The Show-Off

I've always had a problem with the saying "act your age", especially when talking to a teenager. I thought that acting like a jackass, talking back, and goofing off was acting your (teen)age.

Disrupting class is the primary function of a teenage boy.

BTW, Paul, you sure you've got the date right here? 1940? Looks more like the 50's.

Expat47--good catch! The date of the film is 1954. I changed the tag. Thanks!

I would be happy to comment on the way it was back then..assuming I was there, which I'm not saying I was..cause I'm just way to young..well actually that's not entirely true...at any rate, I cannot comment as the video wouldn't play on my crappy PC at work. 😊

I can't stop laughing. Were they really that anal back then? The worst problem they had to face was a guy who put up a non-offensive sign?

You can't convince me that you grew up back then patty. That would make you my mom's age, and she's never had conversations about a bifurcated penis or couch therapy :lol:

Well, I was around back then (note "47" in handle) but the world was a lot taller and that was a LONG time ago!

What I do remember is that you gave the teachers grief at your own peril. Young kids go sent to the cloak room or were made to stand in the corner. As you got older you would stay after school and preform some odious task. Later still corporal punishment came into play. In all circumstances, however, the school didn't have the last word; that was reserved for the parents when you got home.

By the 60's, when I hit high school, things were a'changin'. Students had a bit more to say about what went on in school but the dean still had a paddle that was well worn from use and the parents, usually, still had the last word. Grounding was normal and pretty severe when you couldn't take your 39 Plymouth or Honda Dream out to cruise the streets on Friday night.

To qualify the above it must be said that I attended a Lutheran school from K->8 and public high school. But, because of a ridiculously large endowment to our public school system they were no slouches either.

Education was seen as important and "C" meant average not idiot and an "A" was a thing to write home about.

StarThrower, I went to school every day carrying a knife. Had I had a gun with me I doubt it would have caused more trouble than interest from the other kids.

My uncle gave me a pocket knife when I was 7 and I've carried one almost every day of my life since then.

My father (born '44) also carried a knife with him to school everyday. One day, his friend who sat behind him, accidentally stuck him with it while carving stuff in the chair back! These days, one would be expelled for life if something like that happened, and probably sent to a JV prison.

I think it's hard to judge what 50s school's were really like from this video, as we watched some really poorly acted, poorly produced propaganda like this during my school years, too.

True, Becky, propaganda would lead us to believe that every kid in the '80s wore neon colours and rapped awkwardly about avoiding drugs.

My mom is probably more "with it" than I am. She's taught high school English for over 30 years. No doubt she's heard and seen things from today's kids that I never have. But it's kind of like knowing your parents had sex. Of course they did, you're here aren't you? But you don't want to think about it :lol: