Much of this is self-evident or as Basil Fawlty would have said "bleedin' obvious", but it is not necessarily so to a teenager. Should
young people be left to find it all out for themselves? The point is debatable, but I would personally have preferred more guidance.

RELIGION: Nobody ever explained that not believing in any "God" was a valid, logical and moral position. One was supposed to be a believer - the very school motto confirmed that. Religious Instruction might have been a place to explore this - but it was only ever about Jesus and the Bible as far as I remember.

LIFE: Nobody ever explained that Life is a miracle in the general and not uniquely-religious sense.

• Most of the Universe is near absolute zero with trillions of stars at vast distances from each other which are either incredibly hot or extremely cold and unimaginably dense. The existence of the Earth with conditions that permit our form of Life is an astonishing exception as far as we know.
• The Universe is estimated to be 13,800,000,000 years old. If we are lucky we may live to be 100. Our lives seem long at the time but are microscopically short compared to the life of the Universe. Butterflies live for a day, which compared to the life of the Universe is VASTLY longer than we do.
• There is currently NO PROOF THAT WOULD STAND UP IN COURT THAT WE ARE NOT ALONE in the Universe. The VAST majority of the mass of the Universe is DEAD - yet we are alive.
• Life itself is a miracle. The mere opening of an eye or indeed ANY other physical action requires the simultaneous and automatic coordination and synchronization of billions of atoms.
• If you believe in "God" then this miraculousness is all simply shrugged away as his work - but it is all a miracle however it came about.
• This may be self-evident - or it may not. We are so USED to all of it that we kind of take it for granted, but constantly reminding oneself of this miracle enables us to enjoy a sense of wonder each day with each experience.

CARPE DIEM: Our lives are astonishing - and a one-off role in eternity. That suggests we should indeed SEIZE THE DAY : make the most of it: try everything, do our best, enjoy life's wonders to the full.

HABIT: Nobody emphasised that it is HABIT which prevents us from daily acknowledgement of Life's miracle. We all know the proverb: "Familiarity breeds contempt." without usually applying its wisdom to everyday life. Every object we look at: a flower, a tree, a bee, a dog or a bird is like us: BILLIONS or even TRILLIONS of atoms working automatically - and for LONG PERIODS until age takes over or something breaks down.

TAKING THINGS FOR GRANTED: Once again, HABIT steps in, but every time we turn on a tap to get some drinkable water; every time we eat an apple, every time we apply the brakes on our bike we should perhaps have in the back of our mind that someone WORKED and/or PAID or considered others to PRODUCE the most banal everyday things we use or consume (AND of course that millions in poorer countries do NOT have such things at all). I would like to have studied the life of a working farm more. In fact, thanks to the Young Farmers' Club we DID have good introduction to some aspects of farming, but the provision of food is so fundamental to Life that it could have been an exam topic in itself. (AND of course SOME teaching about NUTRITION should have been provided - WHAT IS MORE FUNDAMENTAL TO HEALTH?)

In personal terms, I think it is very important to instill in young people the appreciation of what others do for them. CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE is a fundamental part of the Human Spirit - and SHOWING one's appreciation is a MAJOR part of that. How many of us regret not telling our teachers when we left how grateful we were to them? I had Stretch Poole, Derek Thornbery and Brian Middlebrook for years and massively enjoyed their classes. Shakey and DIck Woollett were my housemasters for a while. But I never clearly and specifically told them when I left how much I appreciated what they had done for me; it was kind of assumed on all sides, I guess - but things are usually better CLEARLY SAID.

EVIL: We knew that humans can be evil. We read about nasty people of the past, but nobody really made clear just HOW barbaric humans can be. One can read general descriptions of the HOLOCAUST (which in fact we did NOT do), but it is not until one reads about individual stories and historical details that the hideous truth becomes really clear. My feeling is that such evil as the Babi Yar or Katyn Forest massacres were skirted over. I never even heard of Genghis Khan, Timur or the Ottoman Empire until long after school. I don't remember ever being taught in details about any such event. SHOULD one teach youngsters that humans can be so evil? One wants at school to be hopeful and joyful, but where does TRUTH come into this?

What SHOULD have happened is that pupils were given a good idea about this and warned that one of their main responsibilities as adults was to do everything they could to avoid such evil gaining power.

TRUTH: I do not remember being warned to be ETERNALLY SCEPTICAL about 1) what one heard in the media and 2) "RECEIVED WISDOM" = things that were generally accepted as true. It is wise to ALWAYS question everything with regards to the EVIDENCE and SOURCE. This may be something that many see as self-evident, but it was never explicitly explained to me as far as I remember.

RATIONALISATION: I did not learn this word until uni - which may have been my fault, but the point is that the process is a kind of self-deception to be wary of. Lovers of TRUTH do not rationalise.

EMPATHY: This is fundamental to the success of communication and relationships of all kind. Many empathize automatically, but others do not. A good exercise would have been for the teacher to sometimes ask: "What am I thinking or feeling at this moment?" Of course neither philosophy nor psychology were part of the currriculum - which was a pity.

SEX: Is it not odd that people do not talk more openly about one of the most fundamental human characteristics? Is this some kind of guilt passed on by "religion" in the past? We had no sex education whatsoever apart from some coverage of the biology in class. What I would have liked to be told was:

• Sometime you will have a humongous crush on a girl. It will be so strong as to seem like something nobody could ever have experienced before. This is of course ridiculous - but we are not always logical.
• The chances that you will end up marrying this first-crush girl are vanishingly small. The most likely outcome is that you will get your heart broken. It may again seem like something so savage that it could never have happened to anyone else ....
• .... but it ISN't. It is NORMAL, so BE PREPARED intellectually if not emotionally. It will seem like you can never get over it, but YOU WILL EVENTUALLY - kind of.
• This girl you meet may or may not like you in return, but she will not be psychic. You need to TELL HER HOW YOU FEEL. If you TELL her then you will know and things will go one way or the other. If you DON't tell her then things may never go ANYwhere - and you will REGRET it - possibly your whole life (Watch "Anne with an e"). YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE aka "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
• Full-on intercourse really IS best left to marriage. This is not necessarily a religious approach: just the wisest. Apart from the possibility of conception or disease, intercourse is the highest expression of love and should be reserved for someone you really love, and love enough to want to be married to. The point is that there are LOTS of things you can do which are great fun without the full Monty. NOBODY ever made that clear. Sex was something only mentioned in the dorm - usually somewhat coarsely.

PS. A) The curriculum was determined mostly by the Cambridge Examination Board - and time was limited, but I regret not studying more biographies. I would like to have learned more at at school about these people among many others (in random order):

B) I left school without having memorised many quotes. I love these pearls of wisdom and observation from the past, and we could have used them as introductions to some study of those who said them. Some of my favourites are:

• "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." (Albert Einstein)
• "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." (Anne Frank)
• "Let us live so that the day we die even the undetaker will be sorry." (Mark Twain)
• "If you love Life then don't waste Time, for Time is what Life is made up of." (Bruce Lee)
• "To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice." (Confucius)
• "Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it." (Pericles)
• "No man is an island ....." (John Donne)* SEE BELOW. This should have been compulsory study ......
• "Don't count the days; make the days count." (Muhammed Ali)
• "Grief is the price we pay for love." (Queen Elizabeth II)
• "If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.” (Marcus Aurelius)