Well it's that time of year again, when we are fed stats from the Government of how well our children are doing at school. My little story just goes to show how stats can be manipulated to suit their purpose!
Now I hate the stories about how all British youth are a waste of space and how the girls are all pregnant at age 12 and looking for a Council flat. There are loads of lovely kids around and I'm convinced of that by Beth's friends. We have open house here and kids come and go every day. Never once, have I said to Beth, don't bring him/her here again.
Don't get me wrong! If anyone stepped out of line, I'd be first in the queue to give them a slap.
Beth is doing very well at school, or so I'm led to believe. She comes home with very good results, recently gaining an A+ in physics and constantly reaching A grades in Maths and English. She was even granted the status of gifted and talented in geography a couple of years ago.
Well today I was brought down to reality with an unexpected bump!
It's school hols here in the UK and I was tasked, by Beth, to come home at dinner time and give her and her friend, Georgie, a lift into town to get the train to Carlisle, to do a bit of shopping. ( bare with me)
We were in the car and Beth was telling me about her antics on Facebook and BBM. Thankfully we have a very good relationship and she does tell me a lot (if not all) about what goes on via the internet.
Last night she was talking to Hassan (aged 16) on FB and his very fit brother (aged 21) who appeared to be dressed only in his boxer shorts. Unfortunately I missed that one Beth reported that they looked as if they lived in a nice house Bless her!)
Anyway...we got talking about another of her Dubai mates who speaks very good English.
Says Beth 'he went to school here'
Says BM 'where?'
'Somewhere beginning with 'H'' says Beth 'I forget'
'Howtown?' says BM (Howtown being a hamlet of around 10 houses near to us')
'Don't be silly' says Beth 'as if he'd go to school in Howtown!'
Georgie pipes up in the rear of the beemer
'Halifax?'
'Don't be silly' says Beth 'that's a bank!'
At this point BM nearly breaks the speed limit.
'WHAT?'
'Oh my bloody Good God! I don't believe you just said that!!!'
'What?' says Beth
'that Halifax is a bank! It's a bloody town, you thick git!'
'Well where is it?' says Beth
'In London!' says Georgie
I still think it was harder to get a GCE than a GCSE!