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Some kids are naturally more rebellious than others. For example, I went through primary school (ages 4 to 11 for those who don't know the British school system well), being a geek. I must've missed about 4 days in all that time. I was a regular teachers pet. I always worked hard, was polite and courteous and kept my head down.

I guess that, personally, I got bored with being the teachers pet. I started to rebel a lot during my first year in grammar school. I started smoking (something that subsided as I realized that it wasn't worth all the spewing and coughing).

My school work also started to deteriorate. First of all, it was something that I wasn't trying to do but the effect it had on my teachers was something I found hilarious. I started to let my work slip deliberately, I was getting a kick out of it and my teachers response to it was almost worth it. Only when I encountered my Year 7 history teacher, Mr O'Reilly, that my behaviour became absolutely despicable.

We were given a project to do on the Romans over Christmas. If I remember rightly, it was due in on the 9th of January. Over Christmas, I decided to leave it and leave it and leave it and leave it until it came time to go back in after the holidays.

O'Reilly flipped when I didn't have it in on time. He told me that I had to finish it within a week or he'd get my parents involved. Again, I ignored it and, again, he flipped out over it. The fact that I was getting a reaction from the teacher and recognition from my peers for it was the reason that I kept on doing it.

Eventually, it came to a halt in April. The school pulled me from lessons for a week and I was under lock and key with the deputy head until it was completed. I managed to escape and walked home. Unfortunately, that didn't work and I was forced to finish it off.

Long and short of this is that although it made me some friends and screwed up a teacher but it's not big and it's not clever. Kids, please pay attention to this. Get your heads down and work hard and you'll avoid the dead-end job that I have found myself in.

Learn more about this author, Stephen Culley.
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