The CBB
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/

Themes: Pranks
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6491
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:50 am ]
Post subject:  Themes: Pranks
Pranks are a frequent occurence throughout the series, and start with the desire on the part of the Middles to be "English" in 'School At'. They are wide-ranging, from mimicking Shakespeare and Jane Austen to stealing property and hiding it in the Lost Property box. EBD has a different prank for nearly every book - although frequently played by the same characters! - and they are certainly a staple of the CS.

What do you think of the pranks? What are you favourites and least favourites? Do you think that EBD had run out of ideas by the end of the series? Where is the distinction drawn between a "harmless prank" typical of the Middles and a genuinely bad action - for example, was Joey and co. flouring hair etc a 'prank' or were they old enough to know better? Did Grizel go too far in vaselining the blackboards? If Diana Skelton had persuaded more people to help her, would the ruining of Bride's study have been considered more of a prank? Similarly, should the "Lost Property" prank have been considered more than that, as it involved stealing?

Did the pranks ever influence you to try such things, or did you see them as just part of the book? Would you have (have you - and are you brave enough to own up to it?) copied any of the pranks in the books? Do you feel that they are a part of the book enjoyed more by child than adult readers?

Idea by JustJen.
Author:  JayB [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I quite enjoy most of the pranks. The intentions of the perpetrators are usually harmless and not malicious, even if the results may be otherwise. And EBD does do quite well in thinking up original ones, and original ways of dealing with them. The Lost Property prank is one of my favourites.

Joey and Co were old enough to know better over the hair powdering episode - but I think that's made clear in the book. And 'old enough to know better' applies to much of what Jo got up to as a schoolgirl, so it's quite in charatcer for her!

I think what made Grizel's vaselining the blackboards so serious was that it was directed against a mistress rather than other girls, and it involved actual damage to property. And the intention behind the prank is important too, and I think Madge took that into account. Grizel wasn't having a bit of harmless fun that went too far. She acted out of resentment.

Similarly, Diana's vandalising of Bride's study could never be regarded as a prank because it was a malicious act directed at a specific girl and again involved damage to property. And again Diana was old enough to know the difference between a prank and a borderline criminal act.
Author:  JB [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 1:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Grizel vaselining the blackboards is a different category of prank because it impacts on the staff and not the others pupils, and it will involve someone in cleaning the blackboards afterwards – unlike powdering the wash basins which was harmless.

I think Joey and co were old enough to know better and hairwashing wasn’t an everyday occurrence then so, again, it was a prank with after effects, whereas tying two peoples’ blankets together so they fall of the beds in the night is funny.

Ruining Bride’s study was a nasty thing to do and damaged someone else’s property so I don’t think it could be considered a prank at any level.

What strikes me most about the pranks is the absolute horror with which midnight feasts are treated. I can’t think of another author who feels this way about them. Many other books include feasts but if the perpetrators are caught it isn’t such a big deal – there are great midnight feasts in Clare Mallory’s Merry books for example.

Another aspect which looms large in the Chalet School is the dishonourable nature of certain pranks which is very much frowned upon eg instances where you are “stealing” someone’s trust.

I like the pranks. In the early days the school is trying to so hard to be “English” and later on, the Lost Property one and Heather Clayton’s wind up toy in prep are both entertaining and realistic. As JayB says, the punishments are original and I also like the reactions when the middles realise they’ve been found out.
Author:  Tor [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 1:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Some of them seem a bit hard to swallow - I wish I could find a powder that fizzes and bubbles so much when sprinkled in a sink/bath that it would shock/scare someone. I actually tried that several times with a number of different things when I was younger. None worked (sigh).

I like the early pranks the most - snails on the window really appealed to me (even though that is quite a cruel prank to play on someone really).

Interestingly, there are relatively few pranks that stem directly from 'joke' products procured from joke-shops or brothers for that purpose, which is more the norm in EB books, if I remember rightly.

Even though most of Jack Lambert's pranks are a bit nasty, I really liked the treacle-varnish episode!
Author:  Mel [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 2:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
EBD is always uses her governessy voice when describing pranks; 'breaking all manner of rules' is a favourite line. She has an idea that girls' stomachs are delicate things so Midnight Feasts cause Bilious Attacks and for Joyce Linton it is almost fatal. Food and of course getting cold/wet are her major phobias. IIRC all pranks are discovered, so readers are aware that mischief will out and staff, or more importantly prefects, cannot be outwitted. The only exception is Jo and Co putting snails on Matron W's window. The choice of pranks is often foolish as though they want to be discovered, eg having a picnic in a field full of pigs!
Author:  Newiegirl [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 2:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I always loved the idea of midnight feasts and was convinced that they must be a rite of passage for all boarding school students. In the CS though, they often have serious consequences in terms of - um - "gastro" problems the following day.

I have been tempted to try the snails-on-the-window prank - does anyone know if they really do make a terrible noise?
Author:  Alison H [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 2:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I like most of the pranks - they're usually quite funny and original, and although some of them annoy people we never see anyone do anything that really hurts or upsets someone else (unlike, say, the horrible girls in St Clare's who hide Mirabel's books and then "hug themselves with glee" when she gets into trouble for not being able to find them).

Diana vandalising the study was a different thing and she thoroughly deserved to get into trouble about that, and the hair-flouring episode went too far as well, given that, as JB said, hairwashing was a big deal then. & some the worst "pranks" are the ones played on the school by the Mystic M and Audrey Everett's gang - kidnapping Sybil certainly went too far :roll: , and ruining all the food in Wins The Trick was completely out of order as well.

There are very few pranks played on mistresses compared to those in some other books, in which one particular mistress - usually a French teacher! - seems to be the target of one trick after another. Pranks played on staff seem to be regarded as a definite no-no - the SSM don't get caught when they play tricks on Matron, but Joyce Linton & co are condemned for pretending to be "savages" in poor Miss Norman's lesson, and Grizel is severely punished for vaselining the blackboards (personally I think Madge overreacted to that - I don't think it was bad enough to warrant putting Grizel into solitary confinement).

I always loved the idea of midnight feasts!
Author:  Josette [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 2:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Early on, I think EBD seems to sympathise with the perpetrators a bit more often - we see them occasionally getting away with things, particularly the SSM and their pranks on (both) matrons.

Towards the end of the series, I feel she's a lot less inventive with the pranks than with the punishments! Jocelyn sticking the desk shut with cobbler's wax (in Challenge), followed by Stacie and Jo conspiring to make the whole form regret it, is a case in point. I think by this stage she is identifying totally with the staff/prefects, and we get quite a lot of stock "naughty middles" as seen from the staff's point of view, who just need squashing.
Author:  abbeybufo [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I think EBD draws a distinct line between:
‘mischief’ = good; something to be reminisced about/write up into Joey’s books/become one of the ‘school legends’ – even if it is something to grow out of once one stops being a ‘middle’ :D
and
‘malice’ = bad; done out of spite, often by those who know very well, or are old enough to know, that what they are doing is at best unkind, and at worst verging on the criminal.
At least, I think she draws this distinction very definitely in the early books, though I agree she runs out of invention in the later ones, and the difference is occasionally blurred. The Marani twins might be argued to be not old enough to know better, but their exploits are certainly malicious in the extreme – and definitely bring their own punishment – in spades :shock:

There is also ‘mistaken helpfulness’ – such as Jack & co varnishing with treacle, or the various cookery errors – cloves/garlic cloves and saffron/sulphur, which in most cases attract punishment as if they were deliberate pranks, and certainly become school legends :lol:
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I somehow forgot the Mystic M when starting this :shock: I agree that they got their just deserts and some! But then, what they did was fairly serious as well. For me, seeing Madge in bed she's so ill with grief at Sybil disappearing is one of the most poignant moments of the books. Quite often, IMHO, it reads as if parents are stoical about their children - they love them dearly, but they aren't over-emotional with them. I think this is one of the only real instances where we see just how much a parent does love a child. I also wonder if this helped a lot towards the spoiling of Sybil...

Personally, I love the pranks, and still giggle aloud at some of them. Baby Voodoo is one of my personal favourites, and also the orchestra (if it can be classed as a prank). I really dislike the mimicking of older authors, but that's possibly because I've done a 2,500 word project on them :roll:

Quote:
I think by this stage she is identifying totally with the staff/prefects, and we get quite a lot of stock "naughty middles" as seen from the staff's point of view, who just need squashing.


I half agree with this, but at the same time I always think that EBD's strongest point is her characterisation, and her ability right up to the end of the series to create new and interesting characters.

I think a good example of what abbeybufo meant, if I've read it correctly, is Betty Wynne-Davis. No matter how many pranks she plays she's not expelled, but when she does something genuinely malicious she is. (Sorry, that just occured to me and I thought I'd add it for whatever it's worth)
Author:  Mia [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 7:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Diana wrecking the study is lifted straight out of pre-WWI boys' own literature - I have about 30 or so of these and it features in the plots of about 25% of them. :lol:
Author:  Bethannie [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I actually don't like the pranks! Midnight feasts are fine - and I'll even accept the fun of having a midnight drama club with refreshments....but flouring someone's hair, or scaring them by putting fizzy stuff into sinks? That's a nightmare!
I do have a sense of humour, but it is 'different'...I'm Aspie and would have been in tears just watching these 'pranks' being played on others....I even feel uncomfortable reading about them!
I would have been ostracized for being a 'prig' at the Chalet School!
Author:  Nightwing [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Bethannie wrote:
I would have been ostracized for being a 'prig' at the Chalet School!


Me too! I do enjoy reading about the pranks but I prefer to experience them strictly vicariously!

I think my favourite pranks are the two where the girls start speaking in Shakespearean and Regency language. Particularly when Blossom and co. start talking in Regency slang - the ensuing punishment is just so perfect!
Author:  Amanda M [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
A bit boring maybe, but I did like the pranks where they talked Shakespeariana,etc. I don't know why but I preferred the pranks that were done in the early Tyrol books to the later Switzerland ones. The early books seemed to be more natural whereas the later ones seem shoe-horned in a little bit.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Nightwing wrote:
I think my favourite pranks are the two where the girls start speaking in Shakespearean and Regency language. Particularly when Blossom and co. start talking in Regency slang - the ensuing punishment is just so perfect!


I know that I'm jaded, but I spent six months proving that even with EBD's help I can't do Eng. Language. Sigh. I'm just in awe of them being able to learn to speak in that way so quickly. I'd love to be able to do that!
Author:  mohini [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I like most of the pranks in the books but wished that the teachers were more lenient as they are in EB books.Some pranks are funny and the girls do need to let out their steam.
I love the midnight ones specially when they tell ghostly stories or act out plays.
There is a certain thrill and a sense of adventure doing the things when everyone is sleeping.And the punishment is effective when the girls are told to enact in front of all the school.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I sometimes find the pranks slightly odd moments - it's because EBD seems to feel she needs to narrate them from both staff/prefect and perpetrators' point of view. So pranks are both silly moments of unthinking schoolgirl fun, and also problems in school discipline, bothersome events that need to be weeded out and punished to prevent copycatting (more the latter as the series goes on, as Josette said).

Think of the (unpunished) Malory Towers prank where the girls put invisible chalk on the music master's stool, so the music master has a big pink 'OY' on the seat of his trousers, and the girls have to more or less attack him with a clothes brush to get rid of it before someone sees. Imagine some Middles doing that to Plato, and the Serious Punishment that would ensue when it's inevitably found out for stealing the confidence of the master in question etc etc ... Though EBD almost never allows a prank that makes a teacher look foolish (and wouldn't allow one that involved CS girls brushing Plato's trousers, anyway... :shock: )

The treatment of one 'mini-prank' in Wrong always slightly puzzles me - it's when Prudence Dawbarn gets the form to pretend to be chewing gum in prep, and Nita Eltringham (I think) makes them open their mouths, does an inspection, and feels foolish when there's nothing to find. They do the same thing to Biddy O'Ryan the next day, but we're told that she's too clever to allow herself to be taken in, and tells them to swallow anything they have in their mouths and then open them, and does an inspection. What can she possibly have hoped to find, given that all mouths are now empty, whether or not there was any gum, and why was this a cleverer response than Nita's? :dontknow:
Author:  Kate [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Nita was looking for proof that they had something in their mouths (which she wouldn't get because they never did) - whereas Biddy was looking for proof they *didn't* have anything in their mouths any longer (which she would get if they had something or not - unless they disobeyed her). Nita was made a fool of, which was their intention, whereas Biddy wasn't. It's a brilliant response and one I always use now when I think a child is chewing. :)
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
:lol: *snorts at idea of CS girls brushing Plato's trousers*

I agree that this is actually quite a clever response. It would entail them getting rid of any actual gum without any bother, and was a free tooth inspection at the same time!
Author:  MJKB [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I was never a fan of schoolgirl tricks, with the possible exception of Shakespeariana and Jane Austen, and also Baby VooDoo. But I admire the fact that EBD doesn't allow the girls to cross the boundary between mischief and downright insubordination as EB frequently does. That latter always struck me as racial superiority, once again the French being the target of the victorious British. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. (One 'treek' I really thought wasfairly hilarious was the one in In the Fifth MT when Mamzelle wears the trick teeth)
Author:  Sunglass [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I have to say I don't think EBD's pranks are her strongest point. I find EB's much funnier (which acknowledging her stereotyped French teachers are usually the target). I love the elaborate Malory Towers one where the girls used a small magnet to pull the hairpins out of Mam'zelle's bun and then orchestrate some elaborate spoof where she finds them up the chimney. Maybe the problem is that as someone else said, EBD won't allow pranks that take a mistress in, and she certainly wouldn't approve of a mistress like Mam'zelle, who is a bit of a figure of fun ... (I can't see Mlle Berne flashing her trick teeth at visiting parents... :shock: )

I can see why teenagers would 'magic' away a mistress's hairpins or give an authority figure a pink chalk bum to liven up lessons - the victim remains oblivious, the girls get the fun of a laugh they have to suppress - but I draw a bit more of a blank as to why they would bother to hide a lot of stuff in Lost Property, pretend to speak Regency English, or vaseline blackboards, which just annoys mistresses/prefects and gets punished, sometimes quite severely, without being particularly fun while it's happening. There just doesn't seem much payoff ahead of the inevitable punishment..?

I love some of the obviously fun things like the St Clare's orchestra, or the SSM, or the play on the roof, but I wish EBD had changed her weirdly puritanical attitude to midnight feasts, which are some of the nicest bits of EB's school stories, with all the ginger beer and condensed milk and narrow escapes...
Author:  andi [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I agree - I can't see the point of many of the Swiss-era pranks. The lost property one in particular baffles me. I mean, it was always going to be found out as soon as someone opened the lost property cupboard, and given the CS code of honour which means the guilty parties will Always Own Up and be given an awful punishment, why did they think it would be a good idea? I like the Tyrol ones though - they seem more spontaneous, rather than 'we must do a prank because we're the mischievous middles.'
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I can see the appeal of the Lost Property one. I mean, wouldn't it be a bit funny (if we're in the mindset of Middles) to see all of your superiors looking for something/ getting into trouble for not having it? And the punishment is fantastic - I wonder if EBD thought that up first and then had to find a prank to fit it?

The trouble is, I can't see the MT pranks happening at the CS, they're too much like bullying. What about when they make Gwen and Maureen do all that work for the play just to ridicule it? Of course any girl like that at the CS would have been roundly squashed, done something desperate to get her revenge and ended up being hoist by her own petard, but the girls would never have allowed such a horrible thing to go on - especially not in the fifth form!

I think that is the difference between the girls as well. The seniors at MT never really seem to be as senior as the CS seniors who are very stately and proper. Unless their name is Joey, in which case they can flour people's hair and climb up mountains to endanger their own life while they save someone else's without anyone seeing anything odd in it, they all behave like Young Ladies and are generally quite genteel.

This is really calling to me to write a crossover.
Author:  Nightwing [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I agree, ChubbyMonkey - and I also think 12 to 14-year-olds don't really think through the consequences of what they're doing, so even though Common Sense should tell them that they're going to get caught and punished, they'd rather just not think about that until it happens.

I love EB's pranks, but for the most part EBD's strike me as being more realistic - perhaps a fair few of them had happened during her own school days, or during her own teaching career.
Author:  Abi [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Sunglass wrote:
(I can't see Mlle Berne flashing her trick teeth at visiting parents... :shock: )


This was my favourite moment in the whole series - if I need a good laugh that's the best place. Cracks me up every time :D .

I generally like the pranks as they're quite amusing, but I agree with Sunglass that EBD's later pranks often sound a little artificial - they don't have the same spontaneity, as though she maybe struggled sometimes feeling that there had to be a prank and there must be something she hadn't done before.
Author:  Sunglass [ Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
ChubbyMonkey wrote:
The trouble is, I can't see the MT pranks happening at the CS, they're too much like bullying. What about when they make Gwen and Maureen do all that work for the play just to ridicule it? Of course any girl like that at the CS would have been roundly squashed, done something desperate to get her revenge and ended up being hoist by her own petard, but the girls would never have allowed such a horrible thing to go on - especially not in the fifth form!.


I agree that was particularly cruel (and there are lots of EB instances of relatively dark things, like people stealing from one another, cheating at exams, or framing someone) but I wouldn't call it a 'prank'. I'd define a prank as something mischievous done with a non-malicious intent. (I wouldn't call Diana Skelton smashing up Bride's study or Deira burning Grizel's grandmother's letter 'pranks' either.)

On the other hand, EB does go into territory that EBD doesn't, though I wish she had - imagine EBD's take on a senior who was brilliant at sports taking on a single junior and coaching her viciously hard in a kind of battle of wills, or a girl who was a relative of a new staff member and told tales to her about the other girls, or a twin who is so bound up with her 'other half' that she agrees to fail an exam so she can stay in the same form as her less clever sister?

On the pranks subject, I would adore to see a CS girl get hold of Alicia's jokes catalogue) and buy the contraption that blew up under your clothes and made you look as if you were suddenly putting on several stone and deflating again...
Author:  mohini [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I like EB pranks more than EDB maybe because they seem more realistic.

I mean in EB books there are girls with different shades of white and dark and grey. In EDb all girls are good or better or a bit bad but soon mend their ways.

And this cannot be true in real life. There are bound to be some girls who lie, steal, cheat . CS does not or cannot say that we will not admit this girl as she is a cheat.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 8:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
mohini wrote:
CS does not or cannot say that we will not admit this girl as she is a cheat.


Actually, doesn't Joey do exactly that when they are talking about whether or not to accept Ted? *goes to fish out book*

Quote:
"Tell me this. Was this child ever expelled for dishonesty or - or nastiness?" queried Joey.
"Her mother doesn't mention it..."
"Then that's all right! ... There are some things we couldn't pass over, but original sin of that kind isn't one of them."

From the paperback.

Sorry, Sunglass, I think I've been slightly confusing. I didn't mean to imply that that was a prank - I completely agree there has to be no malicious intent, or at least not beyond giving someone a mild shock/irritating them a little, certainly not upsetting them to that extent - it was just the best example which came to mind for my point. Although I would argue that Deira burning Grizel's letter wasn't intended as maliciously as it turned out, as she didn't know it was in the book.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 2:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
ChubbyMonkey wrote:
mohini wrote:
CS does not or cannot say that we will not admit this girl as she is a cheat.


Actually, doesn't Joey do exactly that when they are talking about whether or not to accept Ted? *goes to fish out book*

Quote:
"Tell me this. Was this child ever expelled for dishonesty or - or nastiness?" queried Joey.
"Her mother doesn't mention it..."
"Then that's all right! ... There are some things we couldn't pass over, but original sin of that kind isn't one of them."

From the paperback.


I suppose that's a fair point about some of the differences (which include prank differences) between EB's books and the CS. EB's schools maybe seem to admit a wider variety of girl - not just the odd circus girl, or poor girl who steals in order to give other people birthdays presents, but staff relatives, American wanna-be starlets, Olympic hopefuls, and girls with various kinds of track records that might have seen them barred from the CS. (Though even Malory Towers' Joey equivalents, Darrell and Sally, go along with some of the fairly cruel things, like Belinda continually caricaturing unpopular girls, the pantomime showdown, or pushing people into the pool...)

Though doesn't it seem odd in one way that the CS, with its Christian ethos and belief in its own capacity to reform problem girls, seems to have a policy of not admitting girls with a track record of dishonesty and whatever it is they mean by 'nastiness'...? Don't they deserve another chance too?
Author:  JayB [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 2:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Quote:
Though doesn't it seem odd in one way that the CS ... seems to have a policy of not admitting girls with a track record of dishonesty and whatever it is they mean by 'nastiness'...? Don't they deserve another chance too?


I think in those circumstances the school has to consider girls already at the school ahead of the girl who might deserve another chance. Arguably the two most unpleasant girls the school ever had, Thekla and Diana, were a thoroughly bad influence on some girls, and cruel or unkind to others. Any school would be dubious about accepting a girl with a record of that kind of behaviour.

I imagine that's the kind of thing Jo meant by 'nastiness' - bullying, threats, intimidation. Little did she know when she said it that it wouldn't be Ted who showed herself capable of 'nastiness'...
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 3:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Oh, I entirely agree the CS has a responsibility to protect its current pupils, but isn't it fair to say that we've no indication there was any bad report of Thekla until she showed up at the school and revealed herself to be a horror, and (less sure of this, as don't have a copy of Bride, so correct me if I'm wrong) that original staff concerns about Diana Skelton centre around her social background rather than her character?

I mean, I'm not sure how one establishes anything about a girl's character, really, before she arrives - especially if she's not previously been to school and so can't have a Head's report (or a string of expulsions)? Even with a firebrand like Emerence, there's only a latter from Con Stewart (is it?) saying she's 'straight' to set against the known evidence that she sets things on fire for fun...

And - exactly as you say - there's Margot, who comes with the best possible credentials!
Author:  Sunglass [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
I mean, I'm not sure how one establishes anything about a girl's character, really, before she arrives - especially if she's not previously been to school and so can't have a Head's report (or a string of expulsions)?


Yes, does the CS require a character reference? Or is this one of the reasons why the Old Girl connection is so important because it's a matter of a known person vouching for you, or why Joan Baker's grandfather's letter has Hilda wanting to ask Madge to make enquiries? Mind, you, still not sure how that would let the school figure out anything about the girl's character.

Joan could presumably have supplied a reference from the school she and Rosamund attended (though I can't imagine it would be glowing?), but it's hard to imagine a short-term governess who herself needed a reference from an employer (someone like Carola Johnstone's aunt) writing an honest character reference to the CS.
Author:  JB [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I thought that, in relation to Ted, the concern was because she'd previously been expelled from three schools, rather than the CS looking for a general character reference.

With Diana, I think it's prompted by the fact that she misbehaves from the start. This is Miss Derwent speaking in the staff room:

Quote:
‘As for Diana Skelton, it isn’t often that a girl manages to rouse in me feelings of hatred and malice, but I rarely come away from a lesson with Lower VA without feeling that I could cheerfully shake her until the teeth rattled in her head!’
Miss Annersley looked rather horrified. ‘My dear girl! What a confession! What does she do to arouse such vicious feelings in you?’
‘Doesn’t attempt to work, for one thing. Doesn’t even want to learn. Half the time she doesn’t know the first thing, and she merely looks supercilious if you try to pull her up.’


This leads Miss Everett to make her own snobbish remarks about Diana's background. From the time Diana first opens her mouth at the CS, we've been told about her "distinctly common" accent which shocks the other girls.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 7:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
But we do get a character reference, in a way - Hilda interviews most parents before their children come (or I read EBD's comments as such in that way). So she could ask some probing questions about background etc., and even ask for the girl to be there is possible. I know it isn't foolproof, but surely someone with Hilda's experience would be able to detect if there was something obvious wrong?
Author:  abbeybufo [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 8:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
But Diana has come in a 'job lot' of girls form Tanswick, hasn't she? - I guess if the CS took over another school they probably couldn't say we'll accept all but so-and-so ...
Author:  JB [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 8:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Abbeybufo wrote:

Quote:
But Diana has come in a 'job lot' of girls form Tanswick, hasn't she? - I guess if the CS took over another school they probably couldn't say we'll accept all but so-and-so ...


I think that's it. When they're talking in the staff room, soon after the beginning of term, Hilda and Nell have already decided there won't be a place for Diana at Welsen the following September.

I don't see parents as giving a character reference as such - more as you say Ariel, it's more about background. Would the school turn someone down because they didn't come from the right sort of family?

There's a lovely scene in Agatha Christie's Cat Among the Pigeons (set partly in a girls' boarding school) where all the parents are telling the Head how special their daughters until the heroine's mother arrives and says "Oh, she's just a normal girl".
Author:  Alison H [ Sat Aug 29, 2009 11:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I think Hilda interviewing parents and wanting more info about the Bakers may partly have been a sort of credit check, although EBD (and Hilda!) would probably have considered it vulgar to say so in so many words. The fees in the Swiss years must have been pretty steep and the rising cost of living meant that families who would previously have had no problems affording school fees might have been struggling to do so. The CS was, at the end of the day, a business, and it would have been very awkward all round if parents had announced after a couple of terms that they wouldn't be able to afford the fees after the next term.

However "nice" a family someone might have come from, it wouldn't have been much use if the nice family had been unable to pay. Although it must have been about "family" as well. (There used to be a very funny advert (on British TV) with David "Del Boy" Jason as a nouveau riche father trying to impress the headmistress of a posh school he wanted to send his daughter to, and getting it all wrong.)

Getting a head's report from a previous school is fairly standard, but previous heads might not have wanted to say too much - especially if the troublemaker was likely to stay at their school if not accepted by the CS :wink: .
Author:  KathrynW [ Sun Aug 30, 2009 8:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
What I find odd is that most pranks (especially in the later books) were directed towards other girls rather than staff whereas we always used to play tricks on members of staff because that was far funnier. Obviously you had to pick the right members of staff but we never got in trouble for anything that we did.

Some of the stuff we did was fairly traditional (stink bombs, a series of alarm clocks around the classroom, turning all the furniture round so it faced the other way) but we also used to do some incredibly complicated pranks that we found hilarious. Most of the staff seemed to treat them in the spirit in which we did them and, to be honest, I think were of the opinion that there were far worse things in the world than a few tricks.
Author:  Nightwing [ Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
There is the mention of Gertrud(e) Beck(er) being let off when she turned a map on the blackboard into a picture of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, because the mistresses realised the girls had to let steam off somehow - are there any other incidents of pranks/mischief which the girls are allowed to get away with?
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Technically Margot Maynard gets away with her prank in 'New Mistress' as her punishment is remitted. But I suppose you could argue Margot get away with a lot...

A lot of the pranks in 'School At' are dismissed as just the juniors being juniors, aren't they? And I would argue the Orchestra prank is rather let off, as well, as they got their wish to play a concert.

A lot of the SSM pranks get punished very lightly, because the teachers agree with the spirit of the thing.
Author:  Billie [ Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
The only prank I remember from my own schooldays is when I was twelve and we switched on a portable radio and hid it in the ceiling (it was a ceiling with large, square push-in-able tiles.) That was quite good.
Author:  KathrynW [ Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Oh yes, I wasn't really suggesting that the girls got in trouble for pranks just that we would never think of doing anything to other girls because it was in no way as fun as playing tricks on teachers.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Billie wrote:
The only prank I remember from my own schooldays is when I was twelve and we switched on a portable radio and hid it in the ceiling (it was a ceiling with large, square push-in-able tiles.) That was quite good.


In out A-Level English class (yes, it was quite immature of us :roll:) we put a radio on Classic FM and locked it in the cupboard, then pretended we couldn't hear anything. I probably deserved to do as badly as I did in that...
Author:  Alison H [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
We used to do "jumper chases". The person sitting at the front of the row nearest the door took their jumper off (obviously this should only be tried when wearing a blouse/shirt underneath!), and then a few seconds later the person behind them took theirs off, and so on. It wasn't particularly funny, but it really used to annoy certain teachers, and they couldn't really punish us for it because we weren't actually doing anything wrong :D .

And we used to sing the football versions of hymns in assembly :lol: .

On April Fools' Day one year, we played a really minor trick on a temp teacher - all we did was pretend that his geography lesson was a religious studies lesson and ask if he'd marked our tests on the Bible - and for some reason it threw him totally and he ran out of the room in tears :shock: .
Author:  KathrynW [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Alison H wrote:
We used to do "jumper chases". The person sitting at the front of the row nearest the door took their jumper off (obviously this should only be tried when wearing a blouse/shirt underneath!), and then a few seconds later the person behind them took theirs off, and so on. It wasn't particularly funny, but it really used to annoy certain teachers, and they couldn't really punish us for it because we weren't actually doing anything wrong :D .


We used to do something similar - in science lessons we used to use paper and files rather than books and there was a stock of paper at the front of the classroom and we used to go up to get more paper in alphabetical order and see how far we could get down the class before the teacher snapped. Good times.
Author:  Kate [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Thank God I teach 5 year olds!!
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
We were vile. We used to torment new trainee teachers by swapping round the identities of the entire class, answering to different names on the roll at every lesson we had with them - at one first lesson wth a new trainee who'd asked us to write our names on papers and prop them on our desks, we swapped the names around as soon as she turned her back, so she thought she was going mad. Or I remember one other time we got some wigs from the acting cupboard and would put them on and take them off when the teacher was writing on the blackboard, so it would look as if people's hair was spontaneously mutating. :oops: We also had a brief phase of doing sort of Mexican waves of coughing, where we would try to cough immediately after one another in succession, so the cough ran all the way around the classroom from one corner to the next.

I have to say that when we tried stinkbombs once in the science lab, the science teacher (not a trainee) just locked us in with the smell for the rest of the class - the windows only opened a crack and it was revolting. And thoroughly deserved, obviously.
Author:  Abi [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
I have to say that when we tried stinkbombs once in the science lab, the science teacher (not a trainee) just locked us in with the smell for the rest of the class - the windows only opened a crack and it was revolting. And thoroughly deserved, obviously.


Isn't that more or less exactly what one of Enid Blyton's St. Clare's teachers did in the same situation? :lol:

We once took the batteries out of our sixth-form History lecturer's electronic register - that was quite hilarious as he never could work them at the best of times. Mind you, another time we went and dug him out of the Staff room when he forgot to come and teach us. He probably minded that more... :D .
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
We did the name swapping thing, too, though we were never quite as horrible as you, Cosimo's Jackal!

We had an absolutely brilliant History teacher our first year of A-levels. We all failed the exam - I think three people got above a 'U', me, surprisingly!, being one of them with an 'E' - but he was the funniest teacher ever. We once spent nearly an entire lesson discussing Kerensky's crossdressing habits ("Must get a disguise. Not a dress. They'll know it's me.") and Rasputin's well placed wart :wink: Sadly they didn't come up as exam questions... But I can still remember most of the (irrelevant) quotes.

On the subject of name changing, one of my friend's came down to stay and had to come in to a History revision session (same teacher as, very boring, anecdote above) and we decided to rename her Ellie, simply because we were convinced our trainee teacher was Peter Pascoe in disguise :roll:
Author:  Abi [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Our other sixth-form history lecturer told us that Catherine de Medici was a wonderful woman... she knew more about poisons than anyone else in Europe :shock: .

(She also thought I was motivated, enthusiastic and hard-working....)
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Abi wrote:
Our other sixth-form history lecturer told us that Catherine de Medici was a wonderful woman... she knew more about poisons than anyone else in Europe :shock: .

(She also thought I was motivated, enthusiastic and hard-working....)


Sounds like my Language teacher! She told us a 'hiatus' meant 'a loud noise'. She also made no less than fourteen grammatical errors when she wrote my coursework for me against my will (I wasn't even there when she wrote half of it...)
Author:  Nightwing [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
When I was in third form we spent an entire lesson diligently copying down the trigonometry formulas our maths teacher wrote up on the board, and when it came to actually using it none of it worked. He yelled at us, "That's because I didn't give you the right formulas! You're all monkeys! Don't you ever think about what you're writing?!"

We never really played any tricks on our teachers - for the most part the thoughts never crossed our minds, I think. On the last day of Seventh Form, though, we "kidnapped" our principal's chair and wouldn't give it back until several senior members of staff came to our comm. and sang the school song for us :lol: .
Author:  Emma A [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I've just been reading Clare Mallory's League of the Smallest, and poor Mouse is constantly tormented in her English lessons, when she has to recite, by the other members of the class making noises (dropping books, almost inaudible humming, coughing, etc.). It's left to one of the prefects to settle the form's hash (after Mouse is coached by other members of the League to recite against such difficulties), since the teacher is rather weak.

That sort of thing would never be done in the Chalet School, would it?
Author:  Clare [ Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
*Am just hoping none of my pupils ever find this thread and try out these pranks*
Author:  Treehugger [ Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
We did the coughing thing. Easy to arrange and very hard to prove, especially in winter when everyone had colds anyway. In terms of famous tricks we were still in awe of the class that turned the entire classroom around: tables, chairs, teachers desk, everything!

I agree that EBD did attempt to make the defintion between mischief and maliciousness when writing about the middles etc. I must say I thought most of the things they got up to pretty tame anyway. Perhaps she didn't want to put any ideas into fertile young imaginations.
Author:  JayB [ Tue Sep 01, 2009 2:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Quote:
Perhaps she didn't want to put any ideas into fertile young imaginations.


In Jo Returns, when Jo is writing Cecily, after a particular prank, Jo removes anything from the book that future readers might be inspired to copy. So maybe EBD did worry about giving ideas to her readers.

As a teacher herself, she must have heard about, or been the target of, a fair number of pranks. Maybe some of those she used in the books she had come across in real life? And maybe it's because she was a teacher that she didn't usually make the mistresses the target of pranks. She'd probably seen inadequate teachers suffering from mischievous or even downright malicious behaviour - maybe even experienced it firsthand.

EB, never (I think?) having been a teacher, perhaps didn't have the same consideration for the mistresses in her books.
Author:  hac61 [ Tue Sep 01, 2009 2:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
JayB wrote:
EB, never (I think?) having been a teacher, perhaps didn't have the same consideration for the mistresses in her books.


Some of EB's books were ghost written. My aunt, who was a teacher, worked with some-one who wrote some of them.

And no, I don't know which ones! :)


hac
Author:  Carrie A [ Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
When I was in the fourth form (current year 9 - so I suppose it does rank as being a 'middle'?) we had a fairly inadequate history teacher in whose lessons we mucked about. We hid a couple of girls in the cupboard for the whole lesson and spent the whole time trying not to laugh and having coughing fits instead! In hindsight I cringe - especially as I would go mad if my class tried anything like that. Mind you they are 9 & 10 year olds so I suppose not. :shock:
Author:  Clare [ Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Treehugger wrote:
In terms of famous tricks we were still in awe of the class that turned the entire classroom around: tables, chairs, teachers desk, everything!


The teacher next door to me (in school, not at home!) refers to a simiilar trick as "continental drift" which he once took part in. Everyone gradually shuffled the desks forward when the teacher turned around. Once they'd bunched up as close to the front of the room as they could, they then headed backwards. Apaarently they managed it twice either way before the teacher lost it with them!

I threatened to kill him if he ever told our pupils that story!
Author:  Fiona Mc [ Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
One of my favourite trick played in our school was when someone kidnapped the stuffed toy octopus from the library and sent a ranson along with the photo of the said octopus sitting on the beach. It seemed more like harmless fun than anything really bad.
Author:  Fleury [ Tue Oct 06, 2009 9:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
My school was infamous for its pranks, a few years ago it got in the papers when the U6th let loose 3000 crickets just before the holidays. My year carried a teachers car into the common room, blocked off the staffroom with some sort of cricket screen and covered the common room ceiling in dairylea..
my brother's year were much worse, locked the gates on parents day put up signs that it was cancelled etc and also painted one of the historic blue boy statues green. They also (not really a prank) blew up a teachers campervan, the teacher, oddly enough, didn't seem to mind.
I think though that private schools are more tolerant of pranks than state schools (having attended and played pranks in both). Not sure why this would be though.
Author:  Tor [ Wed Oct 07, 2009 12:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Quote:
I think though that private schools are more tolerant of pranks than state schools... Not sure why this would be though.


Maybe because their pupils are also their income stream....?
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
You sound like regular demons Fleury!

...I wish I could have done similar things at my school.
Author:  Dawn [ Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
Tor wrote:
Quote:
I think though that private schools are more tolerant of pranks than state schools... Not sure why this would be though.


Maybe because their pupils are also their income stream....?


Matty went to a private school and they were really strict - there did seem to be a stream of kids who went from one private school to another as they got expelled from one and moved on to the next :shock:
Author:  Eilidh [ Fri Oct 30, 2009 12:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I always thought they were a bit tame, personally, but then we never did anything much at school either. So the CS was tame compared to EB and the rest, but quite exciting compared to my secondary school.

When I was about 13, 2 of my classmates turned up one Friday (which was a half day) with a friend of theirs who went to a different school. They spent all day convincing the staff that she was a new pupil and that the admin people had forgotten to tell them about her. They caused havoc, as our Fridays were largely given over to practical stuff at that point (Graphic Design, Home Economics etc) and our practical class was already full and people were panicking about health and safety guidelines and all sorts.

Our last day in S6 we deposited 2 goldfish in the water cooler in the staff room. The year above us celebrated their last day by filling the assistant head's office with those little bits of polystyrene that come as packing in boxes (imagine anyone trying that one on Miss Wilson...?)
Author:  Pingaware [ Sun Nov 01, 2009 1:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
When I was in year 8, we held a raffle, with the prizes being other people's bags, in a history lesson whose teacher had no control over us. The drawing of the raffle ticket was accompanied by party poppers and the winner then proceeded to take everyone's bags out of the room as their prize. With this same teacher, we had several fun lessons with some full water balloons and the town of Chichester. This teacher left after her first and only year as a teacher, and I have to say I did feel slightly guilty.

Our current Upper Sixth turned a car 180 degrees so that it was facing the wrong way down the one-way street outside our school. Chickens have also been let loose on the Head's lawn, and someone placed three dead rabbits, numbered 1, 2 and 4, around the school. Both of these happened on a muck-up day several years ago.

On Chalet School pranks, I find that some of the early ones aren't bad, but always seem slightly tame. I can't think of any in the later books, so they must have been pretty rubbish.
Author:  Abi [ Sun Nov 01, 2009 1:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I should think they do seem slightly tame after that Pingaware :shock: .
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
:shock: Blimey! Was there anything that you didn't do?
Author:  Pingaware [ Sun Nov 01, 2009 1:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
ChubbyMonkey wrote:
:shock: Blimey! Was there anything that you didn't do?


As a school? We've rarely done anything which harms someone. Our pranks generally just disrupt lessons a little. I suppose the reason we have done some rather over-the-top pranks is because we're all too clever for our own good. I would hasten to point out that if our history teacher found it difficult with a young form at a middle-class grammar school in Stratford-upon-Avon, she would have suffered a good deal more at an inner-city school. Taking a very broad view of it, we could be seen to have done her a kindness, although that is being rather heartless.
Author:  sealpuppy [ Mon Nov 02, 2009 11:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Themes: Pranks
I was never involved in any pranks, too scared! But I did feel guilty when we heard that a new graduate gave up on teaching after enduring French with the Lower VIth I was in; our weapon was vicious sarcasm, but nothing physical, though I don't know what other forms got up to with her. My SLOC remembers an incompetent French teacher (who was actually French) being locked in a cupboard by various boys. And there was an incident where the local boys' grammar had one of their number streaking through the park, followed in a car driven by our senior English mistress's daughter!
But I never heard of any CS type pranks as such.
All times are UTC [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/