Protesters

I'm probably being a little disingenuous if I'm honest. I got bullied for using words like disingenuous, for being short and weedy, for having wet the bed on a school trip but probably most of all for not having a Yorkshire accent (my folks are from Kent). That made me "posh" which was carte blanche for bullies. Schools can be unforgiving places if one doesn't fit in.

 

I used to get "Lets roll boys" in reference to Chief Wiggum and the nickname Seth in reference to my sideburns. I don't know why because it was Amos that had the sideburns and Seth who had the moustache.

 

I feel it’s important to add a bit more information about how school trips work.

Firstly, if you can in any way afford to pay, please do. Yes, the payments are voluntary and the rules state that someone can not be left behind if they can’t pay but it is true that if you don’t get enough contributions to cover the trip then it can’t go ahead.

The way the cost is worked out:

We get quotes from at least 3 coach companies who are available on that day (they fill up FAST!) and pick the cheapest (spoiler: they are all horribly expensive).

We look at school group ticket prices for wherever we go.

We add those amounts together and divide it by the number of students. No, we don’t include staff in this as every place includes 1 free staff ticket for every ten kids as a minimum and 1 for every 5 if you are taking young children. We don’t cover the coach cost either as no-one should have to pay out of their wage to work. Believe me, we are working, supervising 60 kids on a coach, stopping them all from eating their lunch in the first 5 minutes, handing out sick buckets (and mopping up), singing 100 verses of green bottles on the wall with as much enthusiasm on the 99th verse as the first, answering ‘are we nearly there yet’ 500 times, telling kids to put their seatbelts back on 100 times, sorting arguments, answering a million questions that you already answered twice before you set off, telling kids they’ll ‘have to hold it, it won’t be long, didn’t you go before we set off like I told you to?’ etc. etc.

The problem is, you know that not everyone will pay but you can’t divide it by fewer children and make parents pay extra to cover the ones who don’t pay as that’s not fair. You can’t put the price up after you’ve said how much it is as everyone would kick off. There’s no point leaving a child behind as as well as it not being fair, the coach price doesn’t get any cheaper and that’s the biggest cost anyway so whether you take them or leave them in school, you’ve still got a shortage of money somewhere. I tended to use the class budget to subsidise it (and then when that ran out bought stationery etc. myself).

So please, if you can pay, do (even if it’s just a contribution as that may cover the ticket part). If you can’t, know your rights and don’t let your kids be left behind. You might be ashamed asking for help but all you’re doing is passing your shame onto your kid when they get left behind. Also, it’s not just that one day they get left out of, they can’t join in all the excitement beforehand and they can’t fully understand the follow up lessons afterwards. I’ve had a lot of kids be ‘sick’ on the trip day for the refund so it’s looks like they could have afforded it but just got unlucky. Please don’t do this to your kids!

 

A lot of loaded stuff on this post sir. Many assumptions about people and universities. Why do you assume for example they know no history? Why do you assume universities are dens of left-wing activity? Not being funny, just interested why you say those things.

 

it would be interesting to know how many of the current government went to Uni.

 

My views changed a lot at university because I met people from all over the world. My best friends and flat mates at uni were from all over. Even if everyone you met was from England then they are all from different parts with different upbringings (and different accents which was funny at first and then we all just blended into one and basically lost them altogether). It doesn’t take long to realise that you would have been them if you were born there instead and where you are born was inconsequential.

Also, I find the not knowing history funny on a personal level as I specialised in history.

 

Yep and chuffing impossible to get out of the baths without leaving them round your ankles

 

To be fair I’ve got a degree inChemistry and I could barely answer a pub quiz question on it now. I found my one of my finals papers in a box the other month clearing out - genuinely couldn’t understand the actual question let alone have a go at answering it.

 

As others have said, I do think people come out of Uni more left-leaning than those that didn't go, purely because they meet people from all over the country/world and realise that the little englander, rule brittania, we're the greatest country on earth, bring back the empire, close the borders type people are ******* idiots.

 

I believe the excess beer drinking between lecturers with like minded beer loving friends made me more left wing.
No evidence to back this up, but who needs experts and educated people these days.

In all seriousness universities in my day were only a breeding ground for liver and kidney disease. I didn't need a degree to identify racists or part time Nazi's. It's just weird who'd have thought birds of a feather flock together, I tend to not hang around or become friendly with *****.

 

Does university make people more left leaning, or do more left leaning people go to university?

Are those with sufficient academic attainment to go to university better able to see through the simple explanations generally used by the right-wing politicians and make up their own minds about what the actual complex truth is?

As for studying history, I like this quote:
"Those that do not learn from history are bound to repeat it
Those that learn from history are bound to watch those that didn't repeat it"

 

My Dad says learn form other peoples mistakes.

 

I never said it was Churton, but some people may have misinterpreted what he said. They may have misinterpreted what he said because they misunderstood him, not because he’s black and they are racist as implied by Fonzie’s rant.

 

That's fair enough trickster.
I didn't know what he'd said so i watched the whole speech. The bit about not going to white shops was, at best a bit difficult to understand his meaning, at worst a pretty stupid thing to say. If you take it at it's worst it just doesn't fit in with the entire context of everything else he said.
He's not a professional speaker or politician though.
Either way that bit wasn't great and I've no problem people saying so as long as they've taken the time to listen to everything he said rather than just go with the far right whataboutery.

 

Just finished work so I can nip back on here now, after a delightful chicken salad sandwich for lunch.

Seeing as you like to drop my name into lots of your posts, I thought I'd quote you. The rant you're referring to is through sheer frustration. From people such as yourself. An #alllivesnatter weirdo. And one who demanded I apologised to Deetee after he'd made a post referring to Illiterate Delroys and Fried Chicken.

So please forgive me if I got a little carried away. But when I see the All Lives Matter brigade on here, it really angers me.

Anyway, I won't bother you again unless you continue to peddle this rubbish.

 

Nowadays kids even from poor households still go on trips, the schools ask for a contribution to pay for the coach/ entrance fee etc, many and I include the one's who are not short of a few quid dont pay.i havent a problem whatsoever paying a few extra quid for kids who's parents dont have much, but subsidising kids who's parents can, does get under my skin, they must live in a town called " entitled "

 

It’s fine to be passionate about what you believe in Fonzie but it isn’t fair to label people who you don’t know because they offer a different view in recent events. As for all lives matter of course they do, as I’ve said racism isn't exclusive to black people particularly in America where the hispanic communities and muslim communities both have suffered especially so since 911. Nobody should have to suffer it, so it’s not only a black problem, all lives have the same worth, all lives matter. I don’t know what context you’re applying to the phrase but I just don’t understand what’s racist about saying it.

 

I think this has been explained to death by lots of posters and on various social media platforms. By keep saying that you are associating yourself with some unsavoury racist trolls all over social media. I won't explain it to you because it has been done countless times.

 

Yes, I don't understand why saying ALM is seen as being racist; can someone explain?