Values

I enjoy quizzes. I like to participate in them and enjoy writing and delivering them. In a moment of pure folly I have offered to run the quiznight at a local pub, and that is a huge commitment in terms of work and time. However i do tend to see things through and have been working on the first one which is due in a couple of weeks.
As I was compiling a round or two this morning I got to thinking about the quality of the questions and whether or not they were accessible to the punters. i remember setting a quiz for students at school some years back; this was a bright group of kids and I was taken aback when one lad complained that I wasn't asking questions that he knew the answers to. This is an important issue, and one thing that I wouldn't want to do is make anyone feel stupid. It is important to strike a balance and find questions that people can answer, but on the other hand they should not be too easy. People like to feel that they have accomplished something, whether they win or not.
I like to think that the people that go to quiz nights are those that actually value knowledge and for its own sake too. As a society we seem not to value such things anymore. We value money above everything else and unless you are wealthy or have the capacity to make money you are seen as irrelevant. Young people are being indoctrinated into an awful system, where they are not taught to recognise what is truly of value. It seems that unless you are a rock star ( I hesitate to use the word musician there), a football player, or something big in the city, then you are just run of the mill. We have lost touch with what is really important, and it is time that we reminded ourselves that some things are of more value than money.
Kids are forced through an archaic system of education that has lost its way and lost a sense of real purpose. What is the point of everyone going to university and gaining a degree? A degree these days has no market value anymore so why delude youngsters into building huge debts in order to become unemployable? Children should be taught or given the opportunity to think and to realise what they are good at, not to be thrust into a system that does no-one any favours. We need all sorts of talents, and those talents should be valued equally. Yes we need everyone to be literate and numerate for their own sakes, but equally important is that kids should grow up with self belief and self respect with a choice as to which direction they choose to take.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY