Learner Dad: We were told to ‘shut up and keep going’

We didn't kick up a fuss about bullying because that was the way world worked when we were young

Picture: iStock 

“Dad, do you know why some kinds of cancer are more dangerous than others?”, asked my seven-year-old on the drive home from school yesterday.

They’re teaching young children about cancer in school now and it points to a brighter future for all of us. When I was growing up in the 1970s and '80s, you could barely say the word cancer in public. You’d hear that someone had ‘The Big C’ and that was about it. Getting cancer was something to be ashamed of. But then pretty much everything was something to be ashamed of back in the 1980s.