Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[Darren]

That's a really good idea Lesley!

I wish I could collect up all the noise & swearing I hear from the Lancaster Grammar School(s) kids on my bus home and deliver that to their head teacher. Some days I have to get off and walk the last two miles home because I can't stand the noise any longer. Funny thing is that the bus drivers seem too scared to say anything but are often very grumpy with the Uni students who are unfailingly polite and well behaved!

[ranunculus]

Just saw the rant about litter. The school kids gather at the shop across the way before school waiting for the deli counter to open. They buy sausages and sausage rolls. Outside the shop there is a bin and up the steps there is another. First thing they do is take the food out of the bag which gets dropped on the ground. As they make their way towards my house and the path that leads through the estate they drop the wrapper of the food and the polystyrene burger box. Any item can be thrown in to the gardens. I told the headmaster but the b*****d wont come to see the problem.

I would collect as much as possible in black bags, deposit them outside either the school or the deli counter (just as culpable) AFTER weakening the bottom of the bags to such an extent that the bags split open upon lifting ... then telephone the headmaster to say that you have solved your problem yourself.    

Sorry folks, I replied to Mark's problem without reading your follow-up posts!

[ranunculus]

That's a really good idea Lesley!

I wish I could collect up all the noise & swearing I hear from the Lancaster Grammar School(s) kids on my bus home and deliver that to their head teacher. Some days I have to get off and walk the last two miles home because I can't stand the noise any longer. Funny thing is that the bus drivers seem too scared to say anything but are often very grumpy with the Uni students who are unfailingly polite and well behaved!

I wonder if those polite Uni students once attended Lancaster Grammar, Darren? 

[Paddy Tobin]

As a retired headmaster - on the question of litter: lay off the headmaster. S/he has responsibility for the pupils while they are on the school premises. You seem to me to be one step away from requiring the headmaster insist that they eat their greens, go to bed on time etc. These children have parents and it is their parents who have legal responsibility for them. The headmaster is an easily identified target for your anger but is not responsible.

I was fortunate that there was no shop near our school; the nearest being about three miles away.

Paddy

[Darren]

You make a good point Cliff - one of my friends is an alumnus of both and is a really considerate individual.

Paddy - you are right of course. When I was at school we were always told that when wearing the uniform we were ambassadors of the school and that they would act on any bad behaviour reported to them involving pupils in uniform, inside or outside of school. I guess things have changed.

[Paddy Tobin]

Darren,

I always told the children they were ambassadors for their home and should behave accordingly.  In a very small rural community, that carried far more weight than saying they were ambassadors of the school.  Tales would be carried home and reputations made or destroyed very easily.

More importantly, parents took a very strong interest in their children and would tolerate no misbehaviour from them at school and a word from the headmaster on misbehaviour, a very rare occurrence, had what seemed like miraculous effects.

Paddy

[mark smyth]

We were told the same

last summer school kids were sitting on the wall beside the green house. I saw some pushing and carrying on and went out to ask them to move because one of them could fall backwards and have their head and neck severely damged by broken glass. The answer was f off and go talk to you plants!

[mark smyth]

watching "Animal 24/7" this morning there was a very piece with a buzzard flying in the background. It was calling like  crow. LOL

[Anthony Darby]

As a retired headmaster - on the question of litter: lay off the headmaster. S/he has responsibility for the pupils while they are on the school premises. You seem to me to be one step away from requiring the headmaster insist that they eat their greens, go to bed on time etc. These children have parents and it is their parents who have legal responsibility for them. The headmaster is an easily identified target for your anger but is not responsible.

I was fortunate that there was no shop near our school; the nearest being about three miles away.

Paddy

I'm with you on that one Paddy. At school we are fighting a losing battle as it is the parents who create the little monsters in the first place. By the time they get to school age their habits are already formed. I had one of the little scrotes fire a paper clip at me this morning. It took one principal teacher and a depute to extract a confession! Could have take someone's eye out!

[Eric Locke]

As a retired headmaster - on the question of litter: lay off the headmaster. S/he has responsibility for the pupils while they are on the school premises. You seem to me to be one step away from requiring the headmaster insist that they eat their greens, go to bed on time etc. These children have parents and it is their parents who have legal responsibility for them. The headmaster is an easily identified target for your anger but is not responsible.

I was fortunate that there was no shop near our school; the nearest being about three miles away.

Paddy

I'm with you on that one Paddy. At school we are fighting a losing battle as it is the parents who create the little monsters in the first place. By the time they get to school age their habits are already formed. I had one of the little scrotes fire a paper clip at me this morning. It took one principal teacher and a depute to extract a confession! Could have take someone's eye out!

Bring back the Cane ,Slipper , Belt and all the other things we were hit with .
That should sort them out.  If not, National Service later will .

Eric

[angie]

When I was a school I would never have have spoken back to my teacher let alone throw something at them.
I was brought up in a poor household but both my late parents brought me up to respect my teachers. I never got the cane but I did get lines once for forgetting my homework ( see even then my memory wasn't good )
I am grateful to my late parents bringing me up this way. I think about others before I think of myself. Its a pity the young ones don't think like that, we would all be living in a nicer place.
Angie

[Lesley Cox]

Cliff, you are really EVIL, with the weakened bottom idea!

Paddy, you are right of course about the parents being the ultimate responsible people. The youngsters are frequently permitted to treat their own homes as rubbish dumps, with no protest from their elders. In NZ, the law says that parents are responsible for their kids until they enter the school gates but in reverse, the SCHOOL is responsible for the behaviour and the safety of children until they reach their homes again. I don't see how the school can stop a car mowing down some kid, or the kid strewing garbage over the footpath near his home, but so the law stands, here anyway.

[tonyg]

Paddy - you are right of course. When I was at school we were always told that when wearing the uniform we were ambassadors of the school and that they would act on any bad behaviour reported to them involving pupils in uniform, inside or outside of school. I guess things have changed.

My daughters high school still has uniform for exactly the reasons Darren highlights.  She was recently called to the Headmasters office alng with all the others who us ethe 28 Bus.  The reason?  A letter from a member of the public.




Incidentally what does it say about this place when the Happy thread has 31,000 reads while the Moan thread has nearly 60,000









So what was Ruth called in to hear?

The lady wanted to let the school know that she was most impressed with how polite and well behaved the pupils from this school were.  Never loud or rude ... a credit to the school.  It's not all doom and gloom out here you know!

I'm not so good at moaning - this should be in the Happy thread really.

[Lesley Cox]

Now in NZ, it is illegal to SMACK one's child!! Yes, really. This was a private member's bill with the laudable but totally useless intention of stopping the violence against children, which has led to brutal beatings, torture and death and which truly horrify the whole nation, yet which continues no matter what penalties are imposed. In particular those of the Samoan community are guilty though it does cover all ethnic groups in the country.

My very late grandmother told the story of how, on a tram in the days when Dunedin had a tram system, she gave my juvenile father a good walloping for rudeness to a fellow passenger. He was 5 or 6 at the time. A close by young woman said to my Gran, "That's very bad to smack a child. Have you never heard of child psychology?" My Gran replied, Yes, but this is quicker."

[tonyg]

When I was a school I would never have have spoken back to my teacher let alone throw something at them.
I was brought up in a poor household but both my late parents brought me up to respect my teachers. I never got the cane but I did get lines once for forgetting my homework ( see even then my memory wasn't good )
I am grateful to my late parents bringing me up this way. I think about others before I think of myself. Its a pity the young ones don't think like that, we would all be living in a nicer place.
Angie

Some of us are still doing it the old way!
Funnily enough Ruth got a detention for forgetting her homework this week.  Not lines but she had to write a letter to her parents explaining why she was in detention.  Two copies ... one for the school and one posted to us!  She has resolved to be better organised