Todays paper

There's quite a lot in it today.

I'll start with the Prince Harry story. The young Prince is to act as troop leader with the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry. And the insurgents are awaiting his arrival. As soon as it was made public, they came out threatening to 'send him home to his grandmother without his ears'.
An Iraqi militia commander claims he has soldiers whose job it will be to capture the young prince. He claims he has people within the British bases who will inform when the prince arrives.
A huge scalp indeed.

There's a small piece on the teenage drinking culture. And how assault has dramatically risen in the group of 15-19 year olds. It seems to me that alcohol and assault have been inextricably linked since Adam was a boy. So nothing unusual there. Part of the problem Down Under at least is the almost obligatory way Australians are expected to consume quantities of 'grog' as they bluntly refer to it.
One is considered a freak, to have something wrong with them if they don't embrace the culture. Even the PC, sanctimonious radio hosts espouse with regularity the benefits of alcohol. Depending on the class of host, the more respectful 'wine' is exampled instead of the 'ockey' beer.
But it all means the same thing - drink piss, it's great. Essentially that's what they mean. Well, look at the results.
Forget drugs, there has been nothing as socially destructive as alcohol. Complete strangers, eons in separation from the imbiber of the fluid, can feel its effect.
But it's a HUGE business and as per usual - money talks so for as long as the powerful keep getting rich of its back, the culture will remain.

I've spoken often of the general decline in standards of English and the following headline may go some way to explaining why:

"It's true, mum, we don't have any homework".

A Sydney high school has stopped giving homework to the younger students (year 7 and 8. Ages 9-12). The theory is that the only homework they do get is work they didn't finish in class. Parents say, "it gives them time to be kids". I suspect it may be laziness on the part of the parents (that and the fact that even the parents who have probably not been educated that well and therefore can't help with their kids' work, are perhaps feeling a bit stupid so remove the issue rather than face it.)
Homework is practice. One learns in class but sometimes it can be overwhelming and it rarely locks in immediately so homework is a way of 'pushing it home' as it were. Take that away, instead letting the kids go out and play and completely forget about the subject can result in the next day almost having to start again.
I'm convinced it's detrimental to learning.