In my first few months at secondary we used forges, lathes (wood and metal) and all manner of sharp things, kilns for pottery and a slap on the back of the head if you messed around, this might have been the risk assessment. And like you say, cut yourself it was a trip to the office where the head’s secretary had a box of plasters, which either fell off after about 10 minutes or became welded to your skin. But either way we all survived. Prior to this I’d been making Airfix models for a few years, cut my fingers using sharp knives, inhaled the fumes from polystene cement and model paint (which might explain a few things!!) and peeled said from fingers.
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Ahhhhh EVo Stick and the communal glue pot over a gas ring in the corner of the woodwork room.
“You know what really makes me laugh?”
That the people here who moan about things not happening in schools anymore are part of the generation that removed them, yet always talk as though it’s the kid’s fault…
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We might be part of that generation, but not the ones who stopped it.
My son and daughters helped me with DIY and other things for years and my wife when it came to sewing and mending.
If it was down to me getting hurt by doing manual things (wood/metal work, cooking, sewing) and just carrying on after self administered plasters, licks or rubs would be part of the curriculum and any risk assessments burnt. So we lose this culture that seems to have developed.
Never even touch pottery in education now. Put a kid in front of a manual potters wheel and they’d be confused out of their minds; but it’s sad because if you give them the chance they’d love to play with it, learn and just try it.
Good. The only think I ever made in pottery was a mess. Hated it.
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But surely as an option for kids to do, even as a club they’d like it. Personally not a massive fan of pottery but I think if the education system taught kids some life skills that would be really applicable and useful in day to day life it’d be better.
And pottery is a skill that’s really applicable and useful in day to day life?
No as in stuff like woodwork, or taxes and mortgages. Stuff that could be applied in life. And pottery is an example of something (out of the curriculum) that students should have a chance to try, amongst other things
I’d argue that a lot of what people refer to like that as being useful in everyday life… Actually isn’t.
I did basic woodwork at school. Haven’t used it since.
I did enough maths to understand how mortgages work when it came time to sort one out for myself. I then read up and taught myself the rest.
Like 85% of the (working) population I’m employed rather than self employed, so tax is PAYE, and easy enough to understand without having had any classes on it.
I have enough common sense to work out the rest as and when it occurs.
Now, if we could teach common sense, then great…
I wish😭
But then we wouldn’t have the splendour that is the “Darwin Award”. Catch 22 really.
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For the first time in ages forgot to change the radio from Radio 2 after Ken Bruce so got Jeremy Kyle (ooops Vine) and they are going on about people getting mobiles nicked by people on moped.
More fool them IMO. People especially women seem to walk around with them on show, which makes them a target.
Our girls have said about this sort of thing and we’ve said put it in a pocket or bag, then the moan we don’t have a pocket or bag all the time. We’ve then said leave it at home then which just gets the look only kids can give parents.
Well there would be little point in a mobile phone that doesn’t go with you…
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You don’t need it all the time, which is what we try and get across to them. But then as the generation that stayed out all day and used to go to friend’s houses and the like, I’m quite happy without a phone for days at a time. I can’t think of anyone other than my wife who I would absolutely need to be in contact with and only then if something was wrong in some way. If we need to speak we can use normal phones or email.
But I think the major issue is walking around with it something of value on show, is it makes you a target for those so inclined. I remember Walkman’s attracting the same sort of thing in 80s. If I took mine with me somewhere, it was in a pocket, or stuffed somewhere out of sight. How many as I said women especially walk around with their purse and phone on show?
I still find it amazing that women (and men) walk around with hundreds if not thousands of pounds just sitting on their finger just because it’s shiny and to signify their “marriage”. Often see people wearing whole outfits (including shirts and shoes!) too - not me though, I just have my hessian sack that I wear and I keep all of my worldly possessions in a nuclear vault that I permit myself to look at once a fortnight.
Problem solved?
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I can certainly think that I’d want it directly after being attacked by someone on a moped.
We get that you don’t like mobiles, but “leave your phone at home and don’t have anything nice” isn’t really a decent solution to the problem of crime. Lots of police would be a good start.
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and it doesn’t help with this happening
In reality Police Station front counters contribute very little. They cost money for very limited benefit, the staff costs could be better used elsewhere. (Put the Police Staff in the Control Room answering phones, don’t take Officers away from Response Teams to man them at night!).
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Hands up everybody here who voted to make schools namby pamby.
Come on now, don’t be shy.