An interesting new offering greets the start of the new school year - the arrival in our household of a document from school calling itself a 'contract'.
This sets out in quasi-legal terms the obligations expected of my heir and also those expected of his parents. There is, oddly enough, no effusion of legal split-infinitives 'to conscientiously instruct and educate your son ...' applying to the school itself.
I do not recall that my education ever featured contracts. In those days education and law were two different matters and the intervention of legal concepts in educational matters was inappropriate.
One hears rumours of legal battles over educational matters in America. But this has not happened in Hong Kong yet. The contract which I signed did not seem likely to be much help if a real legal fight broke out. There were no signs of a proper lawyerly concern to deflect any question of liability even if the damage was due to 'negligence of the contracting party or its agents'.
The print was uniformly large. So perhaps we can put this down as a laudable attempt to borrow a legal metaphor and use it to remind pupils of their obligations to co-operate in the efforts of their educators, and perhaps also to indicate to parents that their duties do not stop at the payment of exorbitant fees and provision of uniforms and equipment.
All the same, I wish lawyers could keep their ideas out of my workplace. At the university level the legal eagles hover in spirit over your course plan, syllabus, document or whatever. Although this important piece of paper is rarely read by teachers, and never by students, it is often described by administrators as your 'contract with students', with the implication that a student could complain - or sue you - if the thing is not followed in detail.