I DO hope the students who wept with joy or sadness over yesterday's A-level results don't take their grades too seriously.

Of course, it's important to get good marks, but the whole thing is seriously over-rated.

Some of the thickest people I've ever met have been the proud holders of top degrees at top universities. Conversely, some of the brightest folk and the highest achievers I've met left school with nothing but a red mark around their ear where the teacher had clipped it.

Oops, I forgot. Teachers aren't allowed these days to administer corporal punishment. And perhaps that's where the problem lies.

In my day, you learned your life skills through the school of hard knocks. In this namby pamby new millennium, youngsters are treated with kid gloves.

Most teenagers get everything they want from flash clothes to computers, to fast cars, without ever earning it. Comfort comes too easily for the younger generation who don't realise you have to work for success.

Some then have a rude awakening after suddenly finding they are 30-year-old adults with lots of educational achievements but no actual skill in doing anything.

I'm not knocking our schools and universities. They do a fine job here in Bucks. But this county is so affluent that many school-age children don't have a clue about the outside world.

In Gerrards Cross, they think poverty is when they can't afford to buy their chauffeur a new suit.

I blame the parents. They rightly demand the best schools for their offspring, but then spend the first 20 years of their lives protecting them against every outside influence.

My medical knowledge is scant, but I do know the best way to avoid a serious illness is to expose yourself to the infection from a young age. If you live in a plastic bubble, someone will one day burst your reality in a horrible way.

So my message to students today is: celebrate if you did well, be sad if you flopped. But don't take it too personally either way.

True success involves acquiring practical skills, using your own initiative and performing useful tasks that help other people. It ain't just about whether you've scored A or E on a piece of paper.