[HPFGU-OTChatter] School Daze; Was Summer Birthdays

[Shaun Hately]

On 11 Oct 2003 at 4:13, msbeadsley wrote:

> seven years old and still figuring things out.) But then one of the 
> other teachers came in and read to us, saying that Mrs. Anderson had 
> had to take care of something. Mrs. Anderson came back a while later 
> and never mentioned paddling again, and the naughty boys, figuring 
> they'd gotten off lucky, behaved for the rest of the year. I kinda 
> felt the same and followed suit.

This brought back a very vivid memory for me.

I've mentioned before that part of the reason Harry Potter appealed to me was 
that when I first read Philosopher's Stone, I saw some parallels with my life. When 
I was 12, I endured a year of complete and utter hell at school - to the extent I was 
suicidal by the end of the year. End result, after a lot of running around, I started 
at a new school the following year, just after my 13th birthday. And it seemed like 
heaven to me.   

I loved everything about it. I loved the buildings, I loved the grounds, I loved the 
uniform. I was impressed by the fact that we had to call the teachers 'sir'. It's kind 
of hard to describe the sheer joy I felt about being there.

And then about a week into first term, our form master (who was also my house 
master) sat down at the start of a class and began to talk to us about behaviour - 
now we were the oldest boys in this school (it was the prep school to a very well 
regarded school, where we went the following year), and most of the class had 
been together for three years at this time - a few had started the previous year, I 
was the only one who started that year, and so was the only one who didn't know 
how the school worked.

As he began his talk, it became quite clear that this school took bad behaviour 
very seriously - not a problem. I'd always been one of the 'good boys'. But then I 
began to work oit the implications of what he was saying.  

And I began to realise that this school still used corporal punishment.

This was *quite* a shocking realisation - because I thought it was illegal! Most 
people did. I found out later that all the news reports I'd seen about it becoming 
illegal back when I was 7 and in grade 2, were only referring to schools run by the 
state. It was still legal for independent schools, and mine was one that still used it. 
And by the way this teacher was talking, they used it a lot.

He talked for a long time - basically outlining dozens of different offences and 
telling us the punishment we could expect if we were caught engaging in any of 
them. I have *never* been in a classroom that was so quiet and so attentive and 
so focused. So I had a lot of time to think about what he was saying - it took a 
while to get my head around it - but finally I worked out what I thought about the 
new situation I was in.

"Cool. Oh wow. Cool."

I was delighted to be in that school - I was *so* happy about it. Sure, I was 
nervous as well, and a bit scared, but I was also really impressed. I'd spent a year 
of total hell because I'd been at a school where discipline meant nothing - and this 
seemed so marvellous in comparison.

I reached that revelation after about twenty minutes of his talking - and by the 
forty minute mark, it had eased up a bit as he went on and on ('If you're found out 
of bounds behind the pine trees, you'll get two. If I catch you up one of them, I'll 
crack you four...'). He made it sound like this was an hourly occurrence and that 
seemed a little excessive - not that I was particularly worried, though. I was a 
good boy.

It may seem paradoxical - but I felt *safe* for the first time in over a year in that 
class, that day.  

They didn't actually use it anywhere near as much as this talk lead me to believe, 
I might add. 

> Sandy, waxing nostalgic and wishing she had more time lately

Nostalgia can be fun.

(waiting to be told he's a barbarian (-8 )


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia