Re: grammar
Slightly older than AC above, I was in the first intake year to the; was "secondary modern", now "comprehensive" school. The 8 classes to a year were called 'e', 'q', 'u', 'a', 'l', 'i', 't' and 'y'
They didn't know what to do with us intelligent kids, and I received a nearly weekly caning for "messing around" (often answering 'the next question' when the teachers line of thought was obvious) or "plagiarising" if I did actually bother. I remember one time (when I was 12) when the Head Master actually apologised in front of the Geography teacher who had carted me up to the office by the scruff of the neck. He had wanted a paragraph on "What do they grow in the Caribbean?" and I had given him 6 pages on "the socio-economic implications of monoculture in the Caribbean archipelago". (It had been a theme on an OU TV program earlier in the year.)
The worst was near the end of my first year when I was presented with the whole school prizes for both Needlework and Cookery, which resulted in a good kicking every break time for the rest of term (under the supervision of the teachers who were supposed to stamp-out such stuff).
I hated that place, and even more so when they wouldn't put on 2 of the 3 A levels I wanted to do - Geography & Statistics FFS! (I lived in the countryside, with no public transport and so had no choice of where to go.) Then the socialist LEA wouldn't give me a third year of 'guaranteed' grant to study an MSc that I had been offered, with the line "You can't have done a degree in 2 years!"
Now I have many things in space (HW & SW), so they didn't beat me into conformity in the end!
AC because I don't have a chip on my shoulder, more a whole fish supper!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
