ISBO

As part of my induction into education, I attended a session on Aptitude Testing. This contained the extraordinary revelation that if a child scores highly on numerical but low on clerical, s/he is more likely to be (a) foreign (b) dyslexic (c) both. No shit?

(What was scarier was the distinct implication that these scores were going to be used to plot the rest of the child's career in education. If all educational theorists - or most theorists, come to that - stopped work, would the world suffer?)

This evidence must have been produced by the ever-busy Institute for Stating the Blindingly Obvious. Why, today's paper had two such reports:

First, not working for a living makes you fat and depressed and also shortens your life.

To my mind, this supports my inclination that Keynes was right when he suggested paying people to dig holes (yes, I can think of at least five objections, so please feel free to point them out and I'll post them).

Second, marriage is good for the couple, the children and society.

I wonder if it will ever come to be accepted that the twentieth century, by embracing divorce (and to a certain extent the cult of the individual) did more to encourage the social breakdown than anything the free market ever did? And it's interesting that those who 'encourage' divorce, or at least treat it neutrally, encourage state intervention to alleviate its effects.