Outside the Academic Sphere

Yesterday, one of my work colleagues had been to his son's graduation from primary school. He was slightly bemused as, after they all got graduation certificates, the cups were given out. There were eight cups for sporting achievements, four for kapa haka, and one cup for academic achievement. I believe if this is the focus of our primary schools, no wonder academic standards are dropping and I also suspect far more people dream of being Richie McCaw than of being another Ernest Rutherford. Yeah right.