Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

rockfreak wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:41 pm Problems for black or Asian pupils living in the real world (as opposed to the fairyland occupied by ex-public schoolboys). Last week the Guardian ran a story quoting an Afro Caribbean mum who complained that her teenaged son had been stopped by the police and asked to justify himself no less than 30 times over the last few months. She said that he's becoming afraid to go out anywhere. Also, check out Alan Bennett in his book Keeping On Keeping On. During the course of filming The History Boys on location out of London he learned that the two Asian boys in the cast had been stopped by police at Euston station on their way home on no reasonable pretext that they could discern. When the police discovered that the two boys were cast members for the film they seemed more interested in that than any similarity to any suspect that the police might be looking for ("Someone answering your description, etc etc"). So Bennett accompanied one of the lads when he next went home via Euston. The lad was not stopped. Perhaps because he had an elderly white guy with him.

rockfreak wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 8:48 pm POLICE EXTEND 'STOP AND SEARCH' TO CITY TRADERS

In order to stop a repeat of the 2007/2008 financial crash, the police are now making use of new powers to stop and search all those in the financial district. This is in response to public concern about the way that these people tanked the economy and then mugged the taxpayer for several billion quid in the way of bailouts.
One arrest has already been made. Banker David Brown of Essex (and before that France) was on his way home from his City office when a squad car screeched to a halt and several burly policemen jumped out, rammed him against a wall, spread his legs, and demanded to know why he was carrying such an expensive looking briefcase. He was then hauled off to the cop shop and thrown into a cell where he was kept without reasonable explanation. When he next saw his briefcase it had mysteriously acquired a nasty looking kitchen knife and two bags of heroin. Detective Inspector Fit'emup said: "We've got him bang to rights, This will do my arrest quotient no end of good when they next discuss promotions".
Banker Brown protested that he was a law-abiding citizen with no previous. His only transgression was posting obscure, rambling monologues on his old school website. But it cut no ice and DI Fit'emup said that he would be prosecuted under a new law which prohibited carrying expensive-looking briefcases across county lines.

time please wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 12:18 pm So strange that rockfreak knows so much about the real world yet escaped the fairyland even though he is a product of a public school.

time please wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:54 am I would presume that a lot of the former pupils at CH knew a lot about the " real world ". We grew up post WW2 with PTSD rife amongst our parents, Some of us living in quite squalid accomodation, and very little money. I think that makes us experts regarding the real world.

‘Pupils at one of Britain’s oldest schools are to be taught about “white privilege”, as it says that no progress can be made from “within a comfort zone”.

scrub wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 1:58 pm CH was, at most, 7 years of someone's life, so unless they're 8, they will have some practical experience of a world outside of it. Given that magical realism is, as far as I can tell, just a literary style, that world is indeed a real one.

loringa wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 1:49 pm

time please wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:54 am I would presume that a lot of the former pupils at CH knew a lot about the " real world ". We grew up post WW2 with PTSD rife amongst our parents, Some of us living in quite squalid accomodation, and very little money. I think that makes us experts regarding the real world.

I am sure that you do indeed and I accept that my exposure to what I suppose would now be called the economically disadvantaged is both recent and not something I had to endure in person. But you and Mr Redshaw, whatever your backgrounds and I wouldn't presume to speculate on these, both received the great benefits of an education at Christ's Hospital and thus were provided with the opportunity to make your own way in the world with all the benefits a decent education provides.

rockfreak wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:41 pm Problems for black or Asian pupils living in the real world (as opposed to the fairyland occupied by ex-public schoolboys). Last week the Guardian ran a story quoting an Afro Caribbean mum who complained that her teenaged son had been stopped by the police and asked to justify himself no less than 30 times over the last few months. She said that he's becoming afraid to go out anywhere. Also, check out Alan Bennett in his book Keeping On Keeping On. During the course of filming The History Boys on location out of London he learned that the two Asian boys in the cast had been stopped by police at Euston station on their way home on no reasonable pretext that they could discern. When the police discovered that the two boys were cast members for the film they seemed more interested in that than any similarity to any suspect that the police might be looking for ("Someone answering your description, etc etc"). So Bennett accompanied one of the lads when he next went home via Euston. The lad was not stopped. Perhaps because he had an elderly white guy with him.

scrub wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 1:58 pm CH was, at most, 7 years of someone's life, so unless they're 8, they will have some practical experience of a world outside of it. Given that magical realism is, as far as I can tell, just a literary style, that world is indeed a real one.

Of course, the "real world" has it's gatekeepers who, much like those who stand in judgement of what is or isn't working class, will always find a way of defining their experience as the real/true/authentic one, while others have apparently never lived in it and/or wouldn't last a day there.

I mean, whatever makes you happy and all that, but the four Yorkshireman attitude that hangs around it all like a bad smell is, to put it very gently, a bit tedious.

Anyway, as to the original post;

‘Pupils at one of Britain’s oldest schools are to be taught about “white privilege”, as it says that no progress can be made from “within a comfort zone”.

No argument with that, and I'd be curious to see how they go about putting people outside their comfort zone.

Pe.A wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 7:31 am Sorry - you lost me with the four Yorkshiremen - what does it mean?