Aspirations and Expectations

Christine O'Mahony: Makeup


Christine O’Mahony was born in 1952 in Northampton. As a young child Christine spent time in Nazareth House children’s homes with her two sisters, before returning to family life in Camden, London aged five. Christine attended local C of E and Catholic primary schools and a local Catholic Secondary School, also spending time in hospital aged seven.

Here Christine talks about the low expectations she experienced on her Secretarial Course

  • Christine O'Mahony
  • Christine O'Mahony
  • Christine O'Mahony
https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/makeup.mp3

Transcript

So I went to what would be Sixth Form College now, Further Ed College to a Secretarial course, oh my God. And again I was appalled at the low level of expectation of us, you know, I mean I was clever, I know I was clever although I got treated like I was stupid quite a lot ‘cause I didn’t hear, I actually knew that I was clever. And oh God, it was so boring! To do shorthand we had this teacher who used to make us walk around with our pads in our hands and do it while we were walking because we would one day have a boss who would want to give us shorthand on the way to the office. They taught us how to do makeup, can you believe that, teaching sixteen, seventeen year olds how to do their makeup so that we would look good in our secretarial jobs?

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