HSC 1985
Without Prejudice
I was allowed to go to School, just for the lessons, the investigation by Chris who so wanted to go with someone, her age and I was her age.
She asked the Deputy Head if I could just turn up for the lessons, He said, fine, so could she. Chris was a single Mum with 2 small kids who's husband had left her when the youngest was just 8 months and she had a 2 year old as well.
He was, is another story, But the news of part time school appealed and that meant I could still go to work in the business part time.
Bob agreeing at last to let me go after chasing me around the car park at K mart, drunk, trying to run me and Alena down.
So we got in a part time lady, Margaret who had shared a flat once with Pauline. She always seemed sad for some reason but that wasn't my problem. I was going to school!
The School we went to was Hallam Secondary College with a normal HSC class of teens, aged 17 and 18. We were squishing year 11 and 12 into one year, Chris and I, and the kids had just finished their year 11, the first half of what we didn't have.
But from the first time I walked into the classroom with its familiar smell of leftover lunches and chalk, floorboards echoing. I knew I was going to pass.
I had dreamed it the night before, seeing me stepping up on a stage and being handed a certificate. (If I had known what it was, I might have had second thoughts of my outfit-I could have dreamed that!)
But from day one it was head down, bum up and the work was intense. I had taken English, (Natch!), Legal Studies and Home Eco, which I thought sounded simple, making an apron and eggs benedict.
Like my domski at Thornes House, Domestic Science on which I got my first D, my souffle collapsed and I stabbed Denises's so it popped too.
But this domski consisted of biology, family management, science, anatomy, stats, psychology and it was tough. No aprons, no sewing, no prac elements at all, just theory.
For the first few weeks I wanted to drop it, but Chris urged me on and besides we'd already bought the books. And last but certainly not least, Legal Studies and I am sure I picked that one because of the Legal Studies Teacher.
Chris had already told me he was 'hot" and he was. So she did Politics instead of Legal and I swear I spent the first half of the first term just listening and gazing at him.
He was married and fit, older man, who had changed careers mid thirties and gone back to school for 4 years to get his Dip Of ED, his wife supporting him and him working part time at a Pizza Shop at nights.
He was slim, tall, wore trendy blue jeans and sneakers and drove a done up FJ car. He was witty and funny and he loved the Law, so listen up.
I didn't think much of Corporate law but perked up when we did Criminal Law, juries, Appellate Courts, Subjudice, Latin phrases, Habeas Corpus, Ultra Vires, I lapped it up and found it fascinating diving in and coming up for air months later at the exam.
Your brain expands in a learning environment, I was never so brainy as I was at Uni, you are surrounded with intellect and discussion and challenged all the time, no slacking off at Uni. it's huge
So last but not least came English, my favourite, and the first time I handed in an essay, it was read out in front of the class by the Lady Teacher as an example of what she wanted.
They didn't pass the rest of them nor Chris and I thought, great!
I knew that they would hate me for being a smart arse. but I couldn't be bothered any more, that had happened before, people always think I cheat at Trivial, but I just know "stuff" like that,
it's just because I read a lot. useless trivia stored in the brain. But writing now you are talking, i will spend hours, days on a 1500 word essay on Loneliness. And I had.
Chris was upset saying those kids didn't have the life experience we adults had, what sort of reference did they have to any of the 20 topics given, loneliness, jealousy.
It was just one essay, I thought, not even good in my eyes but I had liked it when I finished it,
but I knew I could do better if I tried. Trouble was I found it hard to find time to study, I couldn't start until 11 at night after Bob and the girls were all in bed and I found the sun coming up many times.
It was exhausting but exhilarating and I could not get enough. Chris was more organised booking times at the library and would brag about it, or ask me if I had done the 3 hours of homework and I would lie and say Yes.
Our theme in English was , Yayy, WAR. I wondered what I could get out of what I considered a "Male" subject, or even be interested in.
But I liked it, they made it interesting with movies, like Apocolypse Now, which I loooooved and books of war poetry, beautiful and haunting, and The Thin Red line and All Quiet On The Western Front.
I liked it all, I wouldn't read them again, mind, but I liked them. And we did Steinbeck, of Mice and Men and The Pearl Fisher and the Grapes Of Wrath and American Poetry, ee cummings and sylvia plath and japanese haicui which I had never heard of.
And Wondeful Walt Whitman and James Thurber I was in heaven drinking in the beauty of the words.
And I wrote, taking uppers from the chemist that keep you up at night, speeding off your dial. I wrote and wrote and wrote, never satisfied but having to hand it in on time anyway.
And they drove us mad, the teachers with unending homework and pushing us needlessly with trivial crap. Chris and I didn't have to wear Uniform and took morning tea and lunch with the teachers in the Staff Room and we saw both sides,
the kids and the Teachers.
They were totally irreverent the Teachers, disparaging almost of the pupils and yet they would appear in front of the Class Cool, classy, authorative, after just calling them little bastards in the Staff Room.
We took a break Bob and the kids and I to see Bruce Springsteen and I went to Surfers with Laure Stark and her kids at Easter, taking my work with me, but could not get it done and decided another holiday booked for September would have to be cancelled.
It would be after half year but not long before exams. After half year I was sorry I had cancelled, I was burnt out and could not go on. And Chris had stopped talking to me as I was marking better than her ???
and I would walk into class and the kids she palled up with would not look at me, it was all so unfair and overwhelming. And that September I sat on the back step crying, and Bob came up and asked me what was wrong. It was unusual as Bob didn't ask about my life.
I told him and he said,
"Fuck her, she's just jealous and if you give up now, she's got what she wanted"
I liked to be liked and I was hurt by the coldness and rudeness in classrooms and it was wearing me down.
So Bob made a good Man decision and got Margaret to go full time and I studied in the afternoons instead of going into the business. And I told the English teacher in the end and she gave me ten weeks off from English, no lessons, just exams.
She said she had nothing to teach me, I was good enough to pass. So that only left legal which Chris wasn't in and Home Ec which she was, but I just ignored her.
We palled up in the last week and decided to wear school uniform on Muck Up Day, naughty school girls, with fishnets, ripped, school dresses, squashing down our womanly breasts, ties, blazer, we were bad!
And we scrambled into the final assembly and the Deputy head had asked me to be sure to be there on that day and not leave at 12 like I normally would have.
He had approached me a week or so before asking me to make a speech on behalf of the Mature Age Students, all two of us! So we year 12's jostled at the side of the stage in ebullient moods, pushing each other and laughing at each others costumes.
I was given a gown to wear when I went up on Stage to make my speech and I can't remember one word of it, so nervous I was, knees knocking and it was short, thank fully.
I tottered off the stage and someone grabbed back the Gown and we all converged again and they started out giving awards, for Science and Maths and then,
Janette Hancock---Humanities for Excellence in English.
I was stunned, literally rooted to the spot and then people were pushing me forward on to the stage, and I had to dip my body and hold down my hem down and sort of semi shuffle across the stage, so I wouldn't expose my stocking tops and suspenders.
And then I just thought what the hell and stood up tall, probably exposing everything and I was handed my Prize a book of Australian Poetry and a certificate, the one I had seen in my dream all those months ago.
PS,
I didn't see Chris after that until one day the following year when I was at Rusden Monash Uni and she stood right next to me at Sandown Station and I said, Hi
"How did you go?," she asked
"I passed"
(and got enough marks to get into Uni, ...my dream, an English Teacher, Secondary via Dip Of Ed)
"How did you go?", I asked of her
"I failed",
I was outstanded as she had done all that work! her schedules for homework her hours long visits to the library. She looked at me and I looked at her and I though.
"Serve you right, you Bitch!"
And went home on the train to cook my Husband and children dinner.
Love Janette
I was allowed to go to School, just for the lessons, the investigation by Chris who so wanted to go with someone, her age and I was her age.
She asked the Deputy Head if I could just turn up for the lessons, He said, fine, so could she. Chris was a single Mum with 2 small kids who's husband had left her when the youngest was just 8 months and she had a 2 year old as well.
He was, is another story, But the news of part time school appealed and that meant I could still go to work in the business part time.
Bob agreeing at last to let me go after chasing me around the car park at K mart, drunk, trying to run me and Alena down.
So we got in a part time lady, Margaret who had shared a flat once with Pauline. She always seemed sad for some reason but that wasn't my problem. I was going to school!
The School we went to was Hallam Secondary College with a normal HSC class of teens, aged 17 and 18. We were squishing year 11 and 12 into one year, Chris and I, and the kids had just finished their year 11, the first half of what we didn't have.
But from the first time I walked into the classroom with its familiar smell of leftover lunches and chalk, floorboards echoing. I knew I was going to pass.
I had dreamed it the night before, seeing me stepping up on a stage and being handed a certificate. (If I had known what it was, I might have had second thoughts of my outfit-I could have dreamed that!)
But from day one it was head down, bum up and the work was intense. I had taken English, (Natch!), Legal Studies and Home Eco, which I thought sounded simple, making an apron and eggs benedict.
Like my domski at Thornes House, Domestic Science on which I got my first D, my souffle collapsed and I stabbed Denises's so it popped too.
But this domski consisted of biology, family management, science, anatomy, stats, psychology and it was tough. No aprons, no sewing, no prac elements at all, just theory.
For the first few weeks I wanted to drop it, but Chris urged me on and besides we'd already bought the books. And last but certainly not least, Legal Studies and I am sure I picked that one because of the Legal Studies Teacher.
Chris had already told me he was 'hot" and he was. So she did Politics instead of Legal and I swear I spent the first half of the first term just listening and gazing at him.
He was married and fit, older man, who had changed careers mid thirties and gone back to school for 4 years to get his Dip Of ED, his wife supporting him and him working part time at a Pizza Shop at nights.
He was slim, tall, wore trendy blue jeans and sneakers and drove a done up FJ car. He was witty and funny and he loved the Law, so listen up.
I didn't think much of Corporate law but perked up when we did Criminal Law, juries, Appellate Courts, Subjudice, Latin phrases, Habeas Corpus, Ultra Vires, I lapped it up and found it fascinating diving in and coming up for air months later at the exam.
Your brain expands in a learning environment, I was never so brainy as I was at Uni, you are surrounded with intellect and discussion and challenged all the time, no slacking off at Uni. it's huge
So last but not least came English, my favourite, and the first time I handed in an essay, it was read out in front of the class by the Lady Teacher as an example of what she wanted.
They didn't pass the rest of them nor Chris and I thought, great!
I knew that they would hate me for being a smart arse. but I couldn't be bothered any more, that had happened before, people always think I cheat at Trivial, but I just know "stuff" like that,
it's just because I read a lot. useless trivia stored in the brain. But writing now you are talking, i will spend hours, days on a 1500 word essay on Loneliness. And I had.
Chris was upset saying those kids didn't have the life experience we adults had, what sort of reference did they have to any of the 20 topics given, loneliness, jealousy.
It was just one essay, I thought, not even good in my eyes but I had liked it when I finished it,
but I knew I could do better if I tried. Trouble was I found it hard to find time to study, I couldn't start until 11 at night after Bob and the girls were all in bed and I found the sun coming up many times.
It was exhausting but exhilarating and I could not get enough. Chris was more organised booking times at the library and would brag about it, or ask me if I had done the 3 hours of homework and I would lie and say Yes.
Our theme in English was , Yayy, WAR. I wondered what I could get out of what I considered a "Male" subject, or even be interested in.
But I liked it, they made it interesting with movies, like Apocolypse Now, which I loooooved and books of war poetry, beautiful and haunting, and The Thin Red line and All Quiet On The Western Front.
I liked it all, I wouldn't read them again, mind, but I liked them. And we did Steinbeck, of Mice and Men and The Pearl Fisher and the Grapes Of Wrath and American Poetry, ee cummings and sylvia plath and japanese haicui which I had never heard of.
And Wondeful Walt Whitman and James Thurber I was in heaven drinking in the beauty of the words.
And I wrote, taking uppers from the chemist that keep you up at night, speeding off your dial. I wrote and wrote and wrote, never satisfied but having to hand it in on time anyway.
And they drove us mad, the teachers with unending homework and pushing us needlessly with trivial crap. Chris and I didn't have to wear Uniform and took morning tea and lunch with the teachers in the Staff Room and we saw both sides,
the kids and the Teachers.
They were totally irreverent the Teachers, disparaging almost of the pupils and yet they would appear in front of the Class Cool, classy, authorative, after just calling them little bastards in the Staff Room.
We took a break Bob and the kids and I to see Bruce Springsteen and I went to Surfers with Laure Stark and her kids at Easter, taking my work with me, but could not get it done and decided another holiday booked for September would have to be cancelled.
It would be after half year but not long before exams. After half year I was sorry I had cancelled, I was burnt out and could not go on. And Chris had stopped talking to me as I was marking better than her ???
and I would walk into class and the kids she palled up with would not look at me, it was all so unfair and overwhelming. And that September I sat on the back step crying, and Bob came up and asked me what was wrong. It was unusual as Bob didn't ask about my life.
I told him and he said,
"Fuck her, she's just jealous and if you give up now, she's got what she wanted"
I liked to be liked and I was hurt by the coldness and rudeness in classrooms and it was wearing me down.
So Bob made a good Man decision and got Margaret to go full time and I studied in the afternoons instead of going into the business. And I told the English teacher in the end and she gave me ten weeks off from English, no lessons, just exams.
She said she had nothing to teach me, I was good enough to pass. So that only left legal which Chris wasn't in and Home Ec which she was, but I just ignored her.
We palled up in the last week and decided to wear school uniform on Muck Up Day, naughty school girls, with fishnets, ripped, school dresses, squashing down our womanly breasts, ties, blazer, we were bad!
And we scrambled into the final assembly and the Deputy head had asked me to be sure to be there on that day and not leave at 12 like I normally would have.
He had approached me a week or so before asking me to make a speech on behalf of the Mature Age Students, all two of us! So we year 12's jostled at the side of the stage in ebullient moods, pushing each other and laughing at each others costumes.
I was given a gown to wear when I went up on Stage to make my speech and I can't remember one word of it, so nervous I was, knees knocking and it was short, thank fully.
I tottered off the stage and someone grabbed back the Gown and we all converged again and they started out giving awards, for Science and Maths and then,
Janette Hancock---Humanities for Excellence in English.
I was stunned, literally rooted to the spot and then people were pushing me forward on to the stage, and I had to dip my body and hold down my hem down and sort of semi shuffle across the stage, so I wouldn't expose my stocking tops and suspenders.
And then I just thought what the hell and stood up tall, probably exposing everything and I was handed my Prize a book of Australian Poetry and a certificate, the one I had seen in my dream all those months ago.
PS,
I didn't see Chris after that until one day the following year when I was at Rusden Monash Uni and she stood right next to me at Sandown Station and I said, Hi
"How did you go?," she asked
"I passed"
(and got enough marks to get into Uni, ...my dream, an English Teacher, Secondary via Dip Of Ed)
"How did you go?", I asked of her
"I failed",
I was outstanded as she had done all that work! her schedules for homework her hours long visits to the library. She looked at me and I looked at her and I though.
"Serve you right, you Bitch!"
And went home on the train to cook my Husband and children dinner.
Love Janette
