I was educated in Australian schools in the good old days prior to the advent of telephone answering machines. Truancy was a crime, misdemeanours earned a thrashing; homework not submitted or completed unsatisfactorily earned a thrashing (usually by one's parents), and we spent an hour a week marching in front of the Union Jack, whilst singing British patriotic songs *. Every day started with the National Anthem (God Save The Queen), whether we believed in the right God, any God, or no gods; and for good measure, The Lord's Prayer was said daily, and compulsory bible scripture was attended weekly (except by Jews and Quakers). This marvellous educational system produced a godless, non conformist, chelloveck; a barely numerate, reasonably literate secular humanist, with existentialist philosophical inclinations . Oh for the good old days! * Edit: Like Rule Britannia. The junior republicans among us would sometimes cheekily sing alternative lyrics to the chorus (in a safely sotto voice)