Boarding school changes over the years

[Jo]

Interesting article in the Telegraph Online today:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/ma ... ding07.xml

http://tinyurl.com/5crr8l

[J.R.]

1st Paragraph:-

"Some revolutions take place so insidiously that you miss them. A generation ago, middle-class English parents packed their children off to boarding schools without a care in the world. They made no preliminary inquiries about school food or the temperature in the dormitories. They expected spartan and they got spartan."

Sounds good to me, but then I am 61 now, and still in favour of harsh discipline.

[englishangel]

But a generation ago my brothers shared a room until the older one left home, (I didn't because there were 8 years between me and my sister), my sons don't share. And 25 years ago children at home didn't have TVs, MP3 players, Wiis etc, because either there weren't any or they cost an arm and a leg, they don't today.

Worldly goods have nothing to do with discipline, even the Army uses X-box handsets to guide the remote UAVs.

[michael scuffil]

I'm not in favour of harsh discipline, still less of arbitrary discipline. But I am in favour of fairly Spartan conditions for adolescents. That doesn't imply poor hygiene, though, and my designer-regime would include more than one change of underwear a week, and exclude mid-morning PT with no time to shower.

As it happens, I remember life being harsh, arbitrary, Spartan and unhygienic till I became a first parting Grecian, when it became positively sybaritic.

[englishangel]

I'm not in favour of harsh discipline, still less of arbitrary discipline. But I am in favour of fairly Spartan conditions for adolescents. That doesn't imply poor hygiene, though, and my designer-regime would include more than one change of underwear a week, and exclude mid-morning PT with no time to shower.

As it happens, I remember life being harsh, arbitrary, Spartan and unhygienic till I became a first parting Grecian, when it became positively sybaritic.

That goes for me too, and when I think of the amount of chemicals my teens put under their arms, the fact that we weren't allowed deodorants until 1967 doesn't bear thinking about.

[sejintenej]

I'm not in favour of harsh discipline, still less of arbitrary discipline. But I am in favour of fairly Spartan conditions for adolescents. That doesn't imply poor hygiene, though, and my designer-regime would include more than one change of underwear a week, and exclude mid-morning PT with no time to shower.

As it happens, I remember life being harsh, arbitrary, Spartan and unhygienic till I became a first parting Grecian, when it became positively sybaritic.

Harsh discipline? so long as it is effective and does not have a permanent physical effect - what's the problem?
Arbitrary? OK so mistakes were made - but extremely rarely; yes, I got walloped when I didn't deserve it but I escaped when I did deserve it - I reckon it averaged out. There were rules (perhaps strict like getting up at 6.55am when it was cold and wet outside) but they were the same for you and your peers and you knew that as you progressed many would slowly slip away.
Spartan? yes and now I can sleep in a snowhole, stand being spoaked to the skin, carry on when I feel exhausted which I reckon most of current CH pupils couldn't even contemplate without calling for their inhuman rights.
Unhygenic? OK yes but what harm did it do you? In fact it probably did you the world of good by:
a) allowing you to appreciate better conditions, and
b) filling you so full of antibodies that you are immune to a basketful of microbes, bugs, MRSAs, Montezuma's revenge, Gippy tummy and masses of other things
c) saving the school money on cleaning so that they could afford just a bit more education / life improving experiences / whatever
Mid morning PT. I agree it was a waste of time; it should have been infinitely harder but if it had been considerably harder then you would have sweated / perspitred and then you would have needed a (non-existrant) shower. (For those of you who didn't experience it, it was not physivcally hard given the level of fitness engendered by afternoon games but I did find that the timing / coordination requirements were a bit stiff). Do you remember timed circuit training in the gym? Now that was hard!

[J.R.]

Harsh discipline? so long as it is effective and does not have a permanent physical effect - what's the problem?
Arbitrary? OK so mistakes were made - but extremely rarely; yes, I got walloped when I didn't deserve it but I escaped when I did deserve it - I reckon it averaged out. There were rules (perhaps strict like getting up at 6.55am when it was cold and wet outside) but they were the same for you and your peers and you knew that as you progressed many would slowly slip away.
Spartan? yes and now I can sleep in a snowhole, stand being spoaked to the skin, carry on when I feel exhausted which I reckon most of current CH pupils couldn't even contemplate without calling for their inhuman rights.

That really must be a forking nuisance, David !