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.

The big screen

Sometimes you feel you were between ways of living not least as that boy as today it is rare for children to be taken a lot to the Cinema - in our day they were in town and city centres rather than vast retail and leisure parks out of town - as many opt to stream films on large screen televisions instead

The cinema is different for being a very much a social experience as collectively you all respond to the film, talk with others before and after it has ended with Ooms and Ah's, holding on to the plush fold down seat.

One thing there was were cinema clubs for younsgsters with discounts for Saturday matinee showings so it was the place to go with your mates armed with some money for the film and popcorn.

A thing that was starting to change when I was first introduced to the cinema watching classic Disney productions like The Aristocats was while we'd be put in our best, thankfully at that point in proper short trousers, later on children like adults stopped dressing up for that and the theatre wearing jeans or jogging bottoms.

Girls wore pretty skirts and dresses aided by their mums.

For a period that great christmas stocking filler, the Annual, might of contained one dedicated to the stars of the the big screen with features on the latest films and leading actors and actresses of the sort of films we watched.

And they were films back then, not Movies that was so so American and looked down upon.

There were rules about behaviour while there and if you joined a cinema club, specific ones that breaking could lead to you being banned from the club.

Sometimes I feel it is sad so many youngster don't get the buzz of a Saturday off whatching a film with their mates, being in a nother world for a few hours.

Ozzy Osbourne

 

Yesterday it was announced that Ozzy Osbourne heavy metal vocalist, major part of the pioneering group Black Sabbath and reality tv star died after a period of illness with parkinson's disease, two weeks on from the reunited for the last time concert of Black Sabbath at Villa Park, Aston, Birmingham.

It's fair to say Heavy Metal, particuary at it's more gothic end wasn't my main thing although I was well aware of their music but when I heard Paroniod issued as a single in 1980, I know I wanted it as I just loved the riff.

Mr Osbourne found playing the werewolf for the photoshoot for Bark At The Moon a sticky experience as trying to remove his hir suit took some doing but I loved this single when it came out in late 1983 taken from the album of the same name and his 1986 hit, The Ultimate Sin.

R.I.P Ozzy, you were great.

Please come this way, Joe

We are moving towards the great six weeks off we remember so well from our school days this does come into our world as adult  children as surprising we find they no longer resemble actual school children for that whole period.

Even if that uniform is a bit more up scale than many, one thing you can sure of is you won't see boys (or girl) about wearing them this summer.

This does have the knock on effect of making those of us who do still wear them rather stick out apart from posing the question "If we're still in that childhood, why are we still in our unforms now?"

Personally I feel at this time we're best staying in sync with them and wearing more contempary play clothes, t shorts and cargo/sports shorts and short socks while out unless we're going anywhere where "sunday best" or a retro school look is expressly called for.

It does mirror the reality - we didn't wear school uniform during the hols - and we are more likely to blend in in our own communities enjoying being who we are at this time of year.