These days students are allowed to talk in class provided they are on task, Whanganui High School teacher Rebecca Hardy says.
"Do you ever got detention for talking in class now?" she asked her Year 12 statistics class.
They said that never happened.
Which was lucky, because Whanganui Labour candidate Steph Lewis had sat down next to a girl and was quietly talking to her.
Ms Lewis was one of four candidates who each spent half an hour in a Whanganui High School class on Friday morning. They were "normal" classes, not the best or the worst, Manawatu/Whanganui Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) co-chairman Grant Collie said.