One day when we were young, one beautiful morning in May ....

Now those among ye my loyal readers what knows me well

will not believe this confession I'm about to tell...

I was in a remedial reading class in the fourth form.
"get away!" I hear ye yell.

No … it is true … along with Bradley Melville and some other slow learners (as they were labelled in those days of yore).

It happened like this …
One day in class (a beautiful May morning it was), without warning we were given a reading test. I guess I was not in the mood that day … and I did not pass the standard required. (That boy is not up to scratch they muttered and mumbled)

So once or twice week, I was removed from regular class and put in remedial reading. Quite Frankly, I had no idea what was going on … so my self-esteem stayed intact. In fact, with my state of mind in those days, I thought it was a class for gifted children!!!

I was just too busy enjoyed my running, the school play and the cut and thrust of the debating society and generally trying to be famous together with my old pal Graham who became a amateur journalist of some notoriety.

And didn’t Albert Einstein fail at high school – bet he was in a remedial reading class too!

Dr Sir Peter Snell was no genius either at school I hear…

Strangely, I came top in the class in English that year and top over all. My prize? A copy of short stories by … now what was the name of the guy?

Aaah yes …. Guy de Maupassant. Who incidently, is an extremely distance relative of mine!

Youv’e gotta hand it too Minister Anne Tolley (another extremely distance relative).

She’s pressing ahead with this national standards approach for primary schools (years 1 to 8). This is in spite of what leading educationalists from a number of Nu Zulun universities have to say .

I have heard her interviewed on TV and I have to say – not impressive.

Anyhoo click here to remedially read what they have to say about Tolley’s folley.

Anne Tolley has also moved to cut expert advisory service for a number of subjects including science and physical education.

And didn't we have all this Bruhaha about standards testing 10 years ago?
Anyhoo time to get trained to teach remedial maths, reading, writing .... too late to become famous again, I guess.

AAAh those were the days my friend back in the old remedial reading class with Bradley!!!