Well, it is A Level results day so I trekked off down to Clifford's College with him to find out the best and possibly the worst. I was amazed, but not in the way that I expected to be amazed. For his Mathematics A Level he got an "A" the same as his brother Miles, but he actually did better than him! He beat Miles by two marks overall which is truly incredible because he has not done as much work as my Number One Son Maths Head Honcho. He averaged 96% over all 6 modules but didn't get the A Star because he didn't get 90% or more on the A2 Modules. Very good news. Here comes the sting.

He totally bombed out on his Computer Science and today said he wasn't interested in the subject and didn't do enough work which totally cheesed me off because what is the point of actually entering into an exam, facing the intellectual war with yourself and the information and then not actually fighting the battles. Bad dog and not the way a Bahai young man is supposed to do things. The only good that has come out of it is he gains some points to go towards his University application next year.

The other slightly minor sting considering the lad is very interested in history, which you would think puts a kid in the zone when they are interested in the subject, well yes, but only if they revise and do enough work. Similar problem to the Computer Science. Bad dog again except the results were an underperformance and not a total disaster and he will be re-sitting a paper in January. Grade C is not good enough and he knows it.

I have known for a long time that underneath any development of talent are moral and spiritual values expressed as intentions and then manifested as sheer hard work, determination, acumen and reflection. Miles has that in droves and that is a choice that he has made, since he was about five years old to be quite honest and it came out in his play, but his maths ability is not a choice it is something he was born with . So he can crow over his efforts but not so much over his latent abilities.

Clifford has done well today and he has a lot to celebrate with his Mathematics having bettered his brother, but over his other efforts we had a long and detailed discussion this morning with his Mother as well over where it went wrong and what he will do and has agreed to do to get it right. I don't mind if any kid fails or succeeds for that matter but what I do mind is when there is a failure of spirituality and morality by not being bothered, not making the effort and worst of all not talking to his parents about this moral failure. This is also what he feels the worst about just out of interest. Good.

So, very good doggy but he is in his kennel for a couple of nights. Well, until tomorrow night when we will give him a big treat for doing so well at his mathematics and beating his brother an indication of his true abilities something he is just beginning to wake up to I think. I expect him to get chewed over by Queen Elizabeth College when he gets back. Good!