i'm not entirely sure what got me thinking today about the hideous days of junior high, but for some reason, google triggered some sort of repressed memory of 'les actualités,' these current-event worksheets we had to fill out about once a month for social studies class through grades 7 to 9.

i remember spending hours in the public library scouring through newspapers to find obscure facts like the name of the deputy health minister of nova scotia at the time who may have been mentioned in some hidden news brief.

'les actualités' drove me to rabid frothing of the mouth; it wasn't that i didn't keep up with relevant current events, but the information the worksheet asked for was routinely irrelevant, with a few rare exceptions. i guess i wasn't as immersed in the news as i am now, though that's hardly surprising given my age then. the worksheets even made me ask my parents for an extremely ill-conceived subscription to Maclean's, which helped rarely if ever. the magazines piled up essentially untouched, and i, having neither the parents in high places with all the answers to the questions on the worksheet nor friends with such parents, was forced to wallow in my sheltered mediocrity.

i wonder if the ol' junior high still attempts this exercise, which by now -- evidently -- involves no more than the rote and mindless task of typing key words into google. and if they do still make the kids do 'les actualités,' i wonder if the students are learning just as little as i did back then.