Would you be in more trouble or less trouble if you went to school today than when you went?

[Irberthegerber]

If you applied your DC’s school rules to when you went to school, would you be in more trouble or less trouble than you were? What decade was it? I would definitely be in more trouble, despite behaving well. Your behaviour has to be identical, so no adapting to current rules. E.g. on in between weather days, we would chat outside with our jumpers tied around our waists, which was considered totally normal. (I still consider it normal, but maybe I’m a dinosaur).

This was in the 90s, that blissful (rose-tinted perhaps) era in between corporal punishment and zero tolerance.

So much more trouble 😬. At my school, smoking on the school bus and behind the garages was normal, sometimes students snuck alcohol in. There were vending machines that were easily accessed with a bendy ruler if you had no money. Smoking weed at lunchtime was not unusual. You could leave the school easily at lunch to go to the shop or chippy, we only got fences in the last year before I left. It was in special measures with OFSTED, unsurprisingly. I got all A*/A/B grades at GCSE in 2007.

Were I to repeat my teenage escapades at school today, I'd be out of that door and into a PRU pronto.

As it was, I charmed my way out of every misdemeanour they managed to pin on me

I'd be in no trouble at all compared with being hit with a cane across the palm of my hand for a minor uniform infringement.

I might have been in more trouble for constantly forgetting stuff, as I wouldn't have broken the rules to use a mobile phone and there are no payphones to ring my mum on now.

But on the other hand, maybe my ADHD and ASD would have been identified if I was at school now, so I might have got some support with organisation and executive function. (And if I'd also got support with friendships and bullying, I would definitely have been a lot happier)

@PenelopeChipShopthat must be so surreal going to the same school.

I think I'd fair worse. I wouldn't comply with the uniform regulation back then and they seem to be even more stringent now.

I changed school a couple of times and I was shocked how different schools could be. From my High School years, I excelled in a relaxed environment over a strict school. Still the same now though at work! 😂

I went to a lot of different schools and was mildly unruly. One of the primaries, though, was extremely regimented. No running indoors, walk in line at break times, always greet teachers and salute the headmaster. Teachers would fire random questions at you when out of class, which you were expected to answer instantly, correctly and with a 'Sir' or 'Miss'. Pupils were shamed for forgetting a pen or something in class.

I hated it, and informed my parents I was going to stop attending as even my dad's intensive punishments were no worse than having to spend all day, five days a week, in that oppressive atmosphere. Luckily, we moved again.

I do think that sort of establishment suits some kids. I can even believe it benefits many from undisciplined homes by bringing structure to their lives. I was in a constant state of rebellion, though, due to my dad's rigidity, and was damn sure no school was going to rob me of my self-expression!

In today's education system, I would have made sure I got excluded.

Probably more trouble. My school was pretty lax. It was the 1980s, we didn’t have uniform, mobile phones or vapes to get in trouble over, nobody dreamed of going on holiday in term time, homework was on paper and it was either done or not, and I lived about 5 mins walk to I was usually pretty on time! Occasionally teachers would go to the park next door to find the kids who were smoking there, but that seemed to be the main form of policing.

I forged a sickness letter, but that was the only trouble I got into

Oh it's all coming back, there were other misdemeanors

I went to a girls grammar school in 1970. It was strict, old fashioned, amd there were consequences but none of us really broke the rules. There was the usual.pettiness from some but generally it was kind if not hugely liberating around expectations for girls. It was the end of an era and there was probably more tolerance for smoking in the bike sheds than eating in the street. The girl caught thieving and the girl who got pg aged 15 were never seen again. There was a small cohort of bullies in the year above and they were never dealt with. We were expected to work hard and there was no rudeness or disruption.

DD spent two years at a supposedly elite girls.cofe. The pettiness of rules was ridiculous with small studs (the rules said small) being confiscated because they were not tiny. The behaviour of a significant minority was disruptive but whilst an earring exceeding unwritten circumference expectations by a mm would be confiscated and a detention given, some girls could tell teachers to fuck off and beat up others with little consequence. The disruption in lessons was unacceptable and as good teachers left under the new head, some very poor teaching ensued.

Fortunately we were able to move dd to the independent sector, and to an exceptionallly high performing school. It was more relaxed, expectations were higher, boundaries clearer and it was much kinder. DS experienced similar at his fee paying school. Overall far less pettiness, broader minds and higher expectations - and the quality of teaching was on a par with mine in the 70s.

One point I'll make. DD is a secondary teacher, SEN specialism, in the independent sector. She is passionate about her subject. She has a side hussle writing schemes of work for academies which they brand. It makes me.question the subject expertise and training of some of their staff and possibly explains the reliance on prison style pettiness.

I've moved 200 miles from where I went to school, but weirdly, DC goes to a secondary school that is almost a replica of mine in terms of how it deals with discipline, uniform etc. The uniform and PE kit is almost exactly the same.

I was a goodie two shoes in school and so I'd be fine. Just like DC is now!

Far more trouble. I had really uncontrolled asthma as a teenager that just wasn't managed very well even though I was under an asthma consultant. I had so much time off school that in today's environment, I would carry a heavy shame of low attendance, I'd have been managed out of the top set, my parents may have been fined.

I'd have never have got away with scribbling out a pe note signed with my best forgery on days that my lungs were noisy.

But, I'd have had access to lots of online resources. It would have been more educational than Sons and Daughters and Take the High Road.

Oh, also, I spent a week's worth of break times stood outside of the staff room for fighting. And nobody thought to mention it to my parents. So, I was in less trouble with my parents too.

I don’t think it would be possible for me to behave now like I did then, technology means it’s a lot harder not to do your homework, I don’t think I could just walk out after registration if I didn’t feel like it that day, or have a sly fag in the toilets. I was terrible for truancy, but this was largely due to being bullied badly for years, I was scared of the place. Looking at DS school now there doesn’t seem to be the same level of targeted bullying of the less popular kids, in fact the clever kids (as my friendship group was) are actually celebrated for their achievements, so maybe I wouldn’t have been so traumatised and actually able to engage with education this time.