UKC

I'm listening to the radio and they're talking about schools quashing kids' ambitions. Loads of people are 'phoning is saying that they were told be teachers they should become hairdressers and binmen, but they're now world-leading experts in everything.

So the moral of the story is, tell kids they're a waste of space and wait for the buggers to prove you wrong!

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

Nice theory - still waiting for it to work for me.

In reply to Tall Clare: Awww! Worked for Winston Churchill - his parents were awful.

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

They can't have been that bad or else how come every sprog born since has looked like Winston Churshill ?

In reply to Tall Clare:

You're a binman?

In reply to Submit to Gravity: they are right my teachers said that I was was lazy and spent most of my day day dreaming. That I lacked ambition and concen......Ooo look a birdy

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

My teacher said I was a model pupil though, sadly, not a working model

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

I was made to go to speak to the careers woman in our school AFTER i'd been accepted to law school (around 1998). Even after telling her what I was going to do, she kept asking me if I fancied a career in the armed forces and gave me lots of brochures.

Turns out everyone who went to see her got the same chat! Bizarre.

In reply to Submit to Gravity:


Good idea, my teachers said I should be a world-leading expert in everything but I ended up being a hairdressing binman.

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

John Gurdon, one of the Nobel prize winners this year (and might be reason this came up) got ranked 250th out of 250 kids in his year at biology and did poorly at others.
needless to say his school report didnt encourage him to pursue his aim of being a scientist.

In reply to teflonpete:

I think of you more as a hairdresser who binmans...

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

I had some teachers that might have used such rude statements as a motivation technique, others were just arses and lots were OK; just like normal people really. Success isn't always easy to define: I've known very happy labourers and very depressed professionals. I also wonder how would you class Vidal Sasson on you success scale?

In reply to professionalwreckhead:

What country did you go to school in?

In reply to Submit to Gravity: I told the guy at my one and only careers interview at grammar school I wanted to be a; "vet or a geneticist", he told me, "I'm putting you in for a welding apprenticeship."

best thing that ever happened to me that apprenticeship!

It made me buck up my ideas, get out of the iron foundry, and get a degree under my belt.

In reply to Submit to Gravity: I was told by a 'careers advisor' at school that, going off my predicted grades, I should apply for a vocational course in construction or some-such. I now have a degree and I am training to be a science teacher.

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

I went to several careers interviews (in my 5th and 6th years of secondary school) because they were tremendously amusing. The poor adviser only had a limited range of careers in her database, and she would match these to your interests. When I said I wanted to be a geologist (I am one), she brought up the same two recommendations: countryside ranger or geography teacher. I would then say that I wished to be neither, there would be some polite blether, then I'd take my leave.

In reply to Submit to Gravity: Careers advisor, after reviewing my 'academic potential' recommended that I look at park attendant or council gardener. I admit I was lazy at school, doing no more than I needed to, as it was anticipated by my family that I was destined for either the steel works of the pits, and family, in those days tended to decide on ones career path! After school I went on to (badly?) select several different careers, obtain degrees or higher in three subjects and enjoy myself. I am now over-qualified for bumbly jobs that are relevant to my age (Supermarket greeter!) or too old for any job where I can use my qualifications. I am enjoying taking back out of the system some of the huge amounts I have paid in NI over 45 plus years, and surviving quite comfortably on Pension Credits!

In reply to GrahamD:

I thought we all looked like Genghis Khan?

In reply to verygneiss:

And where did you learn about the transliteration of Russian?

In reply to aln:

I did a poo once that looked like Genghis Khan.