Try Getting Permission

Then someone (probably not the P &C) suggested that the side gate could be used by students to access the store. Out the side gate, down the smaller side street and voila! There was the store front. No students having to be endangered by waking along the main road. So that was allowed. But doesn’t that strike you as strange? Their reason for not having us go on the main road (so we were told) was traffic. So what was to stop a vehicle driving down the side street and a child having an accident then? Nothing. I believe more parents would have been more concerned about the children being taken (or maybe that was the idea? They wished somebody would take their children? For a few days at least), or of strangers (even though most offenders are known to their victims). I remember a Roger McGough poem about a child’s first day at school, where he asks the question, ‘

            “and the railings, all around the railings

             are they to keep out wolves and monsters,

            things that carry off, and eat children?

            Things you don’t take sweets from?

            Perhaps they’re to stop us getting out”

Whatever the purpose, the school had boundaries and we were not supposed to leave them, without a good reason. Then suddenly, a store bought lunch became a good reason? A reason the ‘rich kids’ and the ‘hangers on’ could make us feel inferior again. It was a conspiracy I’m sure. Put together by those not prepared to work in the tuckshop, but controlling the committees. It was specific, with just the one advantage for those of us unable to take part. Such a decision as going to the store to buy lunch however, also meant that the teacher on duty in the playground had to be asked. So before they were allowed to use the side gate to go to the shop for lunch they had to find the teacher and get permission. Which meant, in the 40 minutes for lunch, they would have to stand and wait at least five minutes, to get the teachers attention from dealing with all the playground issues. And trust me, a teacher on the lower playground could be dealing with any number of issues during the lunch break. Anything. From breaking up the squabbles of children over the marble competitions (one of the few permitted toys allowed to be brought to school), with all the accompanying serious accusations of ‘cheating’ which could arise in an instant, between two or three competitors in the high tension of a shoot off.  And those marbles were a crucial part of your status. You really had to choose our opponent, but even more so, you had to make sure you played with the right marble, so as not to lose your favourite. Or, the teacher may be dealing with a tear stained cheeked child who had been excluded by other children from a game or such, to dealing with the more serious issues of falls, injuries and potential broken bones (and no, it was not always a Dwyer child who broke a bone).

(Continued tomorrow)