Back to school days

I did my bit for the community and der yuff yesterday. I went back to school to give some six formers at The Abbey School, Ramsey, a taste of what it's like to be a writer/journalist and how to get on in the wonderful world of writing.

It was a bit of an eye opener and brought back memories of my school days. The kids were studying media studies (something that never existed when I was a lad) and English and were (supposedly) all interested in becoming journalists or working in newspapers/magazines. To be fair, most were interested and some even had some good questions; including the expected: "How much can you earn?"

But one delightful little urchin turned up and asked "How long have I got to be here?"! My answer was that as far as I was concerned she didn't have to be there at all and could leave whenever she liked - sooner rather than later preferably. She replied that she had to be there for at least an hour or she wouldn't get her payment for the day! Payment?! Yes, she got paid to go to school. Even I was doing this for free and yet one of the students was getting paid to attend. Again, that didn't exist when I was at school. Can you imagine - getting paid to go to school. I may have had a better attendance record myself if that had been the case.

I think she'll get a shock when she leaves school and starts her career - or, possibly more likely, she'll just leave school and start a family!