One for older Genration (45+)

[BevS97]

I’m 52 and went to high school In the USA. I went to Prom. It was a huge deal in our high school. You had to have a date. No date no prom. I don’t actually know what would happen if you turned up without a date but you just wouldn’t dream of it.

We didn’t have a limo but we did go out for a very fancy meal before the prom, then to the prom and then to an after prom party and finally to someone’s house for breakfast.

(I’m in the blue. No idea what I was thinking!)

One of the things that Americans are good at it making a big deal about important events. I think it’s a shame to just have your last day of school and leave with no fuss. There was not a leavers assembly or a graduation or anything when my dd left high school.



However I don’t need to spend £300 on a dress for it to be a special occasion.

[SussexFamily]

Originally Posted by BevS97

I’m 52 and went to high school In the USA. I went to Prom. It was a huge deal in our high school. You had to have a date. No date no prom. I don’t actually know what would happen if you turned up without a date but you just wouldn’t dream of it.

We didn’t have a limo but we did go out for a very fancy meal before the prom, then to the prom and then to an after prom party and finally to someone’s house for breakfast.

(I’m in the blue. No idea what I was thinking!)

One of the things that Americans are good at it making a big deal about important events. I think it’s a shame to just have your last day of school and leave with no fuss. There was not a leavers assembly or a graduation or anything when my dd left high school.



However I don’t need to spend £300 on a dress for it to be a special occasion.

See more...

I fully understand what you are saying about marking the important events, however , where will this “Americanisation” end ? We now have Proms, graduations a greatly enhanced Halloween, baby showers etc etc

Where will it end?

[vowels]

Originally Posted by BevS97

I’m 52 and went to high school In the USA. I went to Prom. It was a huge deal in our high school. You had to have a date. No date no prom. I don’t actually know what would happen if you turned up without a date but you just wouldn’t dream of it.

We didn’t have a limo but we did go out for a very fancy meal before the prom, then to the prom and then to an after prom party and finally to someone’s house for breakfast.

(I’m in the blue. No idea what I was thinking!)

One of the things that Americans are good at it making a big deal about important events. I think it’s a shame to just have your last day of school and leave with no fuss. There was not a leavers assembly or a graduation or anything when my dd left high school.



However I don’t need to spend £300 on a dress for it to be a special occasion.

See more...

You look very southern, like the ladies at Cypress Park. Your date, however, resembles an alien visitor from "V".

[Lisbon]

I went to an all boys school so no prom , no ofsted.
Plenty of board rubbers and chalk thrown at the pupils.
One teacher offering to take the whole class of 13 year olds down to the gym for a fight ( funny I saw the teacher when I was about 45 and he probably 80 in a restaurant and thought about asking him if he remembered me and how he used to bully youngsters so much but I thought better of it ).
Teachers showing how to tackle at rugby and basically doing things that are now illegal in the professional game.
Detentions half an hour, school detention an hour and a half and The Cane
The best days of you life - yeah right

[Guest]

Originally Posted by vowels

You look very southern, like the ladies at Cypress Park. Your date, however, resembles an alien visitor from "V".

See more...

OMG, you are brave. What is she is now married to her date.

[marlouwrig]

Left my grammar school on my 18th birthday in 1970.

No proms or any sort of organised social events really. We used to travel regularly to Ireland and Germany (to see family) in the school holidays. Never had time out but that was probably more because my Dad was tied to works weeks which coincided with school holidays. I know many of my class mates had 1 or 2 weeks in term time and nobody batted an eyelid.

Corporal punishment was rife both in my RC primary school where teachers (all lay no religious) lashed out at the slightest provocation. My abiding memory of my first day at grammar school was a boy (about 15/16) being kicked down the corridor by a master (totally mad looking and the spitting image of Doc Brown from Back to the Future) in full regalia of cap and gown, which all the teachers used to wear.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Lisbon

Detentions half an hour, school detention an hour and a half and The Cane
The best days of you life - yeah right

See more...

At my grammar school we had a very interesting and challenging task in detention. Instead of writing "I must learn to respect my teacher" 500 times we had to do subtractions.

They would give you two numbers such as 87 and 143. You had to times the 83 by 143 and write down the answer then subtract 143 from the product until you reached zero - and show the workings at every level.

Obviously no calculators allowed in the early 60s and if you didn't reach zero you had to start all over again.

Mick

[Omega1]

Reading these posts and looking back at my own secondary education (1965-72), schools were quite brutal places. Many teachers, but by no means all, were quick to lash out with any kind of implement. The teachers that influenced me the most, were those that developed a rapport, inspired, used humour and conveyed a love of the subject and none of these resorted to physical violence. Corporal punishment didn’t do me any harm - but it didn’t do me any good.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by mick

At my grammar school we had a very interesting and challenging task in detention. Instead of writing "I must learn to respect my teacher" 500 times we had to do subtractions.

They would give you two numbers such as 87 and 143. You had to times the 83 by 143 and write down the answer then subtract 143 from the product until you reached zero - and show the workings at every level.

Obviously no calculators allowed in the early 60s and if you didn't reach zero you had to start all over again.

Mick

See more...

I would rather have done that than lines.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Claudette

I would rather have done that than lines.

See more...

It was excellent training to be a Quantity Surveyor I only got three O levels in the days when you either passed or failed - no grades of pass back then. Maths was one of them.

Mick