The shit in Spain falls mainly in the fan

[Iormlund]

I can't recall any serious bullying at my (fairly expensive) private school. There was this one kid who sort of tried to be a bully, but it was hard to stay mad at him after he overdosed on heroin while we were still in high school.

[Barrister]

Yeah, did my last two years of high school at a private Jesuit school.  It was all-boys, wear a jacket and tie kind of school.  Being catholic there were a sizeable number of kids who attended on scholarships.  It could be kind of cliquey but I don't recall any bullying.

[crazy canuck]

I can't recall any serious bullying at my (fairly expensive) private school. There was this one kid who sort of tried to be a bully, but it was hard to stay mad at him after he overdosed on heroin while we were still in high school.

I think it is more of a British thing.  Hazing and bullying building character and all that.  It was brought into Canadian culture as well.  It was a huge issue on sports teams until not so long ago.

[Sheilbh]

I can't recall any serious bullying at my (fairly expensive) private school. There was this one kid who sort of tried to be a bully, but it was hard to stay mad at him after he overdosed on heroin while we were still in high school.

Fuck

The bullying was literally institutionalised here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fagging

I can't comment on what it's like now because this has long been banned. But I have a friend who went to Eton and had an absolutely horrendous time, as did his older brother. I think it's a very brutal environment if you don't fit in, maybe like all high schools but more because it's 24/7?

[crazy canuck]

I can't recall any serious bullying at my (fairly expensive) private school. There was this one kid who sort of tried to be a bully, but it was hard to stay mad at him after he overdosed on heroin while we were still in high school.

Fuck

The bullying was literally institutionalised here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fagging

I can't comment on what it's like now because this has long been banned. But I have a friend who went to Eton and had an absolutely horrendous time, as did his older brother. I think it's a very brutal environment if you don't fit in, maybe like all high schools but more because it's 24/7?

Is that the origin for the slur for homosexual?

[Sheilbh]

Is that the origin for the slur for homosexual?

I don't think so. Because we got the slur from the US - it wasn't a thing when I was younger (main slur then was "poof"). And here you can still buy faggots (type of meatball) in the shop and a fag is still a cigarette. But it is maybe where the Americans got the slur from?

But the American slur is becoming a lot more common so those meanings might not survive.

[The Brain]

Mr Brain's Pork Faggots.

[Josquius]

Is that the origin for the slur for homosexual?

I don't think so. Because we got the slur from the US - it wasn't a thing when I was younger (main slur then was "poof"). And here you can still buy faggots (type of meatball) in the shop and a fag is still a cigarette. But it is maybe where the Americans got the slur from?

But the American slur is becoming a lot more common so those meanings might not survive.

Yeah, I think fag for gays s a really recent thing. One of the imports with the massive increase in American TV sine the late 90s.
I can't remember that being used at all when I was a kid. As you say puffter and variations thereof were it.

A lot of American English originates with public school, e.g. Soccer, so could well be.

[Jacob]

I don't recall a single real fight in all of my average elementary school (Denmark) or sort of poshish but still public high school (Canada). There was some bullying in elementary school (one girl had to transfer out because the other girls were mean to her, though it went completely over my head) and I'm sure people were shits to one another in high school too, but nothing that's even remotely near the "common wisdom" of the internet with kids fighting and bullying each other as an inescapable fact of life. I mean, I never even once heard of anyone getting in a fight at school, even as a rumour.

[Barrister]

I don't recall a single real fight in all of my average elementary school (Denmark) or sort of poshish but still public high school (Canada). There was some bullying in elementary school (one girl had to transfer out because the other girls were mean to her, though it went completely over my head) and I'm sure people were shits to one another in high school too, but nothing that's even remotely near the "common wisdom" of the internet with kids fighting and bullying each other as an inescapable fact of life. I mean, I never even once heard of anyone getting in a fight at school, even as a rumour.

That seems surprising.  I was in a school fight, I remember a couple of others that other kids were in.  They were spur of the moment kinds of things, not "meet me by the flagpole at 3" kind of deals.

[crazy canuck]

I don't recall a single real fight in all of my average elementary school (Denmark) or sort of poshish but still public high school (Canada). There was some bullying in elementary school (one girl had to transfer out because the other girls were mean to her, though it went completely over my head) and I'm sure people were shits to one another in high school too, but nothing that's even remotely near the "common wisdom" of the internet with kids fighting and bullying each other as an inescapable fact of life. I mean, I never even once heard of anyone getting in a fight at school, even as a rumour.

It is remarkable how much that has changed in my lifetime.  Growing up in a small mill town near Vancouver, there were fights all though high school.  In high school I remember a guy from Vancouver travelling out to my school to have a fight with a friend of mine, who had a much deserved rep as being very tough.  The fight did not end well for the guy from Vancouver.

I was challenged to fights pretty much every weekend.  Many of which I was able to avoid - mainly smaller guys just trying to prove how tough they were. But every once in a while grown men from the mills would pick fights with us.  I had my two front teeth knocked out in one such fight in grade 12, by a beer bottle flung at us from the crowd which had gathered to watch. Years later I learned who had thrown it - turned out to be a friend at the time who missed the other guy... It was a very different world back then.

[The Brain]

There were probably some mild fights in the lower grades of elementary school, but very rarely. I can't remember hearing about any specific incident. No one was even close to fighting in high school, if anyone had tried to start a fight then people would just have looked at him like "are you 6 years old?".

[Sheilbh]

I don't recall a single real fight in all of my average elementary school (Denmark) or sort of poshish but still public high school (Canada). There was some bullying in elementary school (one girl had to transfer out because the other girls were mean to her, though it went completely over my head) and I'm sure people were shits to one another in high school too, but nothing that's even remotely near the "common wisdom" of the internet with kids fighting and bullying each other as an inescapable fact of life. I mean, I never even once heard of anyone getting in a fight at school, even as a rumour.

Yeah - similar I never saw any fights in my comprehensive state schools. There was some bullying for sure, but it was not violent - I don't remember any fights.

I kind of love high school films but always wonder if American high schools are how they're depicted because it is crazy

[celedhring]

I'll interrupt the school bullying thread for some Spanish news. I think we just had the living embodiment of the "that escalated quickly" meme in Spanish politics.

- So, in Murcia some members of the government secretly got Covid shots. When this was exposed, Cs - who are the junior member of a coalition with PP there - demanded a thorough investigation. They were ignored so yesterday they launched a motion of no-confidence against the executive (of which they are part), with the backing of the opposition.

- Immediately the president of the Madrid region (also in a coallition with Cs) dissolved the regional parliament and called for a snap election, sacking all regional ministers from Cs, saying she wanted to avoid the same to happen to her (Cs said they had no plans of doing it).

- However, the opposition introduced a motion of no-confidence before the electoral decree was published. Cs, pissed off, decided to back it. The issue will be hashed out in the Supreme Court, but right now the Madrid parliament doesn't consider itself dissolved (an active motion of no-confidence prevents an election from being called).

- Then another motion of no-confidence was filed in the region of Castilla-León, where Cs and PP also had a coallition.

So some guys take some Covid shots on the side and a few days later the conservative space in Spain is exploding.

[garbon]

I don't recall a single real fight in all of my average elementary school (Denmark) or sort of poshish but still public high school (Canada). There was some bullying in elementary school (one girl had to transfer out because the other girls were mean to her, though it went completely over my head) and I'm sure people were shits to one another in high school too, but nothing that's even remotely near the "common wisdom" of the internet with kids fighting and bullying each other as an inescapable fact of life. I mean, I never even once heard of anyone getting in a fight at school, even as a rumour.

Yeah - similar I never saw any fights in my comprehensive state schools. There was some bullying for sure, but it was not violent - I don't remember any fights.

I kind of love high school films but always wonder if American high schools are how they're depicted because it is crazy

There were a fair number of fights that I recall at my high school or in the backwoods. I do remember leaving class at least once to see a fight in the foyer.