The SoundTrack To The Blockbuster Movie Album
On my first day at Exeter College (1991) I (stupidly) attended the welcome lecture given by the Principal, with all the others who were too naive to avoid this nonsense. The lecture was about an hour long, which felt eye-wateringly longer and from memory solely consisted of the message 'how to catch AIDS'. After this exhaustive marathon, disappointingly setting me on my path to the loathing of organised education, I went to my tutor room where we had an ice breaker quiz and I remember just one question and just one conversation:
The question:
"What dangerous substance begins with E?".
The conversation:
"Simon, what have you written?".
"Additives".
"WHAT!?!".
I was the only one not looking confused, as I continued, "E is for additives.".
Everyone else, including the tutor, had the answer down as Ecstasy.
"No, the answer is Ecstasy. The drug".
I persevered, "Nope, my Mum is reading the book, 'E is for Additives', it's all about E numbers in foods." (It's a wonder I made any friends).
"Well, I haven't heard of that book, nor E numbers".
I tried to explain (for an eye-wateringly long time) but my warnings about the dangers of E numbers and their effect on us were clearly no match for an illegal drug.
<insert tenuously linked ramble here about how education is not a fair system and those gifted with academic intelligence are more likely to have more choice of career, higher salary and more respect in society. Oh, and you could include a bit about how learning about relationships and communication are infinitely more important than route matrices. Which of course is important, but not as important, everyone needs to communicate, the majority of us will enter in to some form of relationship, yet the route matrix is only memorable by a Scottish maths teacher who knew how to over-pronounce and roll the 'r'...rrrrrrrroooooooooooute and has yet to serve a purpose in my real world.>
I never did try Ecstasy, though I bet my tutor has had plenty of harmful E numbers.
Mum wins.