In the Princess’s class, there is an elaborate system of incentives. Good behaviour earns you a ticket; eight tickets get you a free homework pass. Herself decided that she would earn and save up homework passes so she could use them to get off homework every night for the last fortnight of school. Initially, her plan worked perfectly but then last Wednesday with 8 nights of homework to come, the teacher announced that there is to be no homework for the rest of the year.
I am not quite sure what the moral is; possibly, don’t trust the system it will betray you.
Possibly that punishments are needed, as well as incentives?
Or that no good deed will go unpunished. This may be the seed of the teenage rebellion to come.
Or some sort of elaborate allegory whereby by the teacher is the ESM and the Princess definitely not Greece? Or the teacher just about any high-street bank/credit-card company/generous-and-gullible friend and the Princess definitely not a certain mutual friend of ours (hint: one with a flair for international cooking but not bookkeeping)?
Someone from the South West perhaps?
Bingo!