An hour or so later as Michael was packing up his books, his mother asked if she could see what he’d been doing. Michael gave her the textbooks in question and she thoroughly perused his homework. “Well this looks very good.” she smiled as she passed him his books. “See I told you you work better with your uniform on.” She stated with a ‘mum knows best’ tone of voice.

Michael smiled to himself as he put the books back in his bag. His mother asked him what classes he had the following day, so he got out his timetable and listed each class. “Maths, then Geography, then domestic science, whatever that is…”

“Well domestic means…” She replied, half waiting for an answer, “of the home. So that’s cooking, cleaning, needlework, ironing and so on.” She explained.