lesson i didnot teach

After the result for the Joint Admission Exercise was out, a few of my ex-students wanted to treat me to dinner to thank me for coaching them in their final year. They got into the course of their choice and I was happy for them.

Well, ok.

So when we met, the first thing one of them asked was "you earn a lot in your current job hor?" Ok, that was the first sign of my wallet burning a hole. So in the end they chose the restaurant and I footed the bill. I know, they were supposed to treat me, but how would an earning adult let kids pay?

After the dinner they suggested having dessert. I thought it was time they take some responsibility and told them straight I won't be paying. They were ok with it and so we entered another restaurant. In the end they did not have enough cash and I had to top up for them.

In school we had civics and pastoral care lessons. I definitely wasn't good at pastoral care lessons cos the programme was so structured, it was difficult to chip in your own personal input. In fact I think I did better at it when I singled out students to talk in the corridor than to the whole class inside the classroom.

As for the dinner incident, it is worrying that kids are making big promises and yet they can't / don't want to keep to them. Notwithstanding their spending power, they do tend to go for things more expensive than say students of my generation.

Not sure if that's something a school teacher / ex-school teacher can do about.