Yeah i can take him

[Canon Fodder]

got a three alternative fight stories from my youth all of which ended bizzarely:

1) fourth week of secondary school, everyone knew that this lad in the fourth year was c*ck of the school so being first years we were all terified of him. Turns out he was after kicking the sh*t out of my mate but couldn't find him so one lunch time he grabs me by the shoulders and starts shaking me demanding to know where my mate was. I panicked and brought my knee straight up into his gentleman's gentleman and legged it. Spent the next three weeks hiding from him with rumours flying round the school about what he was going to do to me when he caught up with me. Anyway he did finally catch up with me and I was expecting to be eating through a straw but no, he grabbed my hand, shook it and said "you're alright mate".

2) 16 or 17 out with a couple of mates in Oldham on new years eve. Group of three lads walking the other way as they get close one of them opens with "what size shoes are you", being a little worse for drink I say "what" and the next thing I know one of thems taking a swing at my face. One of my mates was famous for running away at the first sign of trouble and legged it, the other also legs it because he doesn't want to be caught underage drunk as he's planning on becoming a doctor and can't have anything on a criminal record.
I manage to dodge the punch but at the same time slip on the ice and go down, get booted in the face and think "I'm going to die, how do I stop this?". Fuzzy logic suggests grab hold of his leg on the next kick so he can't kick anymore, then I left holding onto his leg while his other mates are still kicking me. So I decide to bite his shin, drew blood and and they all run off.

3) 25 walking home from Christmas eve out in Oldham, absolutely wasted, you have to go over a bridge over the bypass. As I'm approaching the bridge spot a gang of 7 or 8 hoodies lurking on it, think "sh*t" and decide that the best approach is to open communications so I give it all the "merry Christmas", you lads having a good night etc, tell them I'm wasted and walking home, even went as far as pretending I didn't know the way and they gave me directions. Hooray I'm alive carry on walking. 200 yards down the road this bloke gets chucked out of a taxi, decide to take the same approach and ask him if he's alright. He gets all agreesive and starts demanding money. I start walking away only looking back when he declares he's going to "fu*king stick" me. As I look back I see the hoodies from the bridge leaping on his back and beating him to a bloody pulp, I must have been drunk cos' I just shouted "thanks lads" and wandered off!

 

[Ant_UK_Refs]

Canon Fodder, what part of Oldham you from mate? I'm Limeside born and bred, yeah I know we all have a cross to bear lol. Lovely place, even compared to Sholver

 

[Canon Fodder]

Ant - grew up in Garden Suburbs, that enclave of people waiting to die just above Limeside. Last time I was down there went in the Britannia Tavern for the first time - went outside for a fag and overheard a conversation about if it was best to take a gun or a knife to a business meeting, straight out of lock, stock. Escaped up to Lancaster when I went to Uni.

 

[Stencil]

HA! Seriously!!?

What do you want to happen from the education system? Do you want everyone to turn out to be a Che Guevara? Or do you want the majority to turn out to be a well rounded individual that has some respect for the rules.

Sure, children need to learn respect for the rules. But, schools are intended to produce through the application of formulae, formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled. And I'm sure you'd agree that, within this society, the only real successful people are self-reliant, confident, and individualistic - because the community life which protects the dependent and the weak is dead.

 

[Bambulus]

Sure, children need to learn respect for the rules. But, schools are intended to produce through the application of formulae, formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled. And I'm sure you'd agree that, within this society, the only real successful people are self-reliant, confident, and individualistic - because the community life which protects the dependent and the weak is dead.

Seriously? We're going for Marxism right here?

Firstly, that assumes many things. That there's a room full of fat cat bourgeois sat around a smoke-filled table, discussing their plans for their next batch of home-grown slave-workers. Sounds nice, sure, but that implies the kind of intent that just can't be found in the education system - at least not any more.

I mean, certainly, you'll be able to find the odd working town where the sole purpose of school is to give people the qualifications for working in the local factory (where they'll join the rest of their extended family, no doubt) but that's very rare now. Very rare. The focus of schools has shifted within the past few decades to a more education based one - kids are actively encouraged to leave school with the best education they can get in order to head into further education - academies, colleges, universities, so on and so forth - territory that's dangerously close to the bourgeois playing field. More importantly, the kind of education that kids are getting gives them the exact tools they'll need to move on and be successfully independent, business studies, natural sciences, languages - even sociology (where, believe it or not - Marxism is taught).

Now, through Marxist theory, why on earth would the fat cat, intent-ridden, smokey bourgeois want us to be fully aware of their intentions, give us the tools to fight them and then let us play in their back garden? What, are they the dumbest bunch of factory and land owners on the face of the earth?


Hmmmm. Give that some thought.


I think the best way to look at school is that it's an exact interpretation of the values and norms of wider society, where kids get to practice a social role-play within an environment where they can't really screw much up. There's a reason that kids do exactly what they're not supposed to - having silly hair and dressing in a similar manner, they're exploring new found identities while they have the ability to. The silly hair and dress goes well out of the window when actual responsibilities and social roles come along.

I've forgotten who said it - but education is the bridge between between childhood and wider society. It's a little simplistic, but it's what I consider the most accurate definition, even more so when you move higher up the system.