My One and Only (EVER) Big Brother Post

I am not a fan of Big Brother. I don't even watch it. The only way I know what's going on is by reading the red tops. Actually, from that point of view I am a fan - I read everything that's going on practically every day. But mainly just to tut and shake my head knowingly at the absurdity of the whole thing. And I do that quite a bit. My difficulty with Big Brother is that it doesn't seem to know what it is anymore. Reality TV hardly describes it; its as far from reality as we can get - well, other than Last of the Summer Wine maybe. It stopped being a psychological/ sociological/ ratings experiment for me when the freak show qualities of potential contestants became more important than the mix. It stopped being a competition for me when they started giving evictees a chance to go back in. I just don't know what it is now - do they?

Anyway, I dislike the thing, but I am quite interested in it. And recently my interest became (for a split second) a professional one. And something happened which disturbed me greatly. In fact it shook me to the depths of my career-based existence. The whole faith I had in my purpose as a Learning Support Teacher has taken a battering - and all because of a Big Brother Task. How can this be?

Recently on Big Brother they carried out a series of personality/intelligence tests on the housemates. Now part of my job is carrying out Cognitive abilities tests etc so I have to believe that they are a fairly accurate way of gauging strengths and weakness. However, as many of you will know a welsh housemate called Glyn was named the most intelligent. This is the same welsh housmate called Glyn who freely admits to doing "dumb stuff" like "falling over." Homer Simpson doesn't have a prayer when this guy is around. He got annoyed because he rated so low on the Machiavellian scale - despite the fact he didn't know what the word meant.

I wouldn't be so worried, but these are the tests that are increasingly being used in industry to rate a candidates suitability for a task. If they go so wrong on a TV show then what might be happening out there in the real world. We could have inspirational leaders clearing tables at Mickey D's while simpletons run the countries (no disrespect George W.) Glyn may still be young but I fear for him, I really do. He has such a naive view of the planet that he could be in for a big shock. He's stuck in a kind of perpetual childhood. Hmmm, maybe there is something in this intelligence test after all. As the digital Spy Big Brother site puts it:

By accident or design (or a bloody crafty combination of both), Glyn has become a housemate for all people. HeÂ’s the helpless schoolboy, pulling at the heartstrings of the mature female vote, the mad-cap, sports-mad, singing small-town boy-next-door for the Tweenage Texters, the all-drinking, all-streaking geezer who loved Baywatch and blondes with big boobs for The Lads.

The crafty sod's had us all fooled. I bet that squeaky welsh accent is put on as well! He's probably from Essex. The swine! I feel much happier now.