded but when she shed her slight puppy fat, blossomed into a stunner and rode along life on her looks, which opened doors.

But... there was no internet, social media or any of that baloney and they read books, lots of them, between the boys and socialising with their friends and whatnot, and we played, yes the girls and me were mates as well, but knew their boundaries. A lot of that way of life has gone and kids now flounder in aspiring for heights they've no chance of reaching but no-one wants to tell them.

Back to the three Rs and learning by rote could be an answer but the internet has stuffed it up and don't even start on mobiles. I live a stone's throw from the school I worked in for donkeys years and when I see today's inmates they walk with phones glued to their hands and look at nothing other than said phone. Even then their eyes are dead and without emotion.

Unless there's a drastic turnaround there doesn't seem much of a future for Gen Z. Or am I being a doom monger? You decide xxx

I think you have to step back further than the teenage It's about planting the seeds early. It's about seeing learning as enjoyable. Developing an inquisitive nature in our children. Children learn by example. If there parents are interested in the world and excited by gaining knowledge, their children will too. The students I taught who excelled didn't do well because they crammed or had photographic memory, they excelled because they had a passion for the subject. You mention the way that a capitalist society embeds an insidious feeling of constant disatosfaction in people. A need for new, better shinier things. Immediate gratification and dopamine hits.The thing about having a passion for something, whether that be music, art, history, sport, literature, or even stamp collecting, you get pleasure from developing your skill, understanding the subject more thoroughly and contributing to the development of that subject. The problem with education in the UK is that it is a one size fits all method. We need to stop pumping out the bilge on media platforms that being pretty, handsome, humourously stupid will get you where you want to get. Get rid of social influencers. They are toxic news.

Hear hear, Uki xxx