School Days

If there is one thing guaranteed to drive me mad, it is stupid comments from parents that in their day school children were studious, hard working, god fearing, well dressed, respectful swots who would put the kids of today to shame.

According to them in 'my day' we spent so much time studying for our (much harder) 'O' levels that we had no time to chase boys, drink or experiment with illegal substances. These are the same people who won't let their children travel alone on public transport in case their little darling is whisked away by an asylum seeking paedophile, or even, heaven forbid, allow them to venture as far as local shop in case they meet an axe welding dope head who will rob them of their mobile phone.

Apparently we were better taught, in strict single sex god fearing schools that turned well balanced highly educated captains of industry. Well let me tell you I went to a very good Church of England Grammar School where the prefects as well as the teachers wore gowns all day. We were taught to respect our elders but to fear no man, we were sent into a world that didn't acknowledge sexual equality but with the confidence to believe that one day we might change it.

But we were no angels, some of us (naming no names) went out with boys, drank alcohol and even smoked and played poker in the caretaker's office.....not me I hasten to add, I was a good girl, (ok... I was a wimp) but some of us did. We ran out of school at the end of the day and hitched our skirts up and pretended that we were far more sophisticated than we could ever have dreamt of being. We cheeked our parents and thought that the world was against us.

We hated 'the system' and wanted change. We longed to be rebels and and 'show' the grown ups that we were a force to be reckoned with but instead we went to work or on to college. We conformed, we grew up and in time we became parents ourselves (some of us didn't even wait until we were married!!)

So the next time you are tempted to tut at the school kids who are messing about at the bus stop or who are trying to act as if they are 15 going on 25, cast your mind back to your own school days and if you are really honest you will smile a wry smile and hurry off home to put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea.