Wierd Science

I was watching ITV the other day – there is an unsubstantiated rumour that the programme I was watching was the ‘Xtra-factor’. And that is just what it is, a rumour and an unsubstantiated one at that! Anyway, I digress I was watching ITV and an advertisement, probably funded by some government agency, trying to boost the number students choosing to study science came on. On its own this piece of news is as unremarkable as an unremarkable object sitting in a grey room surrounded by other unremarkable things.

But when this is taken with the news (I was watching BBC Breakfast the following morning) that health and safety fears are forcing science teachers to stop children participating in experiments - urging them to watch experiments on the internet instead, then the news suddenly became as ridiculous as Tom Hank’s hair in ‘The Da Vinci Code’!

So the best way of getting children interested in science is to remove as much hands on experience as you can from their lessons and bore them with endless theory? Quick, someone catch me, I think I’m about to faint from the thought of all that excitement. Now this kind of gets my goat on a few levels...
God isn't it lucky that the Health & Safety experts are here to ensure the survival of the human race. I mean it’s not like humans managed to exist for millions of years before they began helpfully pointing out every potential harmful chemical, situation or routine for us. Seriously, I read a report the other day that said children shouldn't be allowed to play in parks because there is lead in the soil. LEAD IN THE SOIL!!!! That’s the whole reason? When I was a kid I’m pretty sure I ate a lot of mud, and guess what I’m still here and I don’t have a foot where my ear should be!

I mean why try to eliminate the practical element of learning when surely it’s one of the best methods of teaching; not only by engaging students but by also teaching them the basics of handling laboratory equipment? That’s an important skill that will be required if they decide to continue in their scientific studies or careers – surely Lab Technicians started somewhere?

I remember when I was studying A-Level Chemistry and even at GCSE Chemistry, we were encouraged to develop a respect for the laboratory and its chemicals, something this ruling would rob from budding scientists. Any really dangerous experiments were done by our teacher or the lab assistant behind a screen – but we still got to experience them!

Honestly, I find it difficult to fathom why we as a society have become so afraid of everything causing us damage. Obviously there are risks to everything we do but if we all lived our lives according to those risks, none of us would leave the bloody house – simply sitting in our padded living rooms, slurping liquidised meals through ergonomically designed straws that disintegrate upon with anything other than our exact genetic material.

Don’t worry though; they would have been designed by scientists that learnt how to do it from the internet!

Sins of the father...(or mother for that matter)

Now, the fact that I've only just heard about the Chris Brown-Rhianna incident could indicate that I've spent the last three weeks living in some semi catatonic state amongst nomadic goats in the highest hills of East Africa, or it could just be indicative of my interest in the celebrity culture that’s seems to have the majority of people between the ages of 13 and 40 practically salivating at the prospect of finding out who John Mayer is sleeping with next. Sure I'll sneak a look at 'Flava of Love' as readily as the next guy (or even watch a whole episode of Run's House - his final message is always worth it) but when it comes to staying up to date with what famous people are doing, save their actually field of work, I usually steer clear of their shenanigans. So when the reports of problems between Chris Brown and Rihanna first surfaced, I really didn't pay much attention. I'm not even going to get drawn into the details surrounding the case because I think we all know what's alleged to have happened and plus the gossip sites have gone into overdrive with all sorts of nonsense. For example, from www.inquisitr.com, I found the following:

Sources allegedly close to Brown allege that the fight leading to the domestic violence incident occurred because Rihanna gave Chris Brown herpes.

And how did Rihanna end up with an STD to begin with? Claims are that she picked it up from Jay-Z!

I mean what the heck, how do you even begin to come up with something like that?! Sources, what sources? The only source that could possibly come up with that was probably made by Heinz (ok, bad joke I admit it freely). But after some digging and fact checking on less ridiculous sites, I came across quotes from Chris Brown admitting that, between the ages of seven to thirteen, he and his mother had both been the victims of domestic abuse at the hands of someone close to both of them. It got me thinking about how our experiences as children stay with us into our adult existences.

People often describe children as sponges, absorbing the information around them consciously and subconsciously. Usually this serves us well as it helps us to develop. It gives us the opportunity to pick up a number of skills that would take considerably more effort to pick when we are older. If you think about it you can trace so much of yourself to the things you witnessed or heard as a youngster - views on different races, different sexes, how you treat strangers, even your own self worth. Traced back to a time when you were aware of everything and nothing at he same time.We internalize so much that we're not aware of until a situation presents us with a chance to react. But I think this Chris Brown case shows what can happen if the things you witness in your childhood, therefore what you internalize, are less than positive. That's why I think hurt people hurt or those with absent fathers are more likely to be absent fathers themselves. Or how 13 year old father Alfie Patten who is one of nine and his 15 girlfriend who is one of five (indicating that both their sets of parents had children at a young age, maybe even in their teens) find themselves one more teenage couple raising a child in Britain? Everything is cyclic and if an issue is passed from parent to child, it's going to keep being passed down until someone breaks the chain.

Now I don't want you thinking that I'm excusing abhorrent behaviour purely because of what people have gone through in their youth, but what I am saying is there is usually a reason why people do certain things. Unless we have the self awareness or the introspective nature to discover negative issues (large or small) left over from childhood and address them, we're are never going to know how or why they influence our everyday decisions or how to stop that negativity. Making us all susceptible to our very own Chris Brown moment (obviously not literally).