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[thebestnose]

I'm starting to notice an imbalance when it comes to education. Not that I feel there was a lack in my own- after all, what more can they teach you when they don't know anything themselves- but that there is an emphasis on education in other places that there isn't where I am

Comments

[19centconstable]

We've got colleges, but only rich ponces go. And a few ladies. There are some trade schools though.

[thebestnose]

What's a ponce?

And what's a trade school?

[19centconstable]

Oh. Er. A fellow who...isn't manly.

A trade school is where you'd go to learn to do a job. Like my cousin goes to a stenography school so someone will hire her as a secretary.

[thebestnose]

It isn't manly to go to school?

[19centconstable]

The...sorts of lads who go to college are the sort who've never had to lift a finger in their lives.

[thebestnose]

I'm starting to discover that on my own. You didn't go, then?

[19centconstable]

No, I never made it past fourth stardard.

[thebestnose]

What does that mean?

[19centconstable]

That...I went to school for about four years.

[thebestnose]

How old were you when you finished?

[19centconstable]

Twelve or so.

[thebestnose]

Twelve? That's a little young. Even for me.

[19centconstable]

Children go to work much younger than twelve. And we needed the money.

[thebestnose]

I understand working that young. But normally, we go to school until we're 16. Those are the Rules.

[19centconstable]

We've got rules like that now. School is compulsory from age eight to fourteen in all Ontario. But they've just passed that, and it doesn't count for the street boys and much of the very poor.

[thebestnose]

Street boys? They are...homeless? That's the right word, isn't it?