Friday 19 October 2012

The tea time Club Our "Breakfast Club"

Were  you good at school ?

Were you the rebel ?

Did you wear short skirts ? ( that wasn't the regulation inch above the knee)?


Just so the boys don't feel left out : Did you wear your tie with the thin bit showing ?


Hmmmmm?


I had detention once .. I know a complete shock to you ! I will wait a moment while you sit and compose yourself.

Ready?

I forgot my Maths homework one day one I was 13 .

I'll set the scene I went to an upper school ( where in Bedford  the schooling goes like this 5-9 , 9-13, 13-18)

My school was posh it was an ex grammar school  I studied Latin and the school had its own rowing team etc.

It was a good school till the Tories shut it down, I am still having therapy for Margaret Thatcher stopping my milk.
Thatcher put a sad end to being a milk monitor.


The Detention

The detention was taken by the demonic Maths teacher known as "Nutty Nun" rumours were she was  an ex Nun. Various people were at the dentention we were all disimilar in character we were yet to form a unity. The situation was smilar to that of the greatest ever dentention on earth that of the the greatest dention film ever " Breakfast Club"



"Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is we did wrong, but we think you're crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms in the
most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an
athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours,The Breakfast Club."


I could not liken myself  to the Princess character " Molly Ringwald " that was the pretty blond girl in my detention. I was the brain "Hall " the lone wolf in an alien world that was dentention. There was the  sports star "Emilo Estervez" who was there for forgetting his PE kit. There was the criminal  who was always lifting sweets from Tuck shop. The basket case was in improper use of Latin verbs/ drawing on their excercise book  who knows ?

These titles identified our roles within the fabric of our school lives.. Because of stereotypes and status levels associated with each role, We wanted  want nothing to do with each other at the outset of the  dentention. ) and by two hours of time we had to kill, we the students begin to interact. 

Through self-disclosure we as the " Tea-Tine Club" learn we were more similar than different. We each wrestled with self-acceptance; each longed for parental approval; each fought against peer pressure. We broke break through the role barriers and gain greater understanding and acceptance of each other and of themselves. We ultimately developed a group identity and dubbed themselves, "The Tea Time Club."

So forever our school days were an un written nod of approva,l when ever our paths crossed in the corridors of power that was school.

3 comments:

  1. I did the 3 ties system in Berlin, my 2 daughters did it until eldest was due to go to the middle school, and which point they put us back to the 2 tier system. Was a great scheme and really worked, but they changed us back cos it was cheaper than changing every body else over at the end of their 10 yr experiment.
    Why could Maggie not have rules when I was at school- my "fondest" memories at 5 yr old is being made to stand in the corner all lunch time ( with no lunch)because I did not drink my milk at morning break.
    I could not win I am lactose intolerant and it made me sick, so if I drunk it I was sick and stoood in the d=corner for daring to be sick, if I didnt drink it I was stood in the corner for defiance.
    Maybe modern schooling has gone a step too far with namoy pampering children but the 1960's could have gone a little way.
    Never saw the point in detention myself.

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  2. The short skirt comment made me laugh out loud. You see, in 1969 when the mini skirt was the height (literally) of fashion, my parents bought me a new gymslip, part of the uniform for the grammar school I went to. I tried it on and it was too long, so I said, "oh, it's six inches too long, I'll shorten it at the weekend" then flounced put to catch my bus.

    Now my Mum knew nothing about sewing, all I knew I'd learned at school, so I never thought she would surprise me by shortening it while I was out, or I would have explained that when I said six inches, I was speaking figuratively. And because she knew nothing about sewing, Mum cut six inches off and then turned up the hem, so it actually ended up about eight inches shorter.

    It had been very expensive and my parents couldn't afford to buy me a new one, so for the next two years I was the most popular girl in the class (with the boys) but I had to make sure I always wore the school's regulation brown knickers, or everybody would have known about it

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  3. Oh and I only had detention once, but it was for throwing a chair at a teacher so I suppose I deserved it. Bit of a double edged sword for the school though, as it was in the days before photocopiers, so test papers were written put by hand by the people who were on detention. And the one I had to write out was for the physics exam I was going to be sitting the next week. I got 100 per cent. Wonder why?

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