Sneaking Vs. Reporting
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#1: Sneaking Vs. Reporting Author: ShanderLocation: Canada PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:28 pm


I have to admit this is a concept that I don't fully grasp. I understand the concept of tattling, but never having had prefects at school I don't understand reporting. Does it involve the prefects only? Can a regular girl report? Underwhat circumstances? Anyway, if someone could explain I'd appreciate it.

 


#2:  Author: LizBLocation: Oxon, England PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 8:50 am


If you're unpopular (e.g. Eustacia, Thekla) it's sneaking. If you're popular and 'responsible' e.g. Mary-Lou any Bettany/Maynard/Russell it's reporting!

Liz

 


#3:  Author: NicciLocation: UK PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 12:16 pm


LizB wrote:
If you're unpopular (e.g. Eustacia, Thekla) it's sneaking. If you're popular and 'responsible' e.g. Mary-Lou any Bettany/Maynard/Russell it's reporting!

Liz


*g* how true Liz.

I've been sitting here for a while mulling over the question - and every time I come with an answer I think of an occasion that contradicts it. Confused

 


#4:  Author: XantheLocation: London/Cambridge PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 1:51 pm


Is the idea that reporting is usually done by someone in authority and/or if it is about something serious/dangerous...

e.g. it would be sneaking to say that disruptive-new-girl was pinging rubbers about the place in prep, but reporting to say disruptive-new-girl was planning to run away and join the circus

 


#5:  Author: VikkiLocation: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:44 pm


Xanthe wrote:

e.g. it would be sneaking to say that disruptive-new-girl was pinging rubbers about the place in prep,



I'm sorry, I just have to go and collect my mind from the gutter........... Embarassed Embarassed

 


#6:  Author: NellLocation: London, England PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:46 pm


Vikki!!! Not again....hope it was a clean gutter... Wink Laughing

 


#7:  Author: AlexLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:53 pm


In the prep case, it would be expected that the disruptive-new-girl would be honourable despite her disruptiveness (see nice naughtiness, Mary-Lou) and own up.

 


#8:  Author: jackie greenLocation: Rotherham PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 5:45 pm


I always took the difference to be
sneaking- telling someone in authority with the sole purpose of getting the naughty purpose in trouble
reporting- alerting someone in authority of someone doing something naughty which might be a danger to the naughty person

 


#9:  Author: ShanderLocation: Canada PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 8:18 pm


Okay, that's helpful.
Thank you! I was awfully confused. Confused Very Happy

 


#10:  Author: Guest PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 10:43 pm


Possibly it's reporting when a prefect/form prefect passes things up the line, and sneaking when anyone else does it. The whole adolescent honour code regarding tattling is a bit demented in real life - kids will 'not tell' when there are serious issues of safety involved, and take the sole blame when someone else is also responsible, because they can't sneak on a friend.

In CS land, if you go to Miss Annersley and tell her that you're butting in, but aren't trying to be cheeky it's fine (ML/Len/Joey), but if you accidently blurt something out you'll be ostracised (Eustacia).

It's occasionally struck me that the Prefects are often expected to more self reliant with their responsibility than is really fair. Think of Peggy trying to fight a smear campaign being run by one of the senior students, and feeling that going to the staff with her concerns would be seen as weak. Or Bride, dealing with an influx of students from a very different school and being expected to assert discipline over a student of about her own age, with serious discipline problems, and again, not feeling able to go to the staff. I would think that asking the head or a mistress for advice with a sticky problem would be the logical solution. Again, it's that sneaking code of honour. Telling the staff about it is seen as somehow shameful.

Is this an accurate portrayal of a prefect system? I have no experience of it myself.

 


#11:  Author: Joan the DwarfLocation: Er, where am I? PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 10:47 pm


I think it's to do with the idea of 'self-governance' which EBD was very keen on. I think the idea is that the girls should 'govern' themselves in the sense that if someone's acting up then the girls in that form should tell her to stop, if not then the form prefect should take a hand. If the prefects find out about it then they deal with it. It's only when a level of authority isn't appropriate to deal with behaviour that "reporting" it upwards is allowed.

[edit: cross-posted with Guest]

 


#12:  Author: Lisa_TLocation: Belfast PostPosted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 11:45 pm


I think it depends on the school and obviously prefects in a boarding school DO need to take more on. When I started boarding school, prees had a whole range of responsibilities AND their own common room. When I became a prefect myself, changes in how the different parts of the school were accommodated meant that my cohort had relatively little do. There was actually a lot of confusion about what a prefect could and couldn't do. I remember trying to press for some sort of 'constitution' that would make it clear to everyone, but while everyone agreed it was a good idea, nothing got done. Plus, we had a new Head of Sixth Form and, being a very new broom, he wanted to impose his own ideas, a la Miss Bubb, and became very unpopular in the process. To this day if you say his name to any of my contemporaries, you can guarantee either a groan or rolled eyes!

What about others?

 


#13:  Author: Elisabeth PostPosted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 4:39 pm


I always thought of sneaking as being an act of spite, intended to get the naughty person into trouble and make oneself appear 'good' whereas reporting was a necessary thing, usually done by some senior person like a pree, solely in concern for the naughty person and anyone who may have been affected by the naughty person's deeds.
Or, more concisely:
Sneaking - telling with evil intent
Reporting - telling with good intent

 


#14:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 4:50 pm


I would argue, though, that it also depends on the perception of the 'sneakee' and the person to whom information is being sneaked (or is it snuck? Laughing ) Take Eustacia Benson (please!!) as an example. She had no realisation that what she was doing was wrong, and wasn't doing it with 'evil' intent. There was never a hint that she meant the girls to get into trouble, only that she felt the mistress(es) should know what they were doing (although perhaps the two things did go hand in hand). Remember how surprised she was when she 'got a lecture about sneaking that astonished her'?

 


#15:  Author: LizBLocation: Oxon, England PostPosted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 5:23 pm


Yes, and Thekla got called a 'sneak' for her comment about Margia and the clock, which just happened at the moment the clock stopped striking so she could be heard - the older girls seemed to realise it wasn't intentional sneaking, but the rest of them didn't.

Also for Eustacia, when she complained to her aunt and uncle about having an apple-pie-bed I think that was quite justified - it was not nice of the boys to have done that to her when she was, to some extent, a guest in their house, and also someone who was recently bereaved.

KB, I would call the person being sneaked/snuck to the sneakee and the person doing the sneaking the sneaker!

Liz

 


#16:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 9:33 am


LizB wrote:
KB, I would call the person being sneaked/snuck to the sneakee and the person doing the sneaking the sneaker!


Just out of curiosity, what colour sneaker? Laughing

(Sorry, feeling frivolous...)

 


#17:  Author: Kathy_SLocation: midwestern US PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:53 pm


Perhaps sneakers sneak to sneakunds concerning sneakees.

And KB- Wouldn't the CS types say "trainers" instead of "sneakers"? Not that I recall them saying either.... Very Happy

 


#18:  Author: Rachael PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:25 pm


They would probably have said plimsolls!! (sp?) Laughing

 


#19:  Author: Kathy_SLocation: midwestern US PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:47 pm


Thanks, Rachael! Those they wore.
Quote:
Madge literally jumped. Joey happened to be wearing plimsolls, and her steps had been quite noiseless.
Sounds like sneakers to me!

 


#20:  Author: claireLocation: South Wales PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 8:15 pm


No plimsols are like daps (slip on soft shoes with elasticated fronts) that no one wears out of PE lessons in junior school

 


#21:  Author: LizBLocation: Oxon, England PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 10:33 pm


You could have lace-up plimsolls though

Liz

 




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