At the end of telling the story of an event in their lives, working class clients may say, “So, I guess that just goes to show you can’t fight City Hall” or “Best to let sleeping dogs alone, right?” Often they repeat some advice I have given them previously and then look at me with a question in their eyes, as if to say, “Is that right?” Since I first wrote about this I have noticed how often I also close a story with something similar. This is akin to Bernstein’s working class group saying, “you know?” and “isn’t it?” at the ends of their sentences. The cultural command is that the speaker
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