If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Exciting opportunities for young people are thin on the ground, and when we get to a stage when young people are expected to pay for unpaid internships, we truly have witnessed the death of social mobility.
Made in Chelsea is a programme that not only perpetuates the class system, but is created to make others feel inferior merely so that they can gain money in the promise that this new playsuit or new perfume will make you 'Sloane Street material.'
The statistic seems to have gone unnoticed. Is it that universities and colleges are not concerned about catering to the needs of those wanting to study part-time who are mainly adult learners? Or is it that the hike in tuition fees means that for many adult learners education is simply out of reach?
Anti-Muslim rhetoric has reached such a fever pitch, and in the least expected places of all; British universities - which were once the beacons of free thinking and tolerance.
The Times featured a piece yesterday headlined 'Extremists preaching to students in Britain'. This conflation of extremism with increased religiosity and religious observance is indicative of just how muddled and confused the debate around campus extremism has become.
The hipster level of idiocy has increased ten fold, as apparently educated people go to pathetically predictable lengths to express their "individuality" and general radness, in the irritating form of hipster racism.
The newly introduced testing of school pupils throughout England in a bid to determine their understanding of grammar, spelling and punctuation has sparked widespread debate about grammar in general. How much do we know about our language? How can we learn it? And does it even matter?
So what happened to us as we evolved from shaggy haired Cold War rioters to studious devotees to our laptops? We know more, we appear to be more independent politically as seen in the diverse reaction to Thatcher's death, surely we should be more politically active?
"Teenage stress? Not in my day. We just got on with it!" A common reaction, usually accompanied by a supercilious smile. Or, "Teenagers? They don't know they're born! Wait till they've got bills and taxes and children and no holidays - then they'll know about stress!" More supercilious smiles. But many adults working or living with teenagers have a different narrative. They see symptoms of negative stress: sleep problems, poor concentration and performance, irritability.
We can use pornographic pictures and films as educational tools in classrooms. And we can also make better, more realistic ones, so that young people (and, of course, older people) have a chance to learn about sex in a way that's more authentic.
My issue with Page 3 is not that it features topless women. My discomfort stems from setting an impossible target of perfection for young women that is already so readily available in women's magazines.
