Who are we?

Bit of a different post this week.

Before all this identity politics business kicked life was pretty simple that we all belonged to four corners of the UK and so we would for thing just about our part show our English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish flags with pride.

Collectively we've never been big on flags and saluting them outside of military or ceremonial contexts while for things around the whole United Kingdom, we'd show the Union Flag and generally it wasn't one or the other.

Recently there have been many flags been put up, often the Cross of St. George so some say is it that we've changed that relationship or is it more around politics?

While no one can  deny the Cross of St, George has been used by Nationalists and by some for racially intolerate purposes perhaps when people feel identity is under question and some have issues referring to native identities while other groups are encourage to share theirs, shouldn't we all be free to show our pride for whatever part of the UK we are from and for bring British regardless of race, religion or country of birth?

Past winter dress

Just been outside with the temperatures around 9 degrees c (sorry don't do Imperial) and like noticed the coolness which really brought me around to dealing with the colder part of the year which for some us especially in infants and juniors mant thick wollen socks and duffle coats.

Mine's hanging up, ready to go when needed!

There was though something else.

Being in a more liberal environment, you could just wear a sweater in a design that the knitting pattern might of said "for Girls" if you liked it and the colour scheme was okay like dark pinks, pinky blue or torquoise.

You could wear tights, plain tights mind under shorts or the dreaded long trousers that were ofter colder than decent shorts and tlong woollen socks and mum did buy me the odd pair for winter so a look like that wasn't uncommon although needless to say back then it was a bit "out there"

Today it's not unknown for boys and men to were thick "nude" tights when playing football in the winter without any issues but back then it was unthinkable!

So much fuss about a few scraps of materila,eh?

September and the return to normal

So it is September and we know what that means, the rituals well ingrained in us as you feel the sun on you but not being as warm as it was in early August.

Checking over all your school wear for any wear tear, growth spurts that rended items too tight or indecently short, missing buttons on shirts, ties that appeared to lose the will to live and short trousers that show signs of wear in the seat.

Then the trip to the uniform shop especially if everything but your own skin has to be approved and branded or for more liberal establishments the local discount schoolwear shop and market store sellers of basics like Banner shirts and a shoe shop for footwear to survive seven hours on your feet all day, five days a week.

Having had a free and easy time of it all for six weeks you struggle to fixed periods of rigid academic study if you hadn't found chunks of last terms work seems to have gone very much astray, lost in memory holes.

Mind you, if I was him I'd of had those short trousers take up a bit as they must catch the knee even if you kept the turn up and I have got my original 70's tastic short lengh grey ones out and on today as the lcoal children all go back this morning.

The great sock debate

I guess we all carry a bit of the past around in us from earliest days at school, to perhaps going to secondary school, our first real job and so on but perhaps that's a barrier to understanding that today maybe things are different and even perhaps what was normal for even then wasn't necessarily the case for others.

For those of us of a certain age our first school told parents what if any the uniform policy was, some had more a dress code you were expected to keep within in, others a rigid uniform that had to bought and worn OR else!

By high school we saw the prospectus and what it had to say around that and maybe compared notes with mates who perhaps attended a different one to us.

Surprisingly school appeared to have a lot to say about socks, that they should be branded, the length and if they had to have a turn over top.

The bigger thing was colour and most specified grey or for high schools with long trousers, black was common.

On the otherhand girls tended to told they had to be white which somehow got translated into white socks are "girly" and by extension had no business being on any boy and some that still carries on in the world of the adult little boy/schoolboy .

What tends to be forgotten is often sports socks for boys were white as in this example having worn many a pair myself, often for things like Maypole Dancing you had white pumps and socks and even some football socks were.

White socks and wearing them doesn't make you a girl even if many of your peers may not and within the ASB/ALB field really isn't an issue, just being in little headspace is what matters.

What is sixteen?

 Heading slowly towards the end of the school hols and topics do sometimes come up worthy of discussion.

While most would hold schools and politics really shouldn't get tangled up not least in schools between staff and pupils sometimes they do such as over campaigns to convert high schools to Comprehensives (and sometimes back again), what *should* be in the National Curriculum, teaching around LGBTA+ topics, "de-colonializing" and so do cause the fur to fly.

Many schools do put out education about the British Constitution,  civil rights, how elections are run and the political system to equip pupils with knowledge about how it all works ready for when the become adults, ready to stand for Elections and to take part by Voting in them at the age of 18 for UK wide elections.

This is quite sensible but the incoming labour Government had in its Manifesto (a set of promises to do things if they win)  the idea of reducing the age of voting to 16 saying as they old enough to in certain circumstances pay taxes they should be able to influence decisions around how it is spent.

My main concern is most sixteen year olds are insufficient aware and experienced about how things work, are able to see fully the consequences of how they would vote and how politicians regardless of party don't always tell the whole truth at least.

Many schools run "Mock Elections" where pupils stand for election within school, have to campaign, debate topics and vote which teaches basic skills needed in a democracy and you mature sometimes quite radically by 18.

Another consideration is this: If we judge 16 year olds mature enough to vote, then what does that say about their comprehension of what is wrong and right, how that feeds into the kinds of sentence they may recieve or being in any kind of corrective institution.

It's hard to say "But he's only a kid" when he's given a major say in any and all elections and should a person able to vote be able to serve or be called up for military service or able to smoke so long as smoking remains legal?

This will need to be debated in both Houses of Parliament before making its way before assent is given so let's hope this idea is fully considered. 

Cor blimey! It's hot

Well it's a warm one isn't it,what?

One thing I usually do whenever any kind of heatwave alert is raised is check on the book and especially record racks for any twisting or less than upright storing as that plus head easily leads to warps either fairly minor or the sort that are practically untrackable with warps like ski slopes for your arm and cartridge to climb up and down.

Yes you can get things that claim to remove them but given you're gently warming and reforming the vinyl material things can go wrong so it's best to avoid getting your records that way.

In addition to that keeping a fan running will help keep indoor temperatures under control and avoid spikes of extreme heat building up.

Pix credits:W-t-O/Chat GTP

While we all feel like running around with our model aeroplanes, playing with train sets outdoors and that, suncream, hats and cool drinks really need to be factored in.

Heatstroke can kill so take precautions, although I always have ice creams in apart from dashing to the ice cream man.

I often had a 99 in the city centre just outside the main shopping mall on a saturday morning before catching the bus back home in the summer months.

Take care and enjoy the weather.

Around School CP

This week we'll talk a bit about school discipline in my time and why we don't tend talk about much here and not on the forum at all.

For me school was in the era where Sir and Miss were Sir and Miss, children attending were called Pupils (NEVER ‘students’!) in very much their domain and while your head teacher was friendly he wasn’t your friend at school-he was an Adult Authority figure who had Authority over you.

My first school was not untypical being a infant/junior school in a Country district which was Victorian with separate doors originally intended for girls and boys but used to separate juniors from infants and their was an informal gender separation in the playground area.

It was in the era where also corporal punishment was what we expected and got - a social currency where songs were made up about it and details traded on the school grapevine - and every class room had some implement or other by the teachers desk.

Our desks were traditional wooden ones with a inkwell as we HAD to use a fountain pen by the time we’d reached Nine and a lid in which we stored our exercise books (Textbooks and any handouts were given out and collected by your teacher.

Another school did but much was informal and hence unregulated contary to local authority rules which should of been followed with no entries in Punishment Books.

Another feature of that era was a lack of recognition of certain disabilities that affect learning such as Dyslexia and Autism and in an era where the child who got poor results and never seemed to improve was often spanked and caned just for that it does influence my views feeling that it was unjust and abusive in a way that c.p. for things like wilful damage to school property, attacking fellow pupils and the like can be understood as a deterant and to which schools have struggled to find things that do work in practise since c.p. in state schools stopped in 1987 and in Private Schools in the 2,000's.

Such practises were not uncommon in that era having met many dyslexics in adult life who told me of their school experiences so I understand for a number this whole topic is triggering and so we don't have lines upon lines of c.p. related text on the forum or art although we recognize it was a part of the reality of those times.

I also don't feel the working defination of being an asb/alb is one that has to include it at all as for some it is too unpleasant to even consider and in any event for those that do you do after all consent to it in a way back then having been enrolled by your parents, you were just subjected to it.