Lighten up!

“My wife says she will carve on my tombstone my most annoying remark: ‘Ach! That’ll do’,” says Dr John Cameron of St Andrews, “but such an attitude may be what separates ‘Boomers’ from ‘Millennials’.

“In my day, going directly from school to an apprenticeship wasn’t ‘failure’ – few jobs required a degree so only oddbods who coped with exams went up to university.

“Sadly, the ‘Education, Education, Education’ mantra tried to send 50% of young people to university compared to less than 5% in 1960.

“Huge numbers of children were drilled and put under the lash of endless exams, but what is a doddle for odd-bods is a perfectionist nightmare for the many.

“Millennial self-worth is equated with academic achievement to the detriment of their health because attaining such levels is by definition beyond most people. So lighten up!

“Want a job for life? Get a trade. Stay loose and do what lies to your hand.”

“This unusual white-tailed robin has made its home in my garden,” says an Arbroath reader.