Teachers' Pet
Throughout my schooling I swung like Tarzan between the high ropes of achievement. I used to get so excited on school report day. With no effort at all, I can bring to mind a mental montage of occasions where I was told how wonderful I was. Sunday school teacher to my mum: ‘Doesn’t she know a lot?’ Art teacher glancing over my shoulder in year eight: ‘I have year eleven students who cannot draw as well as you.’ And then the montage shifts to clips of a more significant nature. I remember Mrs Carter Saunders sitting me down on a bench (facing that place we used to queue for 50p cheese toasties and Yorkie bars) and telling me I had achieved the highest exam score in all of year seven. I silently realised two things: firstly, there was no limit to what I could do if I put my mind to it and secondly, if this conversation ended before the bell, I was going to get to that cheese toastie queue first. In year ten the head teacher (Mrs Phillips) pulled me out of class to tell me that the s