Actually quite proud of myself having pia-ed through my vacation marking and completed it all in the last weekend. And, no, I didn't scrimp on my comments on the kids' essays either. Everyone got their fair share of unintelligible red gel-ink scribblings in the margins and wherever there was space.

Had to be done. Got another load of essays today from the block test, and another tight deadline to meet. Brain a bit fried now trying to read essays about the "relevance of moderation in today's society"... who came up with that question, anyway?

Kids keep saying that there are certain behaviours that need to be moderated or else terrible things will happen to the individual or to society. Therefore moderation is relevant today. Sure. Fine.

But this answer quite misses a major facet of the question. Why does the question put the focus on today's world? Obviously, there has to be some comparison between then and now. Has the world since changed in such a way that moderation seems no longer valid? or useful? or even advisable? What have these changes been and how have they altered our view on the concept of 'moderation'? Implications of and effects these changes have had on our lives? Well, something like that, anyway. Ok, really too fried to think coherently any more...