Earning the right to be Brilliant

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm currently a student doing my A levels. And this has led to me thinking a lot about the exam system and the way it all works, especially after last night. For last night was parents evening (yes, we still have parents evenings in sixth form) and the major feedback that I got was "State the obvious". My English teacher summed it up best saying that what I was doing was brilliant but that I had to "Earn the right to be brilliant"

Whilst I understand that it's not them who control things, and I am quite happy to try to down whatever stylistic problems I have, I do have a problem with the philosophy behind it which seems to be emanating from the exam board. "You have to Earn the Right to be Brilliant"? you have to "earn" the right to achieve? You can't just do the best that you can you have to earn the right to do it? Want to make a contribution to society? Well first you have to earn the right to do your best for society

Whilst this annoys me about the exam system I don't really care too much on the basis that it doesn't affect me for much longer, as within the year I will be off at University (as long as I don't screw this one up) and I am assured that one has a lot more freedom there. Once you are at University you have earned the right to be brilliant. But I am very worried that this is an issue that will be emerging from the Big Society.

Those of you who know anything of my politics may well have just spat your tea across the room, so pick up your jaws and let me explain. I believe that the Big Society is an idea which must, for the sake of everyone in this country, succeed. But I fear that it is being stopped by the same philosophy which is frustrating my a levels. "You have to earn the right to be brilliant". You can be a gifted Doctor, a talented Teacher or maybe you are just willing to lend a hand with your local charity. And that's marvellous, and thank you. Thank you so much. But you can't. Not yet. You can't just be brilliant, you have to "earn" the right to be brilliant. Sorry

I'm not saying this is as a result of Government cuts. I've not been "marching for the alternative" because I'm not sure I can see an alternative. But what I can see is regulation, bureaucracy and other hidden obstructions preventing people from helping to build the Big Society, maybe from even wanting to build the Big Society. And I'm not saying I know what should be done to stop this, but something has to be

Who I am and how this came to be

I have absolutely no idea how often I will update this blog or when I will do so, so this entire endevour could go horribly horribly wrong. Or it might not, we'll have to wait and see.

One of the reasons I don't know how often I will update this thing is because I have other things that keep getting in the way of my life. That's a total lie; they are all part of my life. The most prominent of these is Sixth Form, I will tell you about the others at a later date but I'll talk a bit about Sixth Form now.

So I'm in my second (and hopefully final) year of Sixth Form (I say final only in case I fail everything this year). I'm not going to be in Sixth Form for much longer, I think we have something like 31 school days left, and then I will be off into the wide world. But for the moment the things I'm studying are taking up vast amounts of my time so more often than not they will be the things I will write about

You probably ought to be warned what they are, so here we go. I'm studying:

A level Drama and Theatre Studies
A level English Literature
A level Government and Politics
A level History
and BTEC level 3 Music Performance

The BTEC slightly happened by accident; more on that another time.

The Least Interesting Man in the World

"His blog has four posts. All of them apologies for not posting more"

So says XKCD on the subject of the Least interesting man in the world and I pray to God I don't turn into him but I might. So watch out.

(If any of you don't read XKCD by the way, do so, immediately. Click on this to find it --> http://xkcd.com/ )

So anyway, I've just finished doing a play (It was awesome, and I miss it and everyone involved) and so have found myself with a lot of spare time on my hand. A lot of my mind shouted "Revision" at me at this point but a slightly louder, if smaller, portion of my psyche shouted "BLOG" and so that was the part I listened to.

(Writing "Pysche" has made me think of "Psych" which is one of the greatest tv shows ever. Watch it if you don't, it is absolutely hilarious)

So anyway, the plan is to waste my time with this every now and then to give me something to do. Hopefully it will work out ok :-)

P.S. Smileys need noses; depriving them of nasal facilities doesn't accomplish anything