Teacher knows best

Mary Boustead, the General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, wants the focus of teaching to change, to equip pupils with the skills, such as teamwork and the ability to research, required by employers.

“Is the world going to collapse if they don’t know ‘To Be, or Not to Be?’ Our national curriculum should be far more focused on the development of life skills and ways of working than whether or not we teach the Battle of Hastings.”

Although she may be right when she say that a new curriculum should not focus on “regurgitation but more interpretation of knowledge” she is in danger of our throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We already have the least curious generation ever. We run the risk of following it with the least knowledgeable.

The curse of the BlackBerry

A rather depressing article in The Sunday Telegraph, about the world of work. Once work was work, and home was home, but now no longer, or not for a lot of people, if a report by Continental Research for Mitel is to be believed.

Getting away from work is growing harder, with more than half of companies encouraging staff to check their emails while on holiday. Businesses are taking advantage of mobile gadgets such as the BlackBerry to ensure that workers are never out of touch. But critics fear that the blurring of the line between work and leisure time is putting employees under strain.

For the lawyers who work for us, the BlackBerry is still a status symbol. Although they may be ubiquitous in the City, we do not give them out to everyone. Consequently the day IT produce one, you know you have made it (well, think you have). Which makes it all the more puzzling for my team that I handed mine back some two and a half years ago, fed up with the endless email traffic, and the invitation to discourtesy that BlackBerries offer. Not a meeting passes without someone playing with one under the table. I’m with Jim Norton, a senior policy adviser at the Institute of Directors, who is reported as commenting: “Anyone who works 100 per cent of the time will not be working very effectively.”

The going rate

Somewhat surprised to read in the Daily Telegraph that Ashley Alexandra Dupré, the 22 year old aspiring singer who was Eliot Spitzer’s nemesis, charged £500 an hour. This is almost certainly less than the hourly rate charged by M’learned friends in killing (at least in most of the UK papers) the story that linked The Emperors Club VIP with one of our part time military peers. But probably more fun.

A modern man

Leaving aside whether or not A levels (or more correctly A2s) are getting easier, the youngest (a boy) is now only concerned that this summer he beats his four sisters. It is a percentage game. I have pointed out to him that even if he gets better grades, this will not make him the most intelligent of the five. His answer was that I lacked male solidarity!

Matching pension liabilities

It is a shame that a lot of the good sense about pension investments is hidden away. This morning there was an excellent article by Edward Chancellor in FTfm, Pensions still oblivious to bond wisdom.

The first rule of financial prudence is that assets and liabilities should be matched. Unfortunately, during good times this rule tends to be forgotten. There’s normally a profit to be made by borrowing in a low-yielding currency and lending in another at a higher rate; or by borrowing short and lending long. The mismatching of assets and liabilities lies at the heart of the current credit crisis. In recent months, many have discovered the perils involved in the pursuit of such easy gains. Only the pension world remains oblivious.

He may have the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation in his sights, but what is true that side of the Atlantic also holds good over here.