> My school experience was quite the opposite; there was even a fair
> competition between pupils to get the highest scores. Good teachers were
> venerated; the bad treated with contempt. It was hard work too, from
> 8:00 till 18:00 on average, six days a week, with only the thursday
> afternoon free. I don't know. Time (50s and 60s) and place (Paris) may
> play a role here...

I wish it had been more like that where I was, but it was sadly not the 
case, rather it was "cool" to not do any work and if you weren't "cool" 
you were likely to get bullied about it (mostly verbal but sometimes 
physical). It got slightly easier at age 13 (IIRC) when we got split 
into classes by ability for most subjects, but some subjects were still 
mixed abilility so you had complete losers who were only there to cause 
trouble in the same class as people who were hoping to make something of 
their life.

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