““ • On dunces: in the old days, if you were found out to be a dunce on any given subject you would have been asked to don a donkey hat for an hour, and made to stand to the right of the blackboard with your back to the class, dodging an array of projectiles -bits of erasers, paper planes, dried snot balls et cetera- but nowadays, in startling contrast, you’d be invited to stand outside, in the cold hallway, thereby sharply decreasing your chances to learn anything of the lesson you were supposed to catch up on. Another triumph of modern thinking!””