Posts by Isabel Hitchings
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Oh yeah, we had the same seventh form "privilege" of being allowed off school property when we didn't have classes. Except for one day when the deputy head, Dr Clough who when in a rage sounded remarkably like the headmaster in The Wall, decided that too many of us were going out one particular lunchtime and stood in the middle of the road yelling at us all to get back to school. I muttered something about a doctor's appointment and kept on walking.
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I wagged from high school a few times though not by any means regularly. Mostly my friend and I would go up to her house and steal her mother's booze. One day her older brother and his mates came home for a "study break" and got very amusingly stern with us before realising that he was on reasonably thin ice himself.
I can also recall a time or two when I was seen on the streets by a teacher who very pointedly looked the other way as she went past. Not to mention those days in sixth and seventh form when I never quite made it out of the common-room (does it still count as wagging if you spend the day on school property and just don't go to class?)
Yesterday I finally told my mother about my truant history. She claims to have been totally unaware.
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Ben, you're right that there probably are fields where my style of working might be an advantage but currently I'm a full-time parent and you really can't say "sorry bub, Mummy's goofing off right now but I'll attend to all your needs in an intense hour just before bedtime".
While I can't blame the school system for how I do things I do think it gave me the latitude to do things like that and I wonder how much "better" I could have done had I been actively engaged more of the time.
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ben I was a kid (and young adult) who tested well. I was very good at working out exactly how much work I needed to put in to get the mark I needed (and often only aimed for the exact grade I needed to proceed to the next level) and was able to goof off all year long and make up with a sort but intense bust of work when exams or assignments were due. These are not skills that have served me well in adult life
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The maximum fine for (not) registering your dog is $3000. I think it is more important you send your children to school than register your dog."
I'll bear that in mind if ever my kids start biting the postie.
I don't give a crap how my kid shapes up against other kids his own age. I care about how he's shaping up against his own potential and previous achievements.
I wonder if the truancy fines are going to produced an increased interest in homeschooling? In my experience it's not all that difficult to get an exemption from enrolling your kid though I didn't homeschool for long enough to come under ERO scrutiny which might (or might not) be more of a hurdle.
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Also, new challenge for someone to try tomorrow: try going a whole day without using whatever your verbal tick is, such as a) innuendo b) swear words or c) the word 'like' (or d. all of those things). It's bloody hard I tells ya.
Also possibly requires an impartial yet kind observer to tell you what your verbal tic is (these things tending to be just a tad bit unconscious and all)
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I just hit the beloved other-half with a +40 rage-bolt after he neglected to check the oven before turning it on and burned approximately 30 salt-dough decorations the kids had made thus requiring me to start the "handmade gifts for the children to give all the rellies" mission all over again.
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But some old security guard refused to let me, saying that it was not legal to take photographs of the hospital.
Really? I have some shots of me leaving hospital with my first born (that'd be the old Chch Women's seven years ago). I look like I've been released from prison - scruffy, shell-shocked and determined never to go back.
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Emma Yup - I'd worry much more if my kids wanted to up and marry the first person they got sqidgy with than if they spread a few oats first (within reasonable parameters of not catching stuff and treating people decently of course).
Rob a less gender specific term (and f-wit does the job just fine) probably is required. I was being not soe much gender-specific as Isabel-specific and thinking about exactly what__ I__ did at uni.
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They bypassed my flat suburban street and the flat suburban street I grew up on. Now feeling thoroughly slighted and sulky.