I am still thinking about this day, 40 years later.
What did I do wrong?
Did I make the right/wrong decision?
Should I have answered the way I did?
Should I have changed my mind?
Should I have explained my decision or elaborated at the time?
40 years ago I was in a normal school, normal class. Where I was having my usual difficulties, no real friends, being bullied, teased, made fun of, excluded from most groups. Although non of these problems were extreme, the bullying was fairly mild and over all I was just managing to survive there. Usually sitting alone silently at the rear of the class.
After the end of year exams I was called into a meeting with the head of that year and asked if I would agree to move to a different class. She explained that since my exam results were very different from the rest of the class, they were having problems with scheduling which classes I should attend next year.
This was in the old days before GCSEs, where we still had the old style O level GCE and the inferior CSE. Some pupils were all GCE, some all CSE others a mixture of GSE/CSE.
When I returned to class I was asked about what happened.
I said that they asked me if I wanted to move to a different class. (Honest answer).
'what did you say?'
'OFF COURSE I'M LEAVING, I DON'T WANT TO STAY HERE'
For remaining week I was sent to Coventry. No one would speak to me, not even the form tutor.
The new class wasn't better or worse, just different.
But the old class completely shunned me.
It was over year before one person from my old class would even speak to me. And that was the previous class bully who had done most to drive me out. The others just avoided me.
