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In my adult life, being ill is not nearly so fun. First, no one's there to hand you anything, not even a tissue. Second, you've got full control of the remote – but who cares – you have that anyway and besides, you've got a bucket load of emails to catch up on. Any time I start feeling a teeny weeny bit better at home, I begin emailing and catching up from my sick bed, desperate not to miss so much that I've got a mountain of work to return to when I'm better.

^{Being ill when you're older ain't so fun}

Nope, being sick with a bad cold or 'flu when you were younger definitely had a silver lining.

But all that's about to change. Well, it could do, anyway.

Teachers' unions are currently fighting for all schools in the UK to adopt a computer system that allows sick children to take part in lessons from their homes.

What? Come again? Enabling sick children to participate in school lessons from home, over the internet? Urgh, I can't think of anything worse – in fact I feel pretty sick at the thought of it.

I should point out that this system, called Elluminate, is intended for those kids on long-term sick leave, such as children who can't attend school because they are suffering from a physical illness. For some children who have life-threatening diseases like cancer, the system could help to try and integrate them into mainstream society and lead as normal a life as possible. This is a good thing.

All schools have had the equipment for Elluminate since 2011, according to the BBC, but many do not use it to its full potential (many parents haven't got access to it, for example) and many kids who have to take lengthy periods out of school for illness are falling behind as a result.

^{Catch up online!}

I can see why the unions are campaigning for its wider use. But I worry that in the process, some bright spark will realise that every kid should take advantage of the system. After all, they'll likely be on their iPads or laptops during the day at some point, so why not log in to the school's classrooms being broadcast over the internet and catch up?

The very sick culture plaguing British workers – that even when you're sick, you should still really be at work otherwise, you're not a very good employee, are you? – is slowly infiltrating into our secondary schools.

Teenage girls in particular already suffer from enough stress (on a par with middle-aged men, apparently) because of exams and other pressures: can't we allow them this small luxury of having a whole day to themselves, when they're ill? Besides, if someone's sick, they're sick – they can't be expected to concentrate on anything. Which is why daytime TV is the perfect remedy.