Tuesday - Thursday, December 11 - 20 2012 (diary)

A busy period with much playing, writing and teaching bridge. I had advertised an Intermediate Bridge Lesson for Sunday the 16th, but so near to Christmas I was doubtful whether many would turn up. However to my great surprise 15 players joined the session and we all had a great time.

The weather is rather dry in the localised area of Coolalinga and Virginia. Whereas Palmerston (10 km away) had some massive downpours of rain, we had only 15 mm this whole month. Many residents have therefore started sprinkling their lawns again.
No doubt that will change in the near future and we look forward to lots of rain in the coming months. Hopefully we will be spared violent cyclones, like the one that just has ravaged Samoa and Fiji.

The education in Australia is in a sorry state. In a recent international comparison test Australia ranked around 30th in reading, writing and mathematics. Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and China were ranked in the top 3 world wide.
I can not help but think that the Caucasian race in general is in mental decline. It are not the brains that are lacking but the attitude, mentality and classroom environment that appear to be totally off the mark.
Discipline is now a tabu word in education, tests are being considered too stressful for the students and teachers now must aim to be friends with their pupils, with disempowerment as a result.
Apart from anything else, self discipline and a cool head when under stress are hallmark requirements for anybody who wishes to achieve anything in the word, no matter at what scale. So to ignore these aspects seems very very short sighted to me.