This is the NZ, Down under version of "Aren't we oldsters lucky!"  
 
 CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE  
 
 1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!
 
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking ..  
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a Ute on a warm day was always a special treat.   We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle..

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Red Rooster. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy fruit tingles and some crackers to blow up frogs with. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight b ecause......   

 WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!  
 
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.   
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in creek beds with matchbox cars.  
 
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video
tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!  
 
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
Only girls had pierced ears!   
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross buns at Easter time.......no really!  

We were given BB guns and sling shots for our 10th birthdays,  

We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing at Maralinga in 1956. 

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!
 
Footy had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!! Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather staps and bully'salways ruled the playground at school.  
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.They actually sided with the law!
Our parents got married before they had children and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like "Kiora"
and "Blade" (Ed. Nothing wrong with Blade (named in honour ofchampion ruckman Brendan Lade))
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!  
 
The past 70 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. 
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned  
 
  HOW TO  DEAL WITH IT ALL!  
 
  And YOU are one of them!
 
  CONGRATULATIONS!  
 
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the
government regulated our lives for our own good.  
 
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.  
 
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?! 
 
  PS -The big type is because your eyes are shot at your age 
 

On Quoting Shakespeare
If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you
are quoting Shakespeare;

if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting
Shakespeare;

if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the
thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting
Shakespeare;

if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed
jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied,
a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your
brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one
wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master),
laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much
of a good thing, if you have seen bet ter days or lived in a fool's
paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a
foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting
Shakespeare;

if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think
it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe
that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own
flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect
foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without
rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were
known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting
Shakespeare;

even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was
dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the
devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking
idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the
dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting
Shakespeare.
Bernard Levin

Callum McPetrie

Libz youth spokesman
November 17, 2008

It could read like a Shakespearean tragedy: using the excuse of their
students' personal weaknesses, bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education
are trying to remove Shakespeare, arguably the finest mind ever in
literature, entirely from the national curriculum. Amidst fears that his
works are too removed from the mind of the average High School student,
Shakespeare could be scrapped.

Perhaps these bureaucrats should consider the reasons why students in New
Zealand are so out-performed in other countries. After years of
politically correct, postmodern "teaching" strategies implemented by both
Labour and National Governments, students, parents and teachers in this
country have been left with the short end of the stick. What we are
seeing today is a population so dumbed down that many lack basic skills
and knowledge, with many ending up on welfare. Indeed, the reason why
many students "don't get" Shakespeare has been through the curriculum
introduced by the same "education officials" now proposing this measure.

This latest proposal to remove Shakespeare, and letting a student who
studies a blog as a piece of English literature obtain the same marks as
a student who studies Shakespeare's incredible works, is simply the next
piece in the puzzle. Shakespeare's works are the best pieces of
literature around, and are still very relevant in today's world. Teachers
in schools are smart enough to know this. Said one, "I am genuinely upset
that the amount of literature students are required to study is being
reduced and replaced with ambiguous standards which seem to water down
the work students are required to do." Said another, "All the challenge
and in-depth analysis and skills required at each level are being
modified, and in my opinion, made easier. Is the implication that we
should not dare to challenge students, or heaven forbid, ask them to
engage with texts that really speak to the human condition in a superbly
crafted form? Dumbing down again."

Yet "education officials" who have no idea of how a child's mind works
dictate what gets learnt.

Politically correct, big government dictatorial thinking at work again.
Appealing to the lowest common denominator, and not challenging students
to think beyond the box of government-mandated thinkingâ€"the concepts of
"sustainability", "equality", or in my English class, "altruism". It is
taught much the same in countries such as Britain and the United
Statesâ€"with similar results.

In a freer world, schools would be entirely free to teach whatever they
want, with the choices of parents and teacher deciding what ought to be
taught. As an interim measure, save us from yet more entrenchment of
political correctness at schoolâ€"save Shakespeare.

Callum McPetrie callummcpetrie@yahoo.co.nz

Article: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/4761440a23918.html