Becomming a New Dep

[CHAZ]

wHERE ARE YOU HIDING, kIMCHI?

[kimchi]

As you all have been saying, 3 terms is not enough to make a full judgment of a person's character, but one can at least deduce that Mr Franklin is trying to return the school to archaic ways. This shouldn't be happening. Christ's Hospital is a school of tradition, yes, but it is not inflexible and unable to adapt. We are not living in the 70's, 80's or even the 90's. Children are the future, and we're trying to return the future to the past? Sounds like a paradox to me.

If just 100 people would wake up and listen to the maths, then we might be able to prevent this dictator from destroying the new foundations of the school, set not on harsh discipline but on understanding and respect. If you were to ask every student in the school if they respected the headmaster in 2006, I sincerely doubt that more than a select few would say no. Ask the question today, and I doubt half would say yes. Shall we keep the school in the echoes and shackles of the past, or shall we let it blossom and evolve with the fruits of the future?

Believe what you wish, but if just one person agrees with me, then I consider my job done.

[kimchi]

Well, I think we can safely accept that Mr Franklin's wife is not the author of Kimchi's novel debut on the forum.
Is that really likely?
I guess we also might think it is a pupil who has lost a friend from the school and feels angry and upset.
If I was a pupil, and I had lost a friend, I would be utterly overjoyed that s/he had escaped from the tyranny of John Franklin.
Maybe they feel it was unjust and need a place to kick off about it.
If I felt that anything was unjust, I'd have a thousand places to protest and/or kick off.
Both my children say discipline has improved radically since his appointment
Yes, maybe so, but for better or worse?
a number of staff have indicated to me that they are happy about this.
One is a number, so is a thousand.
If kimchi has something to say which is important for other parents and pupils to know then tell the truth and shame the devil.
Oh don't worry about that, there's plenty more left where the first two came from.
No one knows who you are and there are some really wise and sympathetic people here( not me by the way!)who might tell you something helpful
I'm not a child, writing an essay who needs to be told something helpful. The only way we can reverse this withering is with action. If anyone does want to help, would they please provide me with a list of names and mailing addresses for the School Governors including the mailing address of the Treasurer.

[midget]

Before this goes any further, I think it would be reasonable for Kimchi to come clean, and at least indicate the reason for his/her interest in the school. At the moment I feel that the object of the diatribe is to foment trouble, but to what end?
Are you an OB, or parent of a pupil?

[Alice Goble]

Hello everyone, I am an Old Blue, just left this year. I have a feeling that this group on facebook may be the cause of this:

Oh, someone has already posted the link, but for those who haven't seen it yet
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23548107658

[nastymum]

Thank you Alice! You can see it without being a member and what a jolly little read it is too. The peasants are revolting.. !

Well ,I suppose that's what the young folk should be doing -protesting. Of course as I am almost officially old I only went to Grennham Common and moaned about a silly old bomb. I wish I had thought of complaining about being told off at school .

There ought to be a raspberry thingy for when I am feeling really immature.

[kimchi]

Now I don't want to resort to rudeness, but it seems I have to.
*sigh*

midget: Kimchi's motives and means are, to put it bluntly, none of your buisness. Kimchi's alias has nothing to do with you, so drop it. Kimchi will reveal his/her alter ego if and when the time is right.

Alice Goble: Don't bring that into it. It has nothing to do with Kimchi.

nastymum: The peasants? Are you really that deluded as to think that children are little more than imbeciles? As I have said before, children are the future. The past makes evolution and progress wither. Ask yourself, is that really what you want? If so, then you are, I'm afraid to say, a barbarian.

An iron grip, however much it is disguised in finery, is still going to be an iron grip.

[nastymum]

Kimchi , I think resorting to rudeness is your forte. Your responses to Alice and Mdget were nothing short of threatening. If ,however ,you want to intimidate people on this forum you will have to try harder. On the other hand, if you have something worthwhile to say I suggest a lucid and cogent argument would do the trick. I have seen nothing yet whch comes close. So let's here it . Chapter and verse. Otherwise I suspect what you say will just be treated as a wind up.

[kimchi]

Kimchi , I think resorting to rudeness is your forte. Your responses to Alice and Mdget were nothing short of threatening. If ,however ,you want to intimidate people on this forum you will have to try harder. On the other hand, if you have something worthwhile to say I suggest a lucid and cogent argument would do the trick. I have seen nothing yet whch comes close. So let's here it . Chapter and verse. Otherwise I suspect what you say will just be treated as a wind up.

Threats? Intimidation?
I said nothing of the sort.

You're making me feel like a Mafia don. How flattering.

You'll get your poetry later, when someone else has actually bothered to bring up something for me to make it about. A simple demand for chapter and verse won't work. If anyone's taking this as a wind up, then I suspect that they'll be in for a grievous shock very soon. One cannot opress the majority without some hard feelings, and this has gone on for too long.

Self-righteousness only goes so far.

[Alice Goble]

Threats? Intimidation?
I said nothing of the sort.

You're making me feel like a Mafia don. How flattering.

You'll get your poetry later, when someone else has actually bothered to bring up something for me to make it about. A simple demand for chapter and verse won't work. If anyone's taking this as a wind up, then I suspect that they'll be in for a grievous shock very soon. One cannot opress the majority without some hard feelings, and this has gone on for too long.

Self-righteousness only goes so far.

There's really no need to mock people and threaten them. Sorry I don't quite get what you mean: "self-righteousness only goes so far."

[Mid A 15]

Now I don't want to resort to rudeness, but it seems I have to.
*sigh*

midget: Kimchi's motives and means are, to put it bluntly, none of your buisness. Kimchi's alias has nothing to do with you, so drop it. Kimchi will reveal his/her alter ego if and when the time is right.

Alice Goble: Don't bring that into it. It has nothing to do with Kimchi.

nastymum: The peasants? Are you really that deluded as to think that children are little more than imbeciles? As I have said before, children are the future. The past makes evolution and progress wither. Ask yourself, is that really what you want? If so, then you are, I'm afraid to say, a barbarian.

An iron grip, however much it is disguised in finery, is still going to be an iron grip.

Two things:

1) on this forum we treat fellow posters with politeness and respect even if we disagree with the views posted. A few running gags and a bit of gentle banter no problem. Your response to midget goes way beyond that.

2) You have come onto the forum trying to requisition the support of Old Blues. Spitting the dummy when somebody, quite legitimately, enquired as to your interest is not calculated to win friends and influence people. We understand you may not wish to divulge your real name but in response you could have simply said one of present pupil, Old Blue, Parent, Teacher or Other Staff Member and that would have been sufficient.

My inclination is to ignore you unless you redeem yourself by having the good grace to apologise to midget.

If you do that I might reconsider. Others may well agree with me.

[Urgh-My-Pancreas]

Now I don't want to resort to rudeness, but it seems I have to.
*sigh*

midget: Kimchi's motives and means are, to put it bluntly, none of your buisness. Kimchi's alias has nothing to do with you, so drop it. Kimchi will reveal his/her alter ego if and when the time is right.

Alice Goble: Don't bring that into it. It has nothing to do with Kimchi.

nastymum: The peasants? Are you really that deluded as to think that children are little more than imbeciles? As I have said before, children are the future. The past makes evolution and progress wither. Ask yourself, is that really what you want? If so, then you are, I'm afraid to say, a barbarian.

An iron grip, however much it is disguised in finery, is still going to be an iron grip.

woah now, lets not get too excited guys!
there's no need to be so horrible to nastymum, it was obviously a joke, this is a light hearted place with some really lovely people and they deserve a lot more respect

and to be honest, as someone who is joining CH with no idea what the old head was like, it doesn't seem all that bad, you have to have some rules, it is still a school after all. I'm not saying i like all the rules (god knows i'd rather stay in bed all day on a sunday instead of going to choir at 9 in the morning), but i understand and respect their presence in a place like CH.
if CH slackened too much, it would just be another school, the school i just came from weren't that strict on uniform (obvs, or i wouldn't have my hair colour ) and it just wasn't much of a challenge. that's why so many people CHOOSE CH because it IS challenge and it's about learning to accept authority as we all have to at least once in our lives. i don't mean that we should all sit back and be controlled, but we have to learn those sort of lessons in life; it's not easy, it's not straight forward and we can't always have everything our own way... to me it just seems that you are too rude for your own good. i see no personal gain in listening to you, so unless you try and start again, get rid of the condescending tone with which you write, and explain politely your point of view, i wont be giving your 'arguments' the time of day

on another topic:
alice: welcome! i was asked to join that facebook group today, but, after having a good ol' read, decided against it as i would rather form my own opinions on what should be done about the changes in the school first... i don't think being there for a week is time enough to tell have you joined?

xxidgiexx

[Urgh-My-Pancreas]

Interesting page on Facebook. They seem to have even enlisted the help of Constant Lambert which is quite an achievement.

Suggest they try and get hold of a DVD of the first 2 series of a show called "Grange Hill". There's a whole storyline devoted to a militant student action group (SAG) who organise things like sit ins to further their aims. It turns out that the student/staff council get their way through negotiation and discussion. The activists end up looking humiliated.

Obviously a complete outsider like me can say nothing about circumstances, but don't mess the bed before you leave it.

"Caesar ruled Britain with an iron hand. Then with a wooden foot. And finally with a piece of string"
The Goon Show "Histories of Pliny"

ahh grange hill!
my favorite student-action storyline was when they tried to change the uniform... it was largely unsuccessful though, as all the students did was pester the deputy head with rubbish drawings... i guess by the mid 90s, they'd done the protest-story so many times, the writers tried a new angle...

[Alice Goble]

Hello idgie (is that right?)
No I haven't joined the group. I read the long description of the group and I didn't really agree with him.
It frustrates me the way he talks about Christ's Hospital. I don't think he really knows what makes CH special and surely 'the ethos of Christ's Hospital was replaced' when Southern took over from Poulton? Most people in that group hate Franklin because they can no longer 'get away' with breaking the rules and now they actually get what they deserve for it! Although I do feel some sympathy for them... The typical 'CH Pupil' seems to have changed dramatically and I don't think many of them know what Housey Spirit actually is!

[Angela Woodford]

Well, I've read the page from the facebook group.

As a Hertford girl, I've been marvelling at how terrific the modern CH seems to be. It seems to me wonderful that the pupils have privacy - well, as much as a boarding environment can provide - terrific variety and opportunies in their education - freedom to get out of the school without being surrounded by tall walls topped with broken glass! When I've visited Horsham , it really does seem another much happier world... The pupils to whom I spoke seemed tremendously interesting and were enthusiastic about all the stuff they were doing.

But... when I read the words "a place run with no emotional intelligence or care" I felt a bit of a chill from our past. When UMP comments that the Forum is "a light-hearted place... lovely people" I remember some of the postings over the years that are far from light hearted. There are accounts of the Horsham Boys' Bullying rituals that are truly hideous - well, in my opinion! Along with all the funny reminiscences and nostalgia there's a fair amount of real pain from the past.

I really rejoice that the old cruelties have come to an end. If you are distressed nowadays, there must be a way to complain reasonably, and negotiate for change: unlike the bad old days when it was really hard to tell anyone how you felt, and who would listen anyway?

If things are bad, do something about it now, in a way that can produce results! You must not look back at your schooldays with pain and resentment, believe me!