"The Play's the Thing" by Cole Parker

[Rutabaga]

Short story here.  

I have to say -- all I know about boarding schools is what I have read in stories here and elsewhere.  I'm not sure how I would have done if I had been sent there.  Growing up I actually lived right next to the back part of a posh school for boys, and we neighborhood kids would sneak through the fence and play in the woods there.  We never actually ventured far enough to see the school buildings, athletic fields, etc.  But there was one kid in the neighborhood who went there (his dad was a very high-powered lawyer) and came across to the rest of us as kind of an arrogant jerk.  I think he was under a lot of pressure from his dad to measure up to high expectations.  At one point my parents asked if I wanted to attend one of the private schools in the area (not necessarily this one) and without hesitation I said no -- based on my impression from this kid.  Moreover, I was not at all athletic and I was sure I would hate all the mandatory athletics that I expected would be required at such a school.

Years later, this same kid turned up behind the counter in a nearby beach fish market.  I never really had a chance to ask him about how he ended up there, but I strongly suspect that he finally rebelled against the pressure of his dad.  I also suspect he was much happier for having done so.  

My two favorite boarding school stories here are Tom Browning's School Days by Joel and First Year by Cole Parker.

Oh, and as far as this new story is concerned, you should read it.

R

[Jason Rimbaud]

I still don't understand the whole English school system in general much less boarding schools. I do understand military schools but that's a whole different thing. 

Yes, go read it. 

J

[Rutabaga]

As best I can figure out, the U.S. refers to school years as K through grade 12, whereas in the UK it's Year 1 (equivalent to kindergarten) through Year 13 (equivalent to US grade 12).  UK students study for and take the GCSE in Year 11, and can leave school at this point, or continue in years 12 and 13 to study for and take A level exams in specified subjects (often required for university admission).  Years 12 and 13 are often referred to as "sixth form" and there are in fact purpose-dedicated "sixth form colleges" to cover these years.  But there are also many schools that cover years 7 through 13 in one facility.  

R

[Jason Rimbaud]

3 hours ago, Rutabaga said:

As best I can figure out, the U.S. refers to school years as K through grade 12, whereas in the UK it's Year 1 (equivalent to kindergarten) through Year 13 (equivalent to US grade 12).  UK students study for and take the GCSE in Year 11, and can leave school at this point, or continue in years 12 and 13 to study for and take A level exams in specified subjects (often required for university admission).  Years 12 and 13 are often referred to as "sixth form" and there are in fact purpose-dedicated "sixth form colleges" to cover these years.  But there are also many schools that cover years 7 through 13 in one facility.  

R

That's what is so confusing, sixth form. Is there fifth form, fourth form, third form? How can the Brits, the sexy Brits, the deliciously accented Brits, be so weird in naming things. I know the whole grade system is probably a wholly American invention, and most of the rest of the world probably adheres to the Brit school system, maybe because they were all colonies and adapted it as such. But it's still confusing. 

So I just went on a cursory dive into UK schools and now I'm finding out about secondary school, primary schools, now I'm more confused than when I started. And you can quit school at 16, now that's even more  weird. Balls. Maybe I can convince Camy to explain it to me over a long weekend. 

 

 

[Rutabaga]

You can read in more detail about the post-World-War-II British education system here.  Note in particular the political/ideological arguments that are discussed.

The boarding school in Cole's story is, as far as I can tell, an independent private school in the United States that would presumably be free to set its admission standards and fees at whatever levels the market would best respond to.  

R

[Cole Parker]

If you think the naming of grades in the Brit's school system is weird, I think it's easy compared to buildings.  Their first floor is our second.  How nuts is that?

 

C

[Jason Rimbaud]

14 hours ago, Cole Parker said:

If you think the naming of grades in the Brit's school system is weird, I think it's easy compared to buildings.  Their first floor is our second.  How nuts is that?

 

C

Your breaking my brain!!!

 

J

[Rutabaga]

17 hours ago, Cole Parker said:

If you think the naming of grades in the Brit's school system is weird, I think it's easy compared to buildings.  Their first floor is our second.  How nuts is that?

 

C

That’s pretty much a European thing.  In France the street level floor is known as “rez-de-chaussée“ and the level above it is the “première étage“ (first floor). 

R

[Jason Rimbaud]

2 hours ago, Rutabaga said:

That’s pretty much a European thing.  In France the street level floor is known as “rez-de-chaussée“ and the level above it is the “première étage“ (first floor). 

R

Oh I know something! 

Haha, I had written a response and then after carefully reading Rutabaga quote, I realized I was again the dim witted one. Since I can't delete my response, I'm going to say long live Tribbles!

J

[JamesSavik]

Catching a sword in the back sez you care. 😁

[Altimexis]

Many European buildings refer to the ground floor as “0” and the basement as “-1”. If there’s a sub basement, it’s then “-2”. It’s not nuts. It’s an equally valid method for numbering floors.

What’s nuts is that my co-op apartment building in NYC uses the European numbering system, with the ground floor being “G” and the first floor with apartments, which should be the second floor, being “1”. My guess is it’s because the co-ops on the Lower East Side were built in the post-war era to replace the tenements that used to be here. They were built as middle income housing by and for members of the garment workers unions, many of whom were immigrants.

[Jason Rimbaud]

Okay I'm not going to read this thread anymore, I am learning too much weirdness about the rest of the world. I think I'm going to stay in my shell with my head buried in the sand. 

I know I mixed my metaphors but that's how the potato gets thrown into space. 

And go read Cole's story, from whatever floor you deem correct. 

Jason 

[Alien Son]

On 6/30/2024 at 12:03 PM, Cole Parker said:

If you think the naming of grades in the Brit's school system is weird, I think it's easy compared to buildings.  Their first floor is our second.  How nuts is that?

 

C

That's not nuts, it's perfectly logical. The floor at ground level is the Ground Floor, and others above that are numbered from 1 up.

~ John

[Talo Segura]

British schools in the 20th century started out as nursery school (kindergarten), infants, junior, senior. Kindergarten is of course a German word literally meaning kids garden. Later on, junior as a label was changed to primary, and senior to secondary. However, there was an exam at 11 years of age, the end of junior/ primary school. If you passed the exam you could go to a grammar school, academic. If you failed you went to a secondary school, manual. This exam was gradually abolished from 1966 when comprehensive education was introduced. 

Previously, grammar schools would accept students who had passed the exam at the end of primary school and were from a certain social class. That social class being the "white collar" workers, or bankers, solictors, managers, etc. The British class system, nothing to do with school classes, which are now known by grade, but used to be called forms. So in the grammar school or senior school there was the first through to sixth form (11-12, 12-13, 13-14, 14-15, 15-16, 16-17, 17-18). As you will notice, if you count, that is actually seven forms or grades, but the British being British, there was never a seventh form. The last two years were both the sixth form, differentiated by lower sixth and upper sixth.

You still following this? The abolition of the test at 11 years old came with the socialist government introduction of comprehensive education. The idea was that classes, forms, or grades, would comprise mixed ability students, where previously they were graded by ability, meaning a top class, second, third, etc. in each year.

Now I have yet to mention denominational schools and private schools, known as public schools, which were not at all public, but fee paying private! Deminational schools are religious schools, Catholic, Jewish, etc. These schools are part funded by the state and are free to students, however you need in theory to be of the appropriate religion and accepted. In Britain all state schools are Protestant, hence the sub-set of denominational schools. Such denominational schools were/are often single sex, all boys, all girls.

The whole British educational system was born out of the class system. The children of the working classes were taught to take their places in the factories, the middle classes to manager the workers and the upper classes to rule the country. Britain is and has always been a class dominated country, it is not a Republic like the US and many other countries who fought a revolution to free the people. Britain is a democratic Monarchy which ostensibly imbued it with republican values, except, it has the King's Army, Airforce and Navy (Royal Air force, Royal Navy). The post is the Royal Mail, the roads are the King's highway and the Crown owns half the land and real estate, God Save the King! Maybe you can see why Canada got rid of the British Monarch as their head of state and changed their flag. A movement in Australia would like to do the same, New Zealand is something else! 

This is not a diatribe anti-monarchy, simply a sort of explanation of the weirdness that is Great Britain and was the British Empire. If you were not brought up in Britain or one of its ex-colonies, you will find the explanation complicated if not incomprehensible. For the Brits and their ex-colonialists (leaving out America) it makes perfect sense!

 

[Ivor Slipper]

6 hours ago, Talo Segura said:

B

Previously, grammar schools would accept students who had passed the exam at the end of primary school and were from a certain social class. That social class being the "white collar" workers, or bankers, solictors, managers, etc.

 

That is not wholly correct. Back then it was possible for any child irrespective of class, to gain entry to a grammar school provided they passed the 11+ exam. Some from the lower/working class may not have taken the opportunity because of financial reasons (the need to buy a school uniform for instance) or a reluctance to be separated from their friends.

[Cole Parker]

3 hours ago, Ivor Slipper said:

That is not wholly correct. Back then it was possible for any child irrespective of class, to gain entry to a grammar school provided they passed the 11+ exam. Some from the lower/working class may not have taken the opportunity because of financial reasons (the need to buy a school uniform for instance) or a reluctance to be separated from their friends.

That reluctance, and then the problems ecountered when moving into a new world containing a set of boys of a class above your own is the the meat and potatoes of how many stories in the genre we all love?

C

 

[Cole Parker]

14 hours ago, Alien Son said:

That's not nuts, it's perfectly logical. The floor at ground level is the Ground Floor, and others above that are numbered from 1 up.

~ John

Well, I'd say it makes more sense for the number 1 to designate the first floor.  That number generally designates somelting that comes first.  Not second, like the second floor of a building, the one that comes right above the one which comes first.   😉

[Rutabaga]

Po-tay-to, po-taw-to. 
 

R

[Merkin]

Through some architectural whimsy during the latter part of the 20^th century, many homes in this region have entrance doors poised in midair with steps leading up to them.  The exposed floor on the ground is what would ordinarily be the basement level in most houses.  The entrance floor, the one you climb up to get to, is probably the first floor.  Bedrooms, on the floor above that, are simply “upstairs”. 

[Cole Parker]

On 7/4/2024 at 5:55 PM, Alien Son said:

That's not nuts, it's perfectly logical. The floor at ground level is the Ground Floor, and others above that are numbered from 1 up.

~ John

Well, I'd say it makes more sense for the number 1 to designate the first floor.  That number generally designates somelting that comes first.  Not second, like the second floor of a building, the one that comes right above the one which comes first.   😉

[Cole Parker]

1 minute ago, Merkin said:

Through some architectural whimsy during the latter part of the 20^th century, many homes in this region have entrance doors poised in midair with steps leading up to them.  The exposed floor on the ground is what would ordinarily be the basement level in most houses.  The entrance floor, the one you climb up to get to, is probably the first floor.  Bedrooms, on the floor above that, are simply “upstairs”. 

And that's ignoring split level houses entirely!

 

C

[Rutabaga]

10 hours ago, Merkin said:

Through some architectural whimsy during the latter part of the 20^th century, many homes in this region have entrance doors poised in midair with steps leading up to them.  The exposed floor on the ground is what would ordinarily be the basement level in most houses.  The entrance floor, the one you climb up to get to, is probably the first floor.  Bedrooms, on the floor above that, are simply “upstairs”. 

In Maryland where I grew up these split-level houses were quite common, and were being built in great quantity in the late 50s and early 60s.  I think the lent themselves to the terrain, which often had mild up and down slopes where the houses were being built.  My own childhood home (which was not a split-level) was on the brow of a hill that sloped down toward the back.  Thus, the basement was completely underground behind the front yard, but completely above-ground in the back.  

I also think the split-level design was something new to attract buyers -- more interesting than a plain old box of a house.  It tended to make the interior areas more open to each other, which could have downsides from the standpoint of noise and also for efficiency of heating or cooling.  But it made it easier for Mom, on the middle level (where the living room and kitchen were), to keep an eye on youngsters playing on the lower level, which was only a few steps down and open to the middle level.

R

[Rutabaga]

10 hours ago, Cole Parker said:

Well, I'd say it makes more sense for the number 1 to designate the first floor.  That number generally designates somelting that comes first.  Not second, like the second floor of a building, the one that comes right above the one which comes first.   😉

The question is whether to designate Mother Earth as a "floor."  The word "floor" implies something man-made, as opposed to the preexisting ground beneath us.  I assume that when early humans first built structures that extended higher in the air, they said to themselves, "we're building a floor," and they decided to number it 1.  It stood to reason that when building technology allowed additional levels to be added, they continued the numbering upward.  

But, having grown up in the USA, I agree with Cole that logically the "main" or "ground" floor should carry the number "1."  This seems especially pertinent for multi-level office or residential buildings.  In the USA, when one sees a office or apartment designated as Room 203, we automatically assume it is one level above the main or ground floor.  No doubt someone growing up in Europe would assume it is two levels above the main or ground floor.  As I say, po-tay-to, po-taw-to.

Keep in mind that there is no rule saying that levels in a multi-story structure must be numbered going up.  We could just as easily start with 1 for the top floor and count downward toward the bottom.  This would really confuse people.

R  

[Merkin]

American department stores generally name their floors, such as ‘Lingerie’ or ‘Men’s Socks’.  They let their elevator operators worry about floor numbers.  

[Cole Parker]

I can just hear that elevator man calling it out:  Jock strap floor.  Get 'em while they last.

 

C