Competition

A fortnight round-up:
- Apparently, the state of our country is so dull the BBC decide that both the state of American politics and weather are more important than something Nick Clegg said, and so in the morning I had to wait until the third news story before I actually heard about something that happened in Britain.
- Nick Clegg said something unimportant about tax, which doesn't affect me as I don't earn anything.
- Burma took loads of people off their blacklist
- Mitt Romney says so many stupid things I'm happy he's not running for PM in the UK
- Exam boards ruin children's future
- Lack of communication with my school means I don't know my results until the beginning of term
- Everybody buys Paralympic tickets before me :(

But today, I shall talk about statistics, sports and schools.

After the Olympics, in which Team GB won more or less everything when it came to cycling (the general consensus is that Rio shouldn't bother building a velodrome and just give us all the golds for cycling instead), the government needed to think how to build a legacy after hosting the Games, a promise which awarded the city the Games in the first place. And so, discussion of sport provisions in schools was brought up.

This is where Gove and I differ (as is the case on many education issues). He believes that, in order to get kids into sport, the minimum amount required is an hour per day. Per day! I agree that's good for personal fitness, but it has no place in schools. The average (state) secondary school has a six hour day. Five one-hour lessons and an hour of break (although I do know one school in the South East that does two three-hour lessons a day instead). Within a week, currently, two hours of sport are squeezed in. And in the GCSE years, few people ever participate in these two hours anyway, at least that's what the situation is for the two lower-set groups in my year. I'm a lower set, and whilst I don't fake notes, I haven't done full-blown participation all year either (I missed about a week of lessons to paint a flag, of all things). We're a sports college (apparently one of the first sixteen in the country), and so you'd expect the school to do something to tackle the fact that very little participation happens in the upper years both in general PE and on the sports day. But no, they cease to care past your third year. What they do care about, however, is the few groups that go to other schools and play. It makes them look good on paper, to the cost of most of the students.

What we need is a better variety of sport. If you're bad at a sport, you'll dislike it. If you dislike it, you're disinclined to play it. In my last school, I had to play rounders (Google it if you don't know. It's a little bit like softball) all day, every day for quite a few weeks during my final term. Of course, now I know how to play rounders, and so do many of my old schoolmates, but it doesn't mean we like it. We still groan and put little effort into each game. More hours of sport won't change that. The sports I choose to do are fencing, kayaking and snowboarding. I'm not a fast runner, particularly good field athelete nor can I swim very well. According to my school, I'm not a very sporty person. The only reason I ever managed to access those sports was due to enough personal drive to actually want to do something. I'll be honest, I'm not the greatest at any of the three, but I enjoy them enough to search out for clubs and opportunities to play them. If a student looks to be failing or disinclined to play in the sports the school has on offer, then maybe they'd enjoy an alternative sports. That way, everyone gets a chance to find something they like. And obviously, every school in the country won't have the opportunity to ferry multiple children here, there and everywhere weekly to do each and every sport that they excel it, but there can be compromises. If someone shows they participate in a club outside of school, and it's not a sport the school offers, then why not allow a child out of one lesson a week, or allow them to practise that sport within the lesson (if possible). There, you've got everybody involved in sport for two hours a week.

Making someone do something they dislike over and over won't make them enjoy it, however letting them do something they enjoy once will make them do it over and over.

Trains

So, I postponed a day, which gives me fifteen days to summarise (this may become a regular thing):
- Assange hides in a building and more or less messes everybody up
- The Olympics end and everybody cries
- Cameron/Clegg say something idiotic
- Milliband replies with something equally idiotic
- America messes in affairs it probably doesn't need to mess in
- Richard Branson stopped being smug about everything.
- I have a birthday
- I gain an addiction to iced gems
- I buy lots of books and am very happy.

But today, I was going to do something about YA novels but instead, I shall rate the state of our trains. For those not in the know, the trains (and possibly stations, but that would need checking) are controlled by private companies, with the rail lines themselves belonging to National Rail. On my way from one parent to another, I can travel on up to three companies (four types of train).

-- The Southern Service

I have always found their seats to be a bit worn, but at least they always have enough. I've never had to stand on a Southern train, and I have taken some pretty high-demand trains before. The train sometimes rocks a tiny bit, but it's barely noticable. They are also always quiet, and as they have few windows they have a good air-conditioning service, so yesterday I was quite cold despite it being horribly muggy outside. Unfortunately, there's no designated luggage holder other than above the seats, which I can't lift my suitcase up to. 8/10

-- First Great Western (Short-haul)

These trains are deployed when the journey is max an hour and a half. There are always newspapers on the seats, and there are either too many seats and I feel like we're being packed in like cattle, or there are not enough seats and I stand for an hour. They also rock a lot and I feel quite unsafe. In lieu of air-conditioning a few windows open by a fraction. As a result yesterday I was boiling hot and was actually tempted to add another change to my journey in order to get on a Southern train faster. However no matter how small the train there is always a luggage holder about mid-carriage. 5/10

-- First Great Western (Long-haul)

These trains are in service for journeys over about an hour/hour and a half. I've used this type of train about seven times, however only once have I found a train that gives you the four/six seat with a table set up, and even then it was only in one carriage. The taps in the toilets never work, and again it packs everybody in like cattle. I don't remember seeing many windows, so there was possibly air-conditioning. The train rocks and is so loud that I feel like I'm travelling in a tin can at times. There is a buffet car, although I've only ever bought water on them. As they generally get holidaying passengers, their luggage holds are very generous. My main gripe is the fact their is no "Open Door" button on the inside of the train, and to open the door you must pull the door window down, reach out the train and push the handle down. 7/10

-- Arriva Trains Wales

I have never wanted to travel on a train service less. The carriages are too thin to hold four seats and a decent walkway across, and so everybody is SQUISHED in. There are also never enough carriages and I rarely get a seat. Unlike FGW, they don't bother with a buffet car and instead try a trolley service. Of course, the carriages only fit the trolley if nobody else is on the train, so I spend most of the journey with overpriced sandwiches shoved in my face. The toilets are blocked and never work, let alone the taps. The tin-can feel is worse in these trains than in FGW ones. 4/10

Postponed.

I've been with sparse internet all week, and I've been travelling all today.
 
As a result, I shall postpone today's post until tomorrow.

The Book Thief

Okay, I'm going to be a little lazy because it's the summer holidays and my brain has gone to mush. This'll probably be short and it's a glorified review. Basically, a friend of mine would like to sell some things on Etsy (if it ever gets done I'll let you know) and so we've been racking our brains for quotes etc. One line in question is a line from The Book Thief - "I am haunted by humans". It gave me a chance to revisit this book, and I'll talk about it a little bit this week.

If you exist you've probably heard of this book, The Book Theif by Markus Zusak. It follows a little girl, named Liesel Meminger, who is growing up during WWII in Germany. She was "given up" by her mother as a little girl and lives with a loving, if poor, family on Himmel Street. On the train to meet this new family, her brother dies. It is then that Liesel steals The Gravedigger's Handbook. This is the first of many books she shall eventually steal.

What makes this book different is the fact it's narrated by Death. It's a piece of experimental literature, obviously. The chapters are littered with sub-titles and pictures, at one point the pages are taken up by a story that one character writes to Liesel with. Death comes across as a strange character. He often distances himself from the fact he has to collect the dead souls, talking of it as if it is nothing but a job. Yet other times he focuses on nothing but the fact he has to collect the dead souls, and will spend many pages talking about it. Death, in a way, acts exactly as you would expect him to.

The Book Thief is a rich book, one that I read like fluid yet took in every word. It's a beautiful one, a book that some might find to gimmicky and difficult to read. If you ever get the chance to read it, I'd advise it without a pause. See you in a fortnight.