Posts by Emma Hart
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Sorry Mark, simultaneous posting.
giving due respect to authority figures whether they deserve it or not is mandatory for maintaining our society and our own well being.
I dunno how to respond to this except to say 'no it isn't'. Have we really, in your mind, never in history benefited from rebellion?
-
the old kiwi third party stand over tactics... I'd call it tall poppy syndrome, but I'm a no one.
And suddenly Mark is the victim. You had a go at me, dear, I responded, you haven't addressed anything I said.
i sincerely care enough not to make too many
That's right, you're the only one who cares. I've spent the last few days being furious because I just don't give a shit about my children's education.
-
Oh Mark... perhaps on a second read you might spot the notes of self-deprecation in the column, the little hints that I might not actually regard my teenage self as a genius.
Then perhaps you could explain how I 'dropped my friends in it' by having glandular fever?
When you breed a culture where the teacher is not respected, regardless of how good or bad they are, you not only undermine your own child's education, but by peer corroboration, the education of their fellow students too.
I absolutely disagree. I think conditioning children to give respect automatically to authority figures who don't deserve it is dangerous. We did respect the teachers who were good. There is at least one other person who reads these threads who had Janet as a teacher and can testify to the lengths to which she would take a personal vendetta. The vibe we got from her was that she hated teaching, and hated kids. If my kids had a teacher like her I'd back them against her too, and not to be cool.
-
one of the subjects in which I was "gravely insufficient"
Whoa, hey, wait a minute. Giovanni was 'gravely insufficient' in English?
LOLZ -
I wish I could remember what I did about the absence slips. I'm pretty sure we had them, and I think I'd remember forging them.
Stroke of Evil Genius. My high school filed the first absence note as an example of parents' handwriting, to which all future absence notes would be compared.
I forged the first one, even though I'd legitimately been sick.
My mother, who later got the inside goss, claims it was a hard-fought battle by my Italian teacher, whose arch-enemy on this occasion was the English teacher
Working out that my English teacher (Janet) and my Biology teacher hated each other was a seminal and deeply useful moment. He fought hard for me right through senior school - though slightly less effectively after he was caught (by the kid picking up the absence slips) showing me where the scars for a breast reduction operation went. These things are so easily misinterpreted.
-
Ian O'Brien has done something no one else has been able to, he made interested in cricket.
I was listening to O'Brien getting the hell bounced out of him that day and thinking,wow, can't wait to read his blog about this.
-
Latin and Music were both Correspondence courses and we had no real supervision
Yeah, I'd forgotten that. I did fifth form french by Correspondence with no supervision at all. I also did it with no periods set aside to do it.
I was one of the bright lazy ones
This is deeply true, I can testify to that.
-
one was able to write their own absence notes
When my mother instituted her ban on absence notes, I got dragged into the deputy head's office yet again. This time, though, it was to explain to me that absence notes were a MinEdu requirement, designed to ensure that schools weren't inventing pupils for funding purposes.
It's possible that if they'd taken this 'explaining things' approach earlier, things might have gone more smoothly. As a grown-up technical writer and customer-service admin, one of the things I try to do as much as possible is explain to people the reasons why we do things.
My friends & I would show up to school for the first couple of lessons, then go to the closest friend's house (whose parents both worked) & watch Days of our Lives. Then go back to school for the last period.
Phew, for a moment there I thought I'd grown up on a different planet.
-
and i never did (to my shame)
Do you mind if I ask why? That sounds weird, I know, but... did it not occur? Was it out of fear? Did you just never really want to?
I guess I see a certain amount of disobedience as a positive, and I do worry about kids who will be 'good' even when the rule they're obeying doesn't make any sense.
-
Timaru, and my 7th form year was 1989. It was always bunking, I don't think I even heard 'wagging' until I moved to Chch.
That said, we also say 'bach'. Canterbury seems to share more linguistic mores with the lower North Island than with Otago/Southland. That's just an amateur impression though.