New Zealand Education

I am a product of the 50's and 60's education system. They were years of free education, canes and warm milk. Teachers were either Bullies or Gods and exams were a punishment for staying at school. I was not aware of having any rights as a student and any wrong doings were treated very harshly and certainly not repeated.
My strengths lay in Maths and Science and the subjects came to me easily even with having the odd bad teacher. Others I saw struggled and were quickly left behind and shifted to the 'lowly' Technical classes. I was certainly not aware of any educational requirements of me and even had no idea of any curriculum that was to be part of my education. Each new subject came and went by complete surprise and at exam times was memorized long enough to get me through the test. Relationships between what I was taught and the outside world never entered my head. Subjects were to be taught and learned solely to get me an 'Education'. Something that came in a little box at the end of my schooling to say that I had been to school and had done what was required of me. It was, of course, automatically assumed that I would go straight to University and then into a job that would keep me comfortable for the rest of my life.
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