"I should explain a bit here about the Exchanges we had at Hailsham."
-page 16
This quote came about because Kathy and her friends were talking about how much Tommy gets picked on. Some of them said that he brings it on himself, and as an example, they said that he did not put anything into the Spring Exchange. The Exchange is an exhibition, where artwork made by the students would be turned in for Exchange tokens based on the value of the work. Then the students could purchase others artwork with the coins they had received. The Exchange was a big deal for the students, so Tommy was seen as disrespectful for not contributing to the Exchange. Being artistic was a very important part of being a student at Hailsham, and Tommy was not artistic at all, and even got made fun of for it. Kathy had noticed that in time, Tommy had stopped having temper tantrums, and then eventually stopped getting made fun of. Kathy asked him what had caused this and he told her that one of the guardians (teachers), Miss Lucy, had told him that it was okay that he was not creative. Since being creative was such a big deal at Hailsham, Kathy thought he was lying and got mad. I find the whole Exchange to be a strange concept for a school. I'm wondering why being creative and artistic is so valuable at Hailsham.
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