Teachers and the taught

Overheard on the street today:
Young learner a - I'm only 11, and I had to write a six-hundred word essay.
Young learner b - Well we had to do 1000 words, or a combined essay of 1500 words.

Sounds like a lot, don't it? It is quite remarkable. English folk don't know how to spell 'separate' nor do they know about apartheid (it's true! An old work-mate of mine who'd just finished his A-levels asked me: "what was apartheid again?").
But kids these days have been taught to get their priorities right - they have no problem bashing out 15oo words of tat for monday morning, and everyone's happy. They'd make perfect British philosophers.

Speaking of academia, today I lent S my copies of Berkeley's Works and Hume's Enquiries for him to prepare to tutor Dave Distiller's students on the history of philosophy.
See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!
He asked me what I thought would be good preparation, but then he pooh-poohed my suggestion that he read some Ranciere. Naturally, I directed him to the next best thing - Crumbling Loaf - for a lesson in pedagogical mayhem.