Better

I was looking at the website for my high school last night. I was rather bemused by what it is like and as much as I didn’t really feel that it was a school I was suited to while I was there, I think that even more based on what it is like now. It has very high academic standards, and when I was there it brought out rather an inertia in me because I had no interest in the focus on academic achievement, seemingly at the expense of a number of other things. While I was there, it actually made me not want to go to university and the only reason I went was because I realised I’d have to get a job if I didn’t! I am glad I went to university (and it had to be a university because applying to go to a polytechnic* would have probably got me expelled from school).

Many years ago I had a friend whose mum one day said to me “the girls at your school are so well turned, out and well spoken. What happened to you?” I didn’t really have an answer to that one, but somehow I don’t think it the worst insult ever to not be seen as a typical product of my educational background.

I was talking to a friend from work recently and she was being rather dismissive of private schools, so I thought it was probably best to mention that I went to a private school – and she was another person somewhat surprised by this. I take it from this that I would continue to be a disappointment to my former school, not quite presenting the required image and, as my school reports used to say, “could do better”.



*yes they still existed (just) when I went to university.