Haha, you caught me. I admit it. My nerdiness is far from a secret, especially to anyone who’s ever met me in person. Nerdity cannot be contained.
I don’t see it as a bad thing, though; it’s served me well in life. And I reckon the root of that comes down to one thing – a love of learning.
It’s a wonderful thing and it makes life a joy because there’s always something interesting to uncover and expand upon. Take one night recently, for example. I was scrolling through my Instagram reels (short, usually humorous videos) and stumbled upon some accounts of people “mudlarking” on the shores of the River Thames in England.
Fascinating stuff, that mudlarking. There are people who dedicate their free time to turning over rocks and digging through mud to find historic artefacts like 17th-century pipe stems, Roman coins and coloured-glass medicine bottles. The mudlarkers then take their new prizes home and research their history. Dream hobby, really, for a nerd like me. Sign me up.
My younger nerdy self used to shine at this time of the year – the back-to-school rush. I can’t tell you how much joy stationery shopping used to bring me.
There I’d be, list in one hand and a basket in the other, darting around crates of 1B4s and 1J5s to find exactly what I needed, then I’d laboriously test every pen and pencil in the shop to determine which would be the nicest to write with. Ink flow makes a big difference to note-taking, you know.
Decisions made, I’d then return home and spend hours covering my books with Duraseal, ensuring they were as bubble-free as possible. I’d even offer to do my siblings’ books, I enjoyed it that much.
What a nerd.
Now, as a parent, the thought of stationery shopping brings with it a sense of dread. My kid is drawing close to that age and I’m already starting to stress out about how much it’s going to cost to get him set up for his first day of school.
Not only is the cost itself a huge factor, but the time of year – coming only a month after Christmas and after a lengthy school holiday period – means finances are already strained.
I had a look at the website for the school my child will likely be attending. For two T-shirts and two pairs of shorts, I’m looking at $150. That’s quite a lot more than I’d usually spend on four items of clothing for a 5-year-old.
I expect that schools’ rationale is that the items will be thrashed five days a week so they need to be quality and durable – which does make sense. It’s still a hard pill to swallow for families who are used to spending less than $150 on an entire year’s worth of clothing from places like Kmart and Postie Plus, though.
Not only are the uniforms costly, there’s all the other stuff, too: stationery lists, hats, socks, shoes, backpacks, drink bottles and lunch boxes. That’s a significant outlay, especially if you’re wanting to buy products that last more than a few weeks.
And that’s all without calculating the cost of winter uniforms and any extra-curriculars the child might attend. Not to mention how much more expensive it gets when the kids reach college.
But canny parents will always try to find a way to pay less.
There’s a booming market in the trade of second-hand uniforms online, for example.
The founder of one of those pages, Maxine Paterson, said items regularly sold for half the price they cost new.
“As a solo mum on the benefit who was struggling for years with not a lot of money, I know how expensive uniforms are,” she said.
Parents can be a resourceful bunch. We all want what’s best for our children, regardless of our financial position.
And that can be really hard – knowing that the quality of education our children get does depend, to a degree, on our own income.
Sure, we have “free” schooling in New Zealand, but there are unavoidable costs that hit some families hard, like uniforms and school bags and everything else. And those costs mean the children in those families miss out on other opportunities, like swimming lessons or maths tutoring.
Sporty kids should have the chance to enjoy moving their bodies. Nerdy kids should be able to lose themselves in a world of facts and fantasy. Creative kids should have the space to let their brains run wild.
Each and every child should be given the ability to find their passions and enhance their natural abilities, no matter the resources their parents have.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: I think all schooling should be free. All of it.
But maybe that’s just my inner nerd speaking.
Sonya Bateson is a writer, reader and crafter raising her family in Tauranga. She is a Millennial who enjoys eating avocado on toast, drinking lattes and defying stereotypes. As a sceptic, she reserves the right to change her mind when presented with new evidence.
