The state of the UK

[Alan B]

I went to three approved schools - Infants, Primary and Secondary Modern. All approved by the local council.

[Alan B]

We didn't have uniforms. Those were for the toffy-nosed grammar school lot.

[Svartalf]

council schools being government set while grammar were expensive private things? I must admit that the English terminology has me thoroughly confused

[laklak]

Plus they call a private school a public school.

[Scot Dutchy]

Yep the English terminology is confusing. How can Eton be called a public school?

[JimC]

At the private school I went to, the uniform included a tweed jacket. Much more laid back than garishly coloured blazers...

In compulsory cadets, we wore kilts...

[laklak]

I narrowly escaped military school. That would not have worked well.

[JimC]

I did have the fun of shooting a WW2 Bren gun during cadets...

[pErvinalia]

We had uniforms (blue blazer, black trousers, white shirt, school tie) until my senior year, when they got rid of uniforms and brought gurls in. Poor little rich kids wearing their Gucci got laughed at by the cool kids, who wore stuff from the Army-Navy surplus store. Para boots, camo fatigues, and a Che shirt. Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh! It was the 70s, after all.

That is exactly how it goes even today. Dutch kids dont do glam. Certain people who live in a trailer dont understand that. Quiet quality is a far better course than loud bling.

As if you have the first clue what the younger generation do, grandpa.

[laklak]

I know what they do. They have orgee parties and share each others bodies and smoke the devil's lettuce and profane the Name of The Lord!

[JimC]

Memories, memories...

[laklak]

Thanks for the mammaries!

[Hermit]

We had uniforms (blue blazer, black trousers, white shirt, school tie) until my senior year, when they got rid of uniforms and brought gurls in.

The process was the reverse for me. In Germany most schools were coeducational and uniforms there were none. This is my first year class in 1960. The girl second from the right in the back row was my second girlfriend. As far as I was concerned, she was the most beautiful girl in the entire class.



When we came to Australia I was put into a boys only school and had to wear a uniform. Most schools here, government as well as privately run, were segregated and uniforms were required. What made the latter worse was that until the end of 9th year we had to wear fucking boaters.

The horror was slightly mitigated when I bought my first car and could make lunchtime excursions to nearby girls only schools. This is what we looked like in the final year of secondary education. It was the first year we no longer had haircut inspections.

[JimC]

Don't be a tease, Hermit! Your position?

[Hermit]

Don't be a tease, Hermit! Your position?

In Germany it was "class clown". At one stage my teachers got together and summoned my parents to a special conference. When my parents returned from the meeting, they were very upset. According to my maths teacher, so my mother told me, I was not merely poisoning the atmosphere in my class. I was poisoning the atmosphere of the entire school! You can't imagine how proud I felt - a year 8 student affecting 1100 other students right up to year 13.

My maths teacher was probably exaggerating. He really had it in for me because I slapped him earlier that year. As I walked into the class room behind him, late for the lesson, I gave him devil's horns with two fingers behind his head. He must have noticed by the shadow we cast, turned around and slapped me in the face. I slapped him right back. It was a reflex action. I watched my arm swing as if someone else was moving it. There was nothing he could do about it. The entire class witnessed him slapping me first. Corporal punishment of any sort was illegal in Hessen.

In Australia I took the position of going under the radar, which worked most of the time. Corporal punishment was de rigueur. Teachers carried rubber straps with them, about the width and length of a ruler and a couple of centimetres thick. I noticed that a few of them had at least one black sheep in each class, and I wasn't going to be one of them.

P.S.: Oh, I suppose you meant where I am in those photos. Take a punt first, anybody. Whoever gets it right wins 20 internets. If nobody does I'll tell you later.