Ashes? What Ashes?

Ashton Who? on his way to 98 runs yesterday

The fantastic summer of sport that we are enjoying this year keeps rolling on.

First we had the British Lions beating the Australians.

Then we had "Sir" Andy Murray ending Britain's 77 years of hurt by finally claiming the men's Wimbledon title in a thrilling final 10 days ago.

Chris Froome is currently leading the pack in the Tour de France.

And now we have the Ashes.

The Granddaddy of Cricket Test series.

England and Australia battling it out with the Willow and the ball.

The series has made an epic start. We had 14 wickets tumble on day 1 and the greatest total ever posted by a no. 11 batsman yesterday when Ashton Agar scored 98 in his debut Test innings.

The commentators on BBC's Test Match Special are falling over themselves to tell us what a great sporting spectacle this is.

This is a sporting battle that should be gripping the nation. The boys and girls who were rushing out every playtime with racket and ball to re-enact the heroics of Andy and Laura on the Wimbledon grass should now be doing the same and flinging yorkers and googlies at each other as they re-live the previous day's play.

It's not happening.

A quick survey of my kids' schools indicates that there are still more children playing tennis than cricket in the playground. A quiz of my children's cricketing knowledge tells me that they have no idea who Ashton Agar is and can only name one member of England's cricket team (Kevin Pieterson) - and this at a time when the England cricketers are arguably our most successful sporting outfit.

The 2005 Ashes series genuinely did grip the nation. Children did take to the parks and streets to ape their white clad heroes and for 1 glorious summer we were cricket crazy.

Why is this not happening this year?

Why are my children not in the least bit bothered?

Why can't they tell their Alastair Cooks from their Graeme Swanns?

In 2005 the Ashes was broadcast by Channel 4. Ever since it has been live and exclusive on SKY. Since 2005 Cricket has been chasing the cash of this sporting behemoth. As a result they have had millions of pounds pumped into the sport but at what cost?

Sadly this pursuit has led to Cricket disappearing from the radar for millions of English children. If I were a cricket administrator with a view that extends beyond this summer's payday I would be worried for the future of my sport. I would question whether a big payday today is worth an obscure future.

Cricket is a difficult game for schools to run. It takes a long time to play and it requires a lot of space. As a result it has disappeared from the curriculum of many state schools. It therefore becomes even more important that it gets plenty of television exposure in order to build up cricketing heroes and establish cricketing dreams among the young so that they seek opportunities to play this game which we are currently very good at.

So, Dear Administrators of Cricket - please look beyond the size of your wallets and look to the future - or your sport will die.

Speak soon
JH

PS Photograph courtesy of the Daily Telegraph

Why I Hate Halloween

It's Halloween this week and all over the country little kids will be donning plastic masks, cheap costumes and fearful laughs in an effort to celebrate this horrible festival.

I hate Halloween. And these are my 3 reasons why:

1. I Hate What It Celebrates

Halloween celebrates darkness and evil spirits. It remembers horror and death. It lauds the apocolyptic image from Edward Munch's "Scream" painting and raises witchcraft and divination as role models.

It takes it's roots from pagan festivals of the dead which were adapted by Medieval Christians to remember the day when the souls of the departed has their last chance to take revenge on the world of the living before moving onto the after life.

Why are we celebrating that?

Even worse, Halloween has become an event for children. Why on earth are we encouraging our kids to dress in the costumes of those who practice black magic?

2. I Hate What It Has Become

When I was little my parents celebrated Halloween in an "Oh, look it's 31st October - let's have a little Halloween party with some neighbours" unprepared but spontaneous kind of a way. We did a bit of Apple bobbing, cut our fingers carving "Jack O Lanterns", turned the lights off  to play scary hide and seek and talked about what a big deal Halloween was in the USA - where my Dad grew up.

But, we spent no money, terrorised nobody for sweets and were not lulled into visiting a shopping centre because of it's Halloween decorations.

Halloween is  no longer like that. It is big business. A quick Google tells me that my local steam railway is having a Halloween special tonight (and yesterday and tomorrow), Thorpe Park is charging £45 entrance for their Halloween themed "Fright Night" evenings this week (£45!!!!!!) and your local supermarket has been selling jumbo buckets of Trick or Treat sweets since the start of October.

It has become another excuse for big business to make money out of us and when you consider the roots of Halloween (see above) it doesn't sit right with me.

3. I Really Hate Trick or Treat 

Above all, I hate Trick or Treat. Trick or Treat is a charter for bullies to intimidate their frailer neighbours into giving them sweets.

Perfectly respectable parents will encourage their children to don hideous disguises before accompanying them to a neighbours door and demanding sweets with menaces.

Would they encourage them to do the same on any other day of the year?

Are they hoping that the children will take this on as a life message?
 
Of course they aren't!

So this year, why not stand out from the crowd and reject Halloween as the superstitious nonsense it really is. Visit a Light Party instead, put up a poster telling trick or treaters that you are sorry but you are not being part of it this year, like the one above from Satffordshire Police, and save your money for Bonfire Night which is only 5 sleeps away after all.

What do you think?

Speak soon
JH

The New E-Bac: What's to Like?

E-Bac anyone?

It's official. GCSEs are on their way out - to be replaced by a shiny new qualification that combines a name that sounds like a virtual tobacco (The E-Bac anyone?), a stonkingly long  3 hour exam and the prospect of 18 year old lads in flannelette shorts sucking their pencils as they try to add an E-Bac to their GCSEs in 6 other subjects at the fourth attempt.

As the dust settles on yet another education reform passed by Britain's most popular Education Minister since Margaret Thatcher (aka the "Milk Snatcher") this is the Dad Etc 5 point take on this major overhaul of England's public examination system.

A Levels are not as easy as they say!

From Discovery Education

As well as a Dad I am also a teacher.

I teach History in a lovely school with a supportive staff and well motivated students.

But there is one thing that gets me down about teaching and that is the constant sniping at GCSE and A Level results that you hear every summer, and now throughout the year. I first published this post in April when our esteemed Education Secretary Michael Gove was bashing A Level and GCSE results and the teaching profession in general (again!)

What I hate about the whingeing about A Level results in particular is that it shows a complete lack of respect for the students who have just gained these results and their teachers who have prepared them.

There cannot be many industries where results have been improving year upon year for over a decade. You would have thought that that would be a reason to celebrate. But no, in typical British style the media (cheered on by the politicians (or is the other way round?)) pick holes in their success. The exams must be easier, the exam boards must be corrupt, the weather must be differenter etc etc.

League Tables Are the Cause not the Answer

The sad irony is that the current situation is a product of the politicians obsession with measuring attainment within schools through league tables etc.

It works like this.

Mr Politician (or Ms/ Mrs etc) says "we must have a league table to rank schools by exam results to promote parent choice in education."

Mr Headteacher (or Ms/ Mrs etc) says "we must do well in this league table - so dear teacher what are you doing to make sure your results in History are better than the school down the road"

Mr Teacher says "golly gee, I must make sure that my students do as well as possible in the exam in the summer so I will find out exactly what the exam board are looking for and make sure that my students are fully prepared for this"

Results go up. 

Students now see that it is a lot harder to get into university etc so Master Student (or Miss etc) says "I must rely more and more on what the teacher tells me about how to pass my exam because I want to be a vet and to get into that course I need 2 A* and 1 A minimum"

(One example - the course I completed in 1992 now requires BBC grades - I got CCD) - I was very lazy!)

Result - much improved results, much harder entry requirements for university, much more focused exam based teaching, less independently minded students.

So please, today, when you will no doubt hear Michael Gove leading the assault on A Level (and GCSE next week) students whose crime will be to have done better then their predecessors - please buck the trend and to steal a phrase from David Camcorder "hug an A Level student" and say "well done"

A nice person hugging an A Level student and saying "Well done" 

Speak soon

JH

PS - Despite what I have said above, don't be surprised if you see a slight dip in results this year as I know from hearsay that examiners have been asked to be tougher than before on students - another example of politics creating an unfair system and then (no doubt) blaming the teachers for the drop in results.