I’d say that if they have a teacher guarding the entrance, there might be more parents that aren’t coping.
Mea culpa…
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though, to be fair “You Assumed?” is a question, and not a ‘confident assertion’. Rather meta just there, go Randall.
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Do you have a source for that? In my experience a car can absolutely be dented or scratched by someone sitting on the hood. This teacher is not a police officer, he does not have a right to damage someone’s property. It is not OK for him to damage someone’s property because they will not reverse onto a motorway. (Which isn’t just a matter of school policy, but literally illegal. It is illegal because it is incredibly dangerous.)
I understand your position, but to be clear: the teacher wasn’t pushed by the car and then fell into a sitting position: he spoke briefly to the driver then sat down on the hood.
He overstepped his authority and suffered consequences. I have very little sympathy for people who violate the law to enforce it, then cry to a judge at the victim’s response. He should be thankful he escaped with nothing hurt but his dignity.
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No, the driver should have gone to jail for trying to run over someone who was rightfully doing their job protecting the kids under their care. And he did. Hurrah!
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So, what do you think of people who try to run over people to enforce the law against property damage?
Do you have a source for that? I.e. is it literally illegal to reverse onto that particular road in England?
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Do you have a source he damaged the car, because your entire argument is based on that assumption?
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Nope. I have close English family, and even I can’t understand your educational system. The counterintuitive language you guys use (public means private, for example, except not really, or when it doesn’t) renders it pretty much incomprehensible to outsiders. The class system in the UK is only slightly more comprehensible (it’s huge and fractally complex, but at least it doesn’t change as frequently).
If you always assume that nobody outside the UK understands anything about how education and class interact in England, you’ll be right most of the time!
Personally I find the ever-changing test nomenclature (SATs, sats, GSCEs, transfer tests, key stages and forms, assessments and surveys of achievement, A levels and O levels &etc.) exceptionally confusing, so I just tell people that my niece has passed her O.W.L.s and is studying for her N.E.W.T.s now.
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You’re entitled to your view but please for the sake of my sanity, stop calling it a motorway. The only road he could be on is the A324 which may well be a busy road but it is not a motorway.
Strangely enough even in the UK, we don’t have exits from motorways straight into school car parks.
And as far as reversing being dangerous goes, the still on the left here:
(apologies for linking to the Mirror)
seems to show fairly clearly that his car was initially stood in a position from which he simply could have turned back on to the road without needing to reverse.
In summary - I’m sorry you had horrible treatment from teachers but in this instance teachers being horrible does not justify this man’s actions.
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Public meant that access was by competitive exam and ability to pay, unlike the private schools which might be operated by individuals, such as dame schools. Grammar school entry was by competitive exam but the schools were free or nearly so, and you had to reside in the borough. State schools usually have a residency requirement, so they are not “public” in the way that actual Public Schools are. It does make sense.
The French and a number of other countries have equally complicated systems.
The most confusing thing is that a US prep school is, I believe, for university, while a UK prep school prepares for the Public School entrance, so the age groups are very different.
The class system seems to be becoming asymptotic to the US model, due to the enormous increase in school fees in recent years. Money buys class.
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What Enkita said plus:
The key to all things English (or British to be more inclusive) is to remember that we are very old as countries go and we haven’t had much in the way of radical upheaval and we don’t like changing things.
Therefore we have things like the New Forest, so-called since 1086 when it genuinely was ‘new’.
Public schools are ‘public’ on the basis that they were originally called that at a time when being open to anyone (i.e. the public) rather than being limited to say choristers at a particular cathedral or the sons of members of a guild was quite novel.
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Well, the car was damaged entirely due to that teachers cowardly aggression against this model citizen and his heroic act of self defense. [/s]
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Not to mention the trouble you will have buying corn in Cornmarket or hay in Haymarket these days.
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Yes. The driver pulled forward and bumped his leg. That’s already quite aggro. Sitting on the hood was, IMHO, restrained.
Damaging it? Really? It’s an old convertible Jetta. The VW paint can support 200 lbs.
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That’s how the class system always works: by confusing the ineducated. Back in the days, the poor would be bamboozled by a bit of Latin, then a bit of written English, then a bit of French, and now a bit of ever-changing burocratese…
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Yes, the rich just carry on as always by ignoring whatever the new term is.
Sure, but you have way more distinct classes. We have like, four to six compared to your several hundred.
My English brother-in-law, his brother, and his parents have between them four quite noticeably different accents. And other Britons seem to be able to pretty much instantly tell their social status (including income, occupation, age, and place of origin) just from hearing them speak. For Americans this is very strange; remember we recently had a President who was a born and bred upper caste New Englander but spoke like a illiterate ranch hand.
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So it’s understandable that when Schoeman was told by a teacher that he couldn’t drive his car through the gate, Schoeman drove through the gate anyway. Unfortunately, the court was less understanding.
No, the court clearly had a better understanding that assaulting someone deserves a prison sentence.
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I am personally a big fan of ‘pillock’.
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I think you missed the /s tag in the original post.
