Tom Brown

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ben ashton
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Tom Brown

Post by ben ashton »

Did anyone see the new version of Tom's schooldays on ITV new years day?

Quality film, remember whole of 2nd form gettin forced to watch it in Riches [lecture theatre] in 1st week

However, there is a place for 'bullying'[self-discipline, as they called it] as long as its constructive!

'hierachy' was supposedly banned the year i went [by the ever-more-crap 'management team']. Juniors these days dont get it 'too easy' but they are getting less respectful and less disciplined. i know people currently at CH so i know what im talking about is true!
Incidentally, teachers are also getting worse (at everything)!

i could go on for ages, but u'd get bored.
But does anyone agree?
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Great Plum
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Post by Great Plum »

Hierarchy has probably not been around for years... I found that if the elders do not abuse their position and respect is given in both ways, it can work well - without that, it doesn't...
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Heirarchy is good

Post by jp »

Heirarchy is a good thing, it's a question of what heirarchy. If it's arbitrary then yes, it can be destructive. There no reason per-se for LE to tell 2nd form what to do, or for them to have more priviledges. But, if you give those LE some responsibilities and jobs to do in the house / sports field / school, then it's reasonable to reward them with priviledges etc.

Otherwise, there's not much for anyone to respect or aspire to.

Also, children will tend to create their own heirarchies, and they are not as helpful as imposed ones. Some kids are going to end up commanding respect form their peers. Better that it should be for some real achievment, than because they have more dope / money / CDs than the other kids.
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Great Plum
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Post by Great Plum »

Wise words there - maybe you should join the SMT!
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Tom Brown

Post by paddy »

I watched that Tom Brown thing with great interest and pleasure (never having bothered to read the thing). It was good TV.

Didn't ring TOO many bells for me from my time at CH. But I do remember my first housemaster (Roger Martin) telling us 3rd formers that we shouldn't allow the new squits to "get their legs under the table" too quickly. Which I think was a bit of a licence for mild bullying. But we didn't force new kids to sing songs while throwing shoes at them!

I was never really bullied at all, and I don't remember it happening much. Some mild verbal, a little physical, a couple of cases I feel ashamed not to have intervened in to stop, but considering I was there for 7 years (early '80's), I think it was pretty civilised at CH.

I agree with jp that hierarchies are naturally emergent, and it's better if they have some meaningful structure, rather than just being down to the survival of the fittest...
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Post by Great Plum »

It was never too bad for me, my juniors was a little worse than the seniors perhaps, but i would expect that...
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Post by jtaylor »

I remember being given, and receiving, "the bumps" on my birthday....great fun if done carefully, but when the person on the duvet hits the ceiling, then comes down heavily on one side of the duvet, breaking the grip of the person holding, and crashes into the iron beds in the dorm, it became somewhat less amusing for the victim.....but still fun!

Anyone remember chariot races down the dorm, kneeling on a duvet, being pulled by two guys?

J
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Post by paddy »

Oh man, that reminds me of this surreal thing we used to do in Barnes A. Roger Martin (housemaster) would hand over a huge bottle of green slimy liquid soap stuff, and then turn a blind eye as we deliberately flooded the changing room showers (old now-demolished Barnes Wallis designed ones, with smooth concrete floors and lines of sinks), slopped liquid soap on the floor and then proceeded to do amazing high speed sliding-on-bum races around the changing rooms. HIGHLY dangerous. Fantastic fun.
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Great Plum
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Post by Great Plum »

Being a non-foundationer, I never did sleep in the dorms - but I know in Maine B, they always used to do it - always remember Hugo Abreu crashing onto the glass door into the Lav End...

The following year they put carpets in the dorms so that ruined that!
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Post by Andy Friend »

Got rid of the splinters though! Still think blockading ourselves in the MaB dorms was a moment of absolute quality; the Super Nintendo and the toaster were definite benefits!
Great Plum wrote:Being a non-foundationer, I never did sleep in the dorms - but I know in Maine B, they always used to do it - always remember Hugo Abreu crashing onto the glass door into the Lav End...

The following year they put carpets in the dorms so that ruined that!
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Post by Simon Kerruish »

jtaylor wrote:I remember being given, and receiving, "the bumps" on my birthday....great fun if done carefully, but when the person on the duvet hits the ceiling, then comes down heavily on one side of the duvet, breaking the grip of the person holding, and crashes into the iron beds in the dorm, it became somewhat less amusing for the victim.....but still fun!

Anyone remember chariot races down the dorm, kneeling on a duvet, being pulled by two guys?

J
Yes - but we then had the chariots crashing into each other and had about 8 kids pulling each chariot. Just in time for the junior housemaster (McCall?) to charge in and get caught in the middle. For some reason he underwent a sense of humor failure.

Anyone remember bunny-taming? I think they stopped that in 1967 - it was particularly vicious as the perpetrators wouldn't stop until blood appeared. Reading the above and what this guy Southern is apparently doing, CH seems to be going from one extreme to the other.
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Post by Vonny »

jtaylor wrote:I remember being given, and receiving, "the bumps" on my birthday....great fun if done carefully, but when the person on the duvet hits the ceiling,
That happened to me at Hertford - thought I'd broken my leg it hurt that much :cry:
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Re: Tom Brown

Post by Jeeves »

ben ashton wrote:Quality film, remember whole of 2nd form gettin forced to watch it in Riches [lecture theatre] in 1st week
I remember it very clearly. The boy that acted as Tom Brown looked just like Oli Geidt!
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