Exams

Children are up to their necks in exams now, struggling to remember things that will be all too soon forgotten when the exam is over, trying to solve equations that they will never have to do again, writing essays on subjects they find deeply boring and looking forward to that time when they can throw off the shackles of school and feel free again.
George Bernard Shaw who did not want his plays to be studied in schools (though after his death, they were) wrote about education: "I am firmly persuaded that every unnatural activity of the brain is as mischievious as every unnatural activity of the body, and that pressing people to learn things they do not want to know is as unwholesome and disastrous as feeding them on sawdust."
The father of friend of mine many years ago used to tell of a well-known medical student who could never pass his exams to become a doctor: he failed year after year until the medical faculty decided it was time to let him through; so they passed him on his written exams but he still had the viva to do. He sat there before the examiners to answer questions on medicine and the body. "Right then, Roger," the chairman of the group said, placing a bone on the table, "what is that?" "A bone," said Roger. "Yes, but what bone is it?" "Look," said Roger, "it's a degree I want not bloody honours."