Back in time for school, episode 3

Back in time for school, episode 3
To avoid spoilers and repeats, skip to 1:45.

This episode will be about the 1940s and 1950s.
Two decades squeezed into one episode.
Personally I think you could/should make an entire series just about one era if you want participants to get the actual historical experience, or at least one year per episode.

New uniforms, new hats.
Someone should have taught these girls how to wear a baret!
I like that one of the girl says; I don’t want to wake up and do my hair only to put a hat on it, that makes no sense.
She doesn’t get that that is the best thing about wearing hats!
You don’t have to put as much effort into your hair!

The teachers now wear a hat as part of their uniform, finally they have an excuse to keep their hats on indoors although I’m not sure if they and the pupils would keep them on during assembly.

I find the scenes with the presenter rather distracting and a tat annoying.
It adds nothing to the show.

We start this episode in 1945.
I guess we’re just completely ignoring the war years, which I find rather odd and it is not explained why we’re skipping this part.

Again the teachers and pupils discuss the experience, talk about why perhaps the 1940s teaching method isn’t working, etc.
Which is interesting but also ruins the immersion, these kids are not travelling back in time, they’re just doing something old fashioned.
But I do have to agree, just reading things and writing them down isn’t really a great way of learning stuff, not for me anyway.

I still find it regretful that there is no corporal punishment in this show, not (just) because I’m a meanie but because I think it is such a huge part of the British education system of that era that leaving out is doing history a injustice.
But I guess I can understand why, it might actually be illegal although I can’t help wondering if perhaps they could have gotten away with it if the pupils had signed disclaimers and special agreements.

The boys go picking fruit on a farm, excellent!
Hard manual labour for the good of the nation.
Wonderful real 1940s footage shows us that perhaps some of the haircuts the modern contestants have could do with some extra attention.

Must say I’m a bit disappointed with the boys being stressed about insects and a little dirt although of course this is something the show’s editors want us to see, the rest of the boys not being bothered isn’t shown as that isn’t very interesting.

I love the short scene of the children playing in the school yard.
No phones, no gadgets, no tv or pop songs to chat about and soon they’re back to just being children.

School milk!
Great initiative, wonderful idea… bad execution.
I remember getting school milk… it was never nice and cold and didn’t come in glass bottles.
Lukewarm milk isn’t very tasty, I hated it and it put me off drinking milk for decades.
It wasn’t till I was in my 40s that I gave milk another chance and discovered that it is actually quite nice, when served cold.

 

History lessons, learning dates of important events, not the best way to teach the most important subject of all.
Mind you, we went overboard in the other direction when we threw all that out of the window.
Because so many people no longer know any of the important dates.
We should learn about daily life, our ancestors but ALSO some of those dates.
I do like that the pupils are taught that it matters how they write, that it should be neat, legible, not messy.
I think that this is no longer much of a thin in schools these days.

I love the idea of having head boys and girls, but will it work?
Time to test it, teacher has to leave the class…
Chaos!

Personality training, is that an 1940s term?
Posture, deportment, etiquette, all lessons we should bring back, seriously.
Why is the presenter joining in?
Nothing personal but all I really want in shows like these is a voice-over where needed, the less we see of a host the better.
I also still don’t like seeing the children discuss what they’re experiencing with teachers or host, they should do this in the privacy of a diary room.
Again things like this take away from the immersive atmosphere for both pupils and viewers.

Cycling lessons, something we should bring back as well.

“This is 1950s sex education”.
Thanks for putting it that way teacher, again a little thing that drags us out of the 1950s and reminds us that it is all fake.
Mind you, I’m delighted I somehow managed to never get any education on this subject ever.
Not sure how that happened but I truly consider myself lucky.
The girls are about to watch “A brother for Susan” (1952).
You can see the film here;

I find the film rather revealing and matter of fact.
But having it all explained by a very nice lady who talks properly and with a no nonsense attitude makes it all a little less unpleasant.
And thankfully they use animation in stead of actual footage.
The film isn’t really sex education, it is about what happens after the hanky panky has already happened.
Either way, it is a pretty good film, no fuss, no nonsense, actually educational.
Unless of course you already know everything (and too much) like some of these modern day pupils it seems.

Liver for lunch… not for me thanks.
Still, as much as I hate liver, I love that children who don’t finish their plates get punished.
Mind you, the pupils still have a lot to learn about attitude.
They’re still reacting to many situations like modern day kids and are getting away with behaviour that would have been unacceptable back then.

Debates is a superb lesson, I wish I had this.
And did that boy really just say “Thank you Jo” to Joan Dawson Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell, DBE?!
This show is severely lacking formality.

Time to celebrate the coronation.
The pupils get a gift, after seeing children get nice commemorative mugs, we see our pupils get a pencil.
Nice box.
They also get a ‘Tuck shop’, a place where they get to buy little things, like candy.
Again this too doesn’t look too bad, thanks to colour printers and the internet it is relatively easy to reproduce old fashioned packaging.
However the colours look a bit muted.

Some of the children are going to a Milk Bar, this all looks more like the idealised image many people have of the 1950s, very American, the jukebox, the colours, the furniture.
As an 1980s teenager I dreamt of going to places like this.
I’ll be for ever sad about never having missed out on this.
The pupils are loving it.
But here is the presenter again, butting in, ruining the ‘we’re really in the 1950s’ atmosphere with her questions.
She also repeats the stereotype and myth of how teenagers were a new thing, young people being rebellious, wild, etc.
This has been happening for centuries, but there were similar youth movements in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
On top of that, her questions are also very leading, it’s clear what kind of answers she wants.

A little later it is also suggested that the protest movements and young people standing up against the establishment was a new thing born in the 1950s.
It wasn’t.

The episode ends with a school dance, it’s lovely although a bit wild and American, I wonder how many British schools of the era would have allowed a party like this.
So much more fun than the parties I used to have at school.
In the 1950s they had better music, nicer clothes and the dancing was a lot more exciting.

The teacher talks about how the dreary music and dreary decor of the 1940s is replaced, that’s a little sad because it means he has no idea about how exciting and vibrant that era really was if you manage to look past the shadow of war and rationing.