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Nov. 22nd, 2012 11:15 amMy sons' school has recently moved over to the "three-year GCSE". However, they quickly worked out that there's a reason GCSEs are normally done in two years - that's all it takes.
So they had to cast around for something to fill in the time in between all those two-year courses dragged out over three years, and they came up with a thing called the Arts Award. This isn't a major problem for the youngest, who's the only one involved, but I am extremely grateful the oldest ("Art is rubbish, English Literature is all lies") and the middle one ("I don't see the point of music, it's just a noise") were too old to be dragged into it.
Anyway, part of this time-filler is that they have to research and write about "An Arts Hero". My little hero has chosen to focus on Notch, creator of Minecraft.
This strikes me as distinctly subversive and thus I approve whole-heartedly. (I admit it, I think "The Arts" is a load of rubbish too. I like some films, I read a lot, I like some pictures, I don't mind watching people dance, but "The Arts"? I've never really understood what that is, and if it's Damien Hirst you can keep it.)
For those who don't know, Minecraft also has the benefit of allowing players to design and build remarkably sophisticated circuits based on "redstone". My kids are all fully conversant with "AND gates" and the like from this, and the oldest explained the whole logic-gates thing to his 'A' level Computing class based on Minecraft (which they all know) after the teacher had failed to get the concept across.
So they had to cast around for something to fill in the time in between all those two-year courses dragged out over three years, and they came up with a thing called the Arts Award. This isn't a major problem for the youngest, who's the only one involved, but I am extremely grateful the oldest ("Art is rubbish, English Literature is all lies") and the middle one ("I don't see the point of music, it's just a noise") were too old to be dragged into it.
Anyway, part of this time-filler is that they have to research and write about "An Arts Hero". My little hero has chosen to focus on Notch, creator of Minecraft.
This strikes me as distinctly subversive and thus I approve whole-heartedly. (I admit it, I think "The Arts" is a load of rubbish too. I like some films, I read a lot, I like some pictures, I don't mind watching people dance, but "The Arts"? I've never really understood what that is, and if it's Damien Hirst you can keep it.)
For those who don't know, Minecraft also has the benefit of allowing players to design and build remarkably sophisticated circuits based on "redstone". My kids are all fully conversant with "AND gates" and the like from this, and the oldest explained the whole logic-gates thing to his 'A' level Computing class based on Minecraft (which they all know) after the teacher had failed to get the concept across.
