Thursday 16 October 2008

Counting Crows

The BBC reports that girls are already educationally ahead of boys by the age of five.
I wasn't surprised by this. Yesterday, after Jo had explained to all the children in the class how to tell whether a spider was female or male, I asked each of them in turn to tell me what gender they thought the spider I showed them was. All but one of the girls looked at the spider and then said it was female. All but two of the boys didn't look at the spider but said straight away that it was a boy. The two who looked said it was female and they were correct.
And yet, if we could follow this class through to adulthood, inevitably the men will outearn the women, except the two who already showed signs of objectivity, because they are more likely to consider women as their equals.
I didn't make any of that up.

Yesterday was my first day of being green again. Welcome back Witch Hazel, how have you been? I think you're becoming darker, unworried about what people think, more crotchety. I think I like you even more this year.

This case of a British couple being sent to gaol in Dubai for having sex on the beach should send out a message. Don't go there, don't work there, don't give them your money.

The leader of the Liberal Party in this country, is conspicuously failing to fall on his sword. I guess he will, just a matter of time. The thing is, it's kind of all too boring. I mean, it's not like the Liberal Party has any real political stance. The middle kid. Neither a lefty nor a righty. They need someone spectacular to misdirect like a good magician does. I don't mean someone with chutzpah like Miriam Margolyes or a real statesperson like Hillary Clinton, no, they need a showstopper, a wham, bam, thank-you Ma'am.
They need shazam.
They need a red baron.

Or maybe Witch Hazel, the old crow.

4 comments:

Sleepy said...

My Nan always had Witch Hazel in the fridge for bruises.
It may come as a surprise but I was the kind of child who got a lot of bruises!

Schneewittchen said...

My mum did too. I really liked the smell of it.
Bruised? Toi? I can't imagine why.

Kateryna said...

well I've been busy all week and today trying to catch up with all of your posts. After reading them all and because of my weariness the only thought in my head is that by 5 years I am sure I was still playing with dolls.


A reflection on me and not meant to be a personal opinion to generalize the other 99% of our educationally advanced gender.

Schneewittchen said...

Kat - I'm convinced myself that playing with dolls is one of the reasons why girls are more advanced. All of that is about inventing and exploring social situations, and involves a lot of language use, which is key.