Ramblings and Rants

Whilst having a break from reading for my clinical psychology essay, I decided to read the BBC News website. Among the usual articles about how the world is a terrible place, I saw two articles which have compelled me to write this blog post (so blame the BBC, not me!). Firstly, I saw an article about how the UK isn't really progressing in terms of education, despite throwing shed-loads of money at it. Following this, I read another post about how a Strictly Come Dancing contestant has earned an honorary doctorate. Now, if you can't see the link between these two articles, bear with me and I will explain.

In addition to the divide between rich and poor in the UK, I feel we also have a divide between 'nerds' and 'normal people'. If you recall my post from the other day, I talked at great length about how 'nerds' are portrayed in the media. Ultimately, we're laughed at. It's simply not cool to be intelligent. I think this is perhaps why the UK doesn't perform as well as it should in terms of education.

The Strictly Come Dancing article highlights this fact. If you read the article, a number of other people also received honorary doctorates - a clinical director of spinal injuries and a campaigner for autism. However, the BBC chose to focus mainly on the guy who went on a dancing show. Make of that what you will, but I think it perhaps represents our values. Why celebrate people who have made scientific advances when you can watch the nice man do some dancing on TV? Perhaps I'm too cynical, but still...

Regarding the initial article I read, there were some fantastic comments which mirrored my views that intelligence isn't valued in the UK. Someone made this observation which sums it up very nicely: "Joey Essex couldn't navigate himself out of his house, instead of berating people like this, we shove a camera in his face and give him a load of money. No wonder our kids are thick, it pays to be."

If we continue rejoicing and celebrating people who get rich quick from entering reality TV shows, and we put down those nerds who spend their time studying, then is it really any wonder we don't do so well in education?

Personally, I still subscribe to a wonderful quote by Terry Pratchett: "If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star... You'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy".