February 2010 Archives

Sometimes it's hard to know what to believe. It seems impossible to get through a month without some revelation about child illiteracy or innumeracy, yet every year we see an increase in the quantity and quality of exam results.

Alain DeBotton tweets. I guess philosophers have to find their audience wherever it might exist these days. Last week he tweeted: 'If we are good, it is usually more from lack of opportunity for transgression than from intrinsic virtue'.

You'll have noted that this is slightly more intelligent than the average tweet, certainly more so than mine, but whilst the medium may be modern the message is ancient. Plato was probably the first to philosophise over the same issues, as early as 380BC, at which time I don't think they had Twitter.

The goalkeeper quit. Again. Last season he left for a month or so, because he thought he might like to play rugby instead. We were suitably enraged, having put time into nurturing and encouraging him and even picking him up to drive him to certain games. In the end we allowed him to come back as he appeared suitably contrite, and he's a good keeper after all. This time there's no going back.

By now you'll have worked out that I'm not talking about professionals, this is much more challenging - the heady and competitive world of under-11's football. Or should that be the petulant and irritating world of under-11s?