Originally posted by gaweidert When my oldest son entered high school in 1983, the school averaged from 3 to 6 fights a day. A new principal was hired. Bookish looking guy. The first day of school there was a fight even before the first bell. The two students involved were hauled down the the office. Cops were called and took them out in cuffs. Their parents were called to pick them up at the police station and they were suspended for two weeks. Their parents would have to work out the details on how to keep them from falling behind. Then he got on the PA system and announced what had happened and that there was from now on zero tolerance for fighting. It would lead to suspension and possibly expulsion. After a few days of cracking down things started changing and all sort of new rules went into place designed to promote a safer environment but also allow for some fun.
This reminds me of a story about my mother. She was a substitute teacher for many, many years. The district I now work in was set up a bit differently back then, but she was called late to come and cover a class at the high school. Because of the drive, she said she wouldn't be able to make it there on time and would be a little late. They said that's fine as long as she can come in as soon as possible. She got there right at the end of the pledge to hear someone throw a handful of BBs at the blackboard and the assistant principal making a hasty exit from the room as he was covering until my mom could get there. She told them, that the only way she was going to be able to do this was if they came down hard on the first person that she sent to the office.
One of the guys in the back of the class started doing Old MacDonald in a singsong voice in the back. She asked him to stop several times and then sent him to the office. He came back with something like 5 days of detention or suspension, I forget. Word spread through the students like fire and she never had another problem. After she was there for a while, the students realized she's more than willing to have fun and everything as long as they were respectful and whatnot and didn't get too carried away and could stay on task when they needed to. She ended up being one of their favorite subs and was one of the only people that would come in to cover that one particular class because no one else could handle them.
---------- Post added 2020-12-17 at 12:57 PM ----------
Originally posted by savoche As I understand,
Ashley's Book of Knots is considered the Bible of knots. I've just found a PDF version of it
Ashley writes <stuff that I wanted to comment on but doesn't show up when quoting because it's a quote>
Sorry about replying to posts from a few days ago, but I've been busy and not on the forums (what am I thinking?! there's a giveaway going on. lol) and am trying to catch up. I wonder if this includes the fisherman's knot, which is essentially 2 square knots that are sort of tied as slip knots so that the two knots end up holding against each other and IIRC is supposed to be stronger than a simple square knot. (It's one I learned back when I was a Scout and what I tend to always use to join 2 ropes together.)
I'm not sure which I learned first, the fisherman's knot or a noose. I learned both in the BSA, courtesy of some older Scouts.
Sadly, due to the lack of knot tying that I tend to have, I've forgotten many of the knots I used to know. Oddly, despite almost never making one, I can do a bowline just fine thanks to that little bunny that hops up out of its hole to run around the tree and back down into his hole...