Twitter-witter!

[tree_and_leaf]

• 22:17 I do like Candlemas. #
• 22:27 @ParrotKnight Well, one of the choir did once set fire to their hair, but no harm was done. And there weren't even minor incidents tonight. #
• 22:39 @angevin2 I feel like I'm being manipulated, but it's so adorable I don't actually care... #
• 08:29 So not only can the south of England not cope with snow, neither can their travel websites? *Rolls eyes in irritatingly Scottish manner* #
• 08:45 Oh come on, random Tory, it's simply not true that sex ed lowers the age people atart to have sex. It's far more complicated than that. #
• 10:17 Snow! Yay! We've not got very much, but it is very pretty... #
• 10:48 @ParrotKnight Never mind the Canadians, it's the sniggering from anywhere north of the Midlands that ought to embarrass them... #
• 11:43 So if Candlemas is _snowy_, what happens? If Candlemas day is frost and snow, winter ... can have another go? ... is about to blow? #
• 12:38 Wondering what Word has done to my page margins...? #
• 13:18 Ah, it's 13:20. This explains why I feel so very hungry. *Squelches off to buy sandwiches* #
• 13:48 Grauniad reckons men with scars sexier, but only for short term flings: tinyurl.com/amut45 #
• 15:30 Facebook hates my computer now :( #
• 16:21 Also, I have ear-ache. #
• 16:28 @GMWWemyss Sounds marvellous - just right for this sort of weather. #
• 17:49 I really have forgotten how to write CVs for no-academic jobs. Help! #
• 18:18 Off to Cubs. Scientist badge work - could be fun. Or chaotic! #

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Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Favourite item on the news this evening was either Tim Willcox or Joanna Gosling of BBC News in London asking how Rothbury, whose gas supply has failed, wasn't cut off from the rest of Northumberland if the snow was so bad. Well, said Chris Stewart of BBC Newcastle, up here we have things called snow ploughs...

[tree_and_leaf]

*g*

Though it would be frightfully inconvenient to have not gas. Worse than no electricity, really.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I've never really lived in anywhere which had gas; my parents installed it when I was at university. My sister has it, though.

[(Anonymous)]

Snow ploughs. Let me explain something to you. According to the news, this is the worst weather in London in 18 years; my view is that they underrate it, and that I do not, repeat not, remember a time when it snowed for two days straight. Now, if the local authorities were to buy snow ploughs only to use them once every eighteen years, it would not only be a waste, but you would seriously risk to find them out of order and in need of overhaul just when you need them. I spent part of my youth in the Alps, and I can tell the difference between places where it snows and places where it rains.

I would have thought that an Oxford person would know better than to propose the false contradiction: "it's simply not true that sex ed lowers the age people atart to have sex. It's far more complicated than that". If I were your tutor, I would mark that sentence down and point out that just because "it's more complicated", i.e. other factors are involved, does not mean that "it's simply not true." It can be shown that every expansion of sex ed has corresponded with an expansion of underage sex practice. This does not prove that the one causes the other, but it places the burden of proof on those who would deny it outright.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can understand London boroughs not having snow ploughs - it would be utterly pointless. They should, however, consider that Northumbria, a place with permanent ski lifts, might have them.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Random Tory (if he's the same one I was listening to an Radoi 4) was doing so well until he started moaning on about sex education. I'm far more worried about the sexualisation which my children are exposed to via peer pressure, society in general, the media, advertising and inappropriate clothing than I am about them knowing where babies come from and how to prevent them (just for the record we have informed them about the former but they haven't asked about the latter yet)

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, quite. It's not what they get in the classroom that's the problem, by and large, but you can't keep children from being exposed to the-world-in-general. Or I suppose you could, but it wouldn't be at all good for them, and liable to lead to disaster later.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Regrettably, what goes on in the classroom all too often has to make up for the inadequacies of not only society but the family as well. There are all too many unhappy parents lurching from failed relationship to failed relationship, or staying in a relationship which is frankly unhealthy not only for themselves but for their children as well, because they think that any relationship is better than none. Or who are too embarassed to discuss relationships and intimacy with their children.

I would welcome education about sexuality in all its forms, together with an examination of intimacy and relationships, if only to counter the terrible pressure from society as a whole. Schools need to prepare children for life, and that includes things they may not need to know for many years, including not only the basic biology and what goes where, to the emotional consequences of behaviours, what can go right, and what can go wrong- including how to deal with anything from sexually transmitted diseases to sexual problems such as erectile disfunction (which affects a LOT of men) or unplanned pregnancy, miscarriage and fetility problems. It isn't a question of them racing out to try it, it is a question of them being prepared for what life might throw at them.

One of the saddest things I have ever seen was a girl of about fifteen or so who was in the same hospital as me when I had my elder son. She had a really really creepy "partner" who made every woman on the ward feel uncomfortable. We went into labour on the same night. I was 41 weeks pregnant. She was only 22 weeks gone. Her baby died. She came to see me the next day with her mother as they were about to leave. I said how sorry I was- she held my son for a few moments and then she left. To this day I still wonder how she is and how she coped with the death of her child at such a young age. I wonder if she had had a proper education in sexuality and relationships if she would have found herself in that situation at such a young age. I hope she's alright.

[tree_and_leaf]

That is indeed a tremendously sad story - and you're quite right about the role of schools, I think (poor teachers; they've got a very difficult job.)