My mother came from a very long line of educated and well-off people: university professors, teachers, ship owners and captains, and even mine owners. My father, on the other hand, came from a poorer, uneducated background of Irish descent.
Despite this mixed social background, I have led a blessed and interesting life, mixing with people from all walks of life.
But there’s one thing I cannot abide and never will accept are POSH PEOPLE – because these are the people I have to deal with every day of my working life! Thank God I don’t teach at Eton, Harrow, Marlborough or Cranleigh where the plums in mouths are so big it’s a miracle they’re never swallowed!
So is it their money I resent? Or their ability to twist everybody around their demanding, arrogant fingers? Or is it the injustice of the division of opportunity and wealth?
Don’t get me wrong: I’m certainly not one for the rogue in the street. Neither am I for the priviledged heirarchy of this land.
In truth, I am one for the average and true working persons of this country – I love you!
The end of term is nigh! And boy is everybody ready for it!
Eccentric School. com made the basic error several weeks ago of encouraging all of its examination pupils to remain at school during their study leave rather than to stay at home. Little did the senior managers who made this unusal decision realise that although the little darilngs would probably work better in school than they would do at home, they would also play better as well! Staff have therefore been sniggering up their sleeves at some of the tension-releasing extra-curricular activities which some of the examinees have engaged in over the last few days:
year 11 – congregating in vast numbers on the beautifully-kept cricket pitch in the early hours of the morning, celebrating the end of their exams – right at the heart of the school site and just yards away from the sleeping Demon Headmaster!
the lower sixth - sneaking out from their dorms at the dead of night to engage in impromptu drunken parties at the outdoor pool, within earshot of ’sleeping borders’; it goes without saying that the senior management have failed in their attempts to extract any of the names of the pupils involved!
the upper sixth – girls in the female houses putting their housemistresses through the mill with their tetchiness, pickiness and argumentative ways, even down to insisiting on champagne for breakfast on the last day of school and then rudely demanding ‘why the hell not?’ when their demands were refused! And, of course, there have been lots of sightings of pupils, both male and female, sneaking out to the pub of an evening and returning back late to their houses – not that the housemasters and housemistresses have been aware of this but the porters have their finger on the pulse because they are the ones with the CCTV footage to prove it!
but worst of all – is what’s been happening in one of the boys’ boarding houses. It goes without saying that every boarding house at this time of year has more than its fair share of marauding and bored boarders to deal with, with each housemaster and housemistress continually on alcohol watch but this particular boarding house is something out of the ark. And you thought that fagging was dead!
The house, apparently, is about to have a clean sweep through its ancient testosterone-smeared corridors after the appalling time the new female assistant to the housemaster allegedly suffered over the last year. Apparently, the older boys of the house would often get the younger boys to run around ‘doing things’ for them but the most humiliating of all was at supper time. Throwing their food all over the dining room floor, these senior boys would get the younger members of the house to clear it up – on all fours, like dogs. And all of this went on with the knowledge of the housemaster and senior management who just turned an easy blind eye to it all – until the new female assistant declared that enough was enough and blew the whistle on the whole stinking lot……
Didn’t anyone tell these arrogant young men, the future leaders of this country, that money can’t buy good manners and common decency? And who thought that English Public Schools had changed with the times? Clearly, they have NOT changed at all……
The words to this song sum up the real attitudes of many public school pupils towards the different groups in our society. On the surface, they might appear to have impeccable manners but behind the scenes, in the safety of their own little rich bubble, they are well-practiced at ridicule and poking fun at those less fortunate than themselves.
ing ‘why the hell not?’ when their demands were refused! And, of course, there have been lots of sightings of pupils, both male and female, sneaking out to the pub of an evening and returning back late to their houses – not that the housemasters and housemistresses have been aware of this but the porters have their finger on the pulse because they are the ones with the CCTV footage to prove it!