(CONTINUES)
At the start of Year 11 (around about the time I hung Mr Thompson in drawing form), I was on a low. But I didn't have the balls to speak out. That's why I kept the diary. Looking back, I still can't see why he singled me out. I wasn't a show-off. I wasn't thick. I kept myself to myself. Yes, I spent lots of time in maths chatting to those that I sat next to, but kids talk in class. It defends you from severe boredom. I still have all of my school books, including those with pictures drawn in class which made school tolerable. I mean, you are forced to study this shite. I couldn't pick what I wanted to study. Arsey syllabuses decide that. At 21, I STILL can't do long division. One of these days I'm going to learn from the internet.
A kids' diary is a sort of Pandora's Box of emotions, especially where school is concerned. Kids spend 45 hours a week at school. It's where they socialise and make friends for life. The last thing they need is some idiot authority figure destroying their confidence, stunting their passage into the "real world".
To Friends' School Lisburn, the "real world" is 3-5 years at university which guarantees you a good job (my arse), working at that good job, getting married, having really smart kids to send to Friends', retire then you die. AND DON'T FORGET TO GO TO CHURCH!!!
Yes, I went there. Friends' School Lisburn is a Quaker school - a Christian organisation. This meant daily assembly where you would be preached to for 15 minutes every day. At the time I agreed with assembly - kids had to know about Jesus (I make myself sick). For frig's sake I attacked the secularisation of French schools in A-Level French! I still agree on one point with the Quakers though - the importance of silence. The difference is though, during the silence they want you to concentrate on the Little Baby Jesus Who Died On The Cross For Your Sins You Ungrateful Little Bastard, where as all I want to do during silence is think about stuff. Like get really worked up about something for a blog.
Their obsession with university is unhealthy. If you read my university as a waste of time blog I wrote last month you will realise that it was the F.S.L. administrations fault that I have no qualifications higher than 3 C's at A Level and Foundation Health and Hygiene (YEAH!!). All Mr. Shuter had to say to me was "right, you want to do management with I.T. but can't do it at Queens... hmmm... why not do it at Belfast Institute (BIFHE)?". But no, he wanted another statistic to go to Queens' Univerity Belfast so enrolled me in Human Geography. Wazzock. I still stand by my excuse (I didn't know BIFHE existed as a viable option until I spoke to Seanna). But back then, I wanted to emulate my dad's success at uni and anything less was FAILURE in my eyes - the eyes sponsored by F.S.L.'s statistics department, given back in 2005 when I signed my Eason contract.
How up your arse do you have to be to list where all your wonderful kids are going to university in the SPEECH DAY LEAFLET?? And not listing all the failures? Do me a favour.
Seriously do me a favour. Burn the bastard place to the ground. How many more kids have to be subjected to the educational establishment, which if it was a newspaper, would be the Daily Express?
Shit, I went completely off the topic there. I got so wrapped up in my own experience with shit teachers (I've shared two reasonably bad ones with you) I forgot that I was ripping into teachers in general.
If you're watching "That'll Teach 'Em: Boys versus Girls" on Channel 4, and agreeing with what you're seeing - sort your head out. Tormenting, humiliating, shouting at and "beating respect into" kids is wrong wrong wrong. I don't give a fuck what the Daily Express says. If you want to stand up for morality in the United Kingdom - get some of your own fucking morality you middle class, God-fearing morons. Treat your kids with respect and they will do likewise. Treat them like shit, and that's what you get.
As some Jewish man once said: "You reap what you sow".
Menu.