I just had an email to say that my energy bills will be going up by about £400 a year That's my council tax reduction negated then I find it so frustrating that electricity prices have to follow fossil fuel prices even though you can sign up to a dedicated green energy tariff. I understand it, and I'm told the profits will fund more green energy but I still hate it. It also wouldn't be so bad if the energy companies didn't keep making massive profits, paid decent amounts of tax and didn't receive government subsidies.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I believe the other young girl was told by one teacher she should give up tennis because she'd never succeed, and should concentrate on her schoolwork instead .
I hope she sends that teacher a message...middle finger would about cover it.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I side with Northern Joe, here. A combination of talent, application and, often, luck will allow children to achieve great things. But not all. So never crush their ambitions, offer encouragement but temper it with realism. I am concerned there is too much exaltation of mediocrity by teachers (and parents). I fear that telling children what they have achieved is ‘brilliant’, ‘fantastic’ etc when it is the product of just a modicum of effort will give them false ideas of what can be achieved without application.
'Aim for the stars and you might reach the top of the tree/get out of the gutter' Limiting ambition always limits success.
@wild edges you're paying for nuclear as well as fossil fuels. Wind and solar are cheap but in rather limited supply this year. If we had all reduced the amount we use, it might have been enough, but unfortunately everyone just keeps using the same or even more power.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Should totally encourage children they can achieve anything, because the alternative is to discourage them, and then you can be certain they will fail, probably at multiple things. Sure they might not go on to win a grand slam, but they might discover a hobby for life.
That's not what I'm saying. Encourage kids to achieve what they can, their best not everyone's best. Telling them they can do anything isn't right and doesn't help them achieve what they can. If you introduce tennis to someone by telling them to look at that young tennis star and that it could be them with hard work. Only for them to try their best and still get beaten by everyone in their peer group. That's as likely end their interest in tennis. Alternatively encouraging them to play and enjoy it at their level might end up with an active life playing tennis as a hobby.
My PE teachers made us do sports we were no good at. It was only much later that we got to do other sports. In my case using the multi gym and doing orienteering which I did for fun in my free time anyway. I was no good but I enjoyed it not least because I wasn't competing with anyone I just did it because I loved it.
I'm thinking realism and honesty is still important with kids. Encouragement is not dependent on telling them lies.
I just had an email to say that my energy bills will be going up by about £400 a year That's my council tax reduction negated then I find it so frustrating that electricity prices have to follow fossil fuel prices even though you can sign up to a dedicated green energy tariff. I understand it, and I'm told the profits will fund more green energy but I still hate it. It also wouldn't be so bad if the energy companies didn't keep making massive profits, paid decent amounts of tax and didn't receive government subsidies.
The massive costs of developing and constructing green energy infrastructure has to be recouped. The wind and sun may be free, but converting them to energy isn't.
But recouping those costs is fairly linear and the 'fuel' is free. You don't need to suddenly hike the prices to recoup the investment. I understand that materials and shipping prices have increased massively though so new infrastructure is costing more but this time it's known to be down to the rise in the global price for gas.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
@wild edges you're paying for nuclear as well as fossil fuels. Wind and solar are cheap but in rather limited supply this year. If we had all reduced the amount we use, it might have been enough, but unfortunately everyone just keeps using the same or even more power.
People certainly keep buying bigger and bigger TVs. I work with two monitors on the computer and try and keep the one turned off as much as I can. It's a 19" monitor and draws about 20W but the 52" TVs you see everywhere now can be rated at up to 300W, and that's not including the power it takes to stream whatever they're watching. A 32" TV would use half the power and never seems like it's a small screen size to me. The only benefit of energy price rises is that it makes people more aware of how much they're using.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Can you do that? Can you judge without circumstance? The Queen is a thief? All military people who kill are murderers? All adults who slapped a child are child abusers? All people who buy the produce of child labour or slave labour are themselves abusive? What about abortion? Meat eating? What about religious doctrine?
Can (or should) you judge anything out of context? It becomes greyer surely? If you're willing to excuse a child who is the product of a naff environment, why do you not see that someone who has lived a life in an environment that espoused x or y as being true - is as equally conditioned by that environment?
The Queen is divinely inspired apparently, so is the Pope, so is... I may snigger at that as a concept, but it was (and is) believed by some. It then influences outlook doesn't it. Victorian England had many 'beliefs' that I think we'd find strange today - and Churchill was a product of Empire.
Posts
I hope she sends that teacher a message...middle finger would about cover it.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@wild edges you're paying for nuclear as well as fossil fuels. Wind and solar are cheap but in rather limited supply this year. If we had all reduced the amount we use, it might have been enough, but unfortunately everyone just keeps using the same or even more power.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
My PE teachers made us do sports we were no good at. It was only much later that we got to do other sports. In my case using the multi gym and doing orienteering which I did for fun in my free time anyway. I was no good but I enjoyed it not least because I wasn't competing with anyone I just did it because I loved it.
I'm thinking realism and honesty is still important with kids. Encouragement is not dependent on telling them lies.
The massive costs of developing and constructing green energy infrastructure has to be recouped. The wind and sun may be free, but converting them to energy isn't.
'The power of accurate observation .... is commonly called cynicism by those that have not got it.
George Bernard Shaw'