Boys...

[Ocean1]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201668_pf.html

[canarlee]

i like that!

[tri boy]

Lets hear it for scrapped knuckles, and bloody knees.:yes:
As for the cane? see my signature.:yes:

[canarlee]

is that scrapped or scraped knuckles?


if it was meant to be scrapped then where do scrapped knuckles get taken? do they get re-moulded or summit? :D

[Swoop]

What a splendid article!
Bloody good points.

"Does every high school offer a class on adventure tales? No -- and then we complain that boys don't read anymore."
True.

Very true.

[Ocean1]

What a splendid article!
Bloody good points.

I was inspired enough to type the post in invisible ink :D



Anyone got a tissue? :o

[Crisis management]

Yes! Bring back grubbiness and mess.....damn those Persil ads!

All common sense really, my epiphany was when I took the kids to the beach (ages about 2 and 5) and they asked if they could go in the water. Ok it was mid winter, but my response of "do whatever you want" was the best thing I ever said.
Took a lot of cleaning up / drying / warming up afterwards but made me realise how much we can wrap kids in cottonwool to their detriment.

My daughter (22) still bears the scar on her forehead from the "flying fox incident", my son is a very capable white water Kayaker winning competitions and generally showing off.
If I had prevented their early experimentation they wouldn't be the adults they are.

The author of that article, Conn Iggulden, does a good line in historical novels if anyone wants a good read.

[ManDownUnder]

That is so very very true. As the Dad of a 7 year old boy... I can't fault what was written.

[Curious_AJ]

kids should be allowed to be kids and be messy and stuff around!!!!

I as a kid was a great fan of making mud cakes... (tried to eat one of them once.. and ended up running inside dribbling mud all over the front of myself)

[MisterD]

is that scrapped or scraped knuckles?


if it was meant to be scrapped then where do scrapped knuckles get taken? do they get re-moulded or summit? :D

Possibly "scrapped" refers to the types of knuckle injuries sustained in the propper boyhood activity of scrapping (taking wild punches like in the movies but mostly failing to connect)?

[Pwalo]

Funnily enough my wife bought the book for me as an Xmas present. She thought I'd appreciate it as someone who grew up in the seventies. How right she was; it's just like the books that I use to read at my Nannas, or at boarding school.

It's amazing to think what we were able to get away with. It's even scarier when I listen to my Dad and Uncles telling my boys stories about what they got up to!

Now where's my slingshot, it's time to cull a few seagulls.

[gijoe1313]

Ordered my copy already from Amazon! :woohoo: Can't wait to lead my little nephew down a slippery slope on the back of a go-cart whilst waterbombing his mum doing the gardening! :whistle: :devil2: :innocent:

[Ocean1]

Ordered my copy already from Amazon! :woohoo: Can't wait to lead my little nephew down a slippery slope on the back of a go-cart whilst waterbombing his mum doing the gardening! :whistle: :devil2: :innocent:

Ah the joys of corrupting youth...

Do a proper job dude.

[tri boy]

is that scrapped or scraped knuckles?


if it was meant to be scrapped then where do scrapped knuckles get taken? do they get re-moulded or summit? :D

Oooops. Got lazy on spell check.:o

[gijoe1313]

Ah the joys of corrupting youth...

Do a proper job dude.

I get enuff complaints from other teachers who say "Mr.Joe what exactly have you been teaching in some of your classes?"

"They use words I've never heard of"
"They come up with some unusual ideas....they sound like yours...."
"How did you manage to teach a whole period on poop?"
"Why are they reading comics in class?"

etc. etc. .... when it comes to my nephew, his mum thinks I'm a bad influence on him already! Heck, he's only two! :innocent: :whistle: So okay, line the toys up in a firing line and throwing plasticine hand grenades at them sounded like a good idea at the time ....

But I'm always open to more ways to corrupting youth!

[gijoe1313]

Oooops. Got lazy on spell check.:o

Meh, splellclecking is obervated!

[Ocean1]

I get enuff complaints from other teachers

Don't know how you do it, hard enough without the stifling cuddly policy.
My kids school stopped taking them on field trips of pretty much any type, the safety compliance issues were just too hard to deal with. And they closed all the swimming pools. Sigh. Wana make a bet the drowning stat's will rise over the next decade or so?

I always wanted to take my boy to the power house museum in Sydney (much cool interactive science stuff) but I never managed it. Much better than the crap we get at the likes of Te Papa.

[Swoop]

...down a slippery slope on the back of a go-cart...:innocent:
Gahh! Wicked flashback just occurred, going down a scrub covered hill towards a massive amount of gorse and blackberry!!!:shit:
I believe the dare was "more points for even attempting *that* track" on the go-cart.


Ahh. Yoof!:Punk:

[vifferman]

My kids school stopped taking them on field trips of pretty much any type, the safety compliance issues were just too hard to deal with. And they closed all the swimming pools.
That's just fukt. "There should be a law against it".
Oh... wait - that's how things got so NambyPambyised and 'safe'. :rolleyes:

Man, this is one of the few times I'm glad for being of my generation....
I'd much rather the childhood I had than Playstations and Nintendos...

[avgas]

Hehe my misses get really shitty with me when i leave stuff on the floor. I love dirt - makes ya remember that you alive and not under it (unless you are building a fort)

[tri boy]

[QUOTE=vifferman;1145537
I'd much rather the childhood I had than Playstations and Nintendos...[/QUOTE]

Spud guns, Bamboo bows n arrows, (plus great for making kites). Wheeping Willow assault whips, and not to forget the old fulla's sheds and junk piles.
Boys running amuck, and war wounds at the end of the day.
Crashed and burned on my push bike on gravel, right in front of the school dental nurse minutes after she had fixed a chipped tooth from another incident.
Still remember the look on her face. Priceless.:mad:

[Ocean1]

Gahh! Wicked flashback just occurred, going down a scrub covered hill towards a massive amount of gorse and blackberry!!!:shit:
I believe the dare was "more points for even attempting *that* track" on the go-cart.


Ahh. Yoof!:Punk:

'Nuther one for ya: making canoes from roofing iron and caulking the ends and nail holes up with clay :niceone: . Worked a treat until the clay washed out :shit: HMS Sieve is probably still on the bottom of the lake...


Man, this is one of the few times I'm glad for being of my generation....
I'd much rather the childhood I had than Playstations and Nintendos...

Oh yeah. No surprise that rural kids get less issues with allergies, they grow up on a diet higher in dirt, :sick: Very effective "inoculation" in the long run though.

[vifferman]

Gahh! Wicked flashback just occurred, going down a scrub covered hill towards a massive amount of gorse and blackberry!!!
Heh heh...
My best friend and his brothers had a flying fox over a gully very near to their house. I remember one time when one of the brothers stopped over "a massive amount of gorse and blackberry". Oh - and then someone had to go in and retrieve the pulley thingo (technical term), via the gorse'n'blackberry.

Ah yes- childhood memories.
Like lighting small fires (all boys like fire, water, dirt, speed, projectile weapons, inventing stuff, blowing shit up, right?) and stamping them out. Good fun, until the burning dry grass and scrub gets too big to stamp out. :shit:

Run away! RUN AWAY!!

Phew!
Not too many acres of vacant land were burned up before it was put out.
My mum was watching the whole thing through binoculars... :nono:

And back then, in them GoodOleBadOleDays, you could buy explosives, and BlowShitUp, so we did. :yes:

But y'know, a lot more stuff was tolerated. There was a piece in the local rag recently about guys somewhere in the Albany area using a vacant subdivision as an impromptu motocross track, and some ranter from across the other side of the motorway (!) was complaining about the noise! We used to do this all the time, back when dirt bikes were big (as in popular not huge, but they were relatively heavy too... but I digress). These subdivisions were bordered by houses, but there were NEVER any Moaning Minnies complaining about it. Perhaps they just figured it was harmless fun? :spudwhat: I mean, it was just dirt, for goodness sake! And no-one got hurt.

Much.

Apart from the first time I rode a bike, and dropped it on my ankle.
And that one time my friend landed on his head, with the bike on top of him, shortening him a little... :confused:

[Hitcher]

One of the best things I've read in ages. Brilliant.

I won't post any other brilliant stuff I've read recently least I be accused of taking the thread off topic.

[Bullitt]

Looks like fun. Tempted to buy it even though I dont have any kids :Punk:

[Swoop]

blowing shit up, right?
Tom thumbs, Double Happys...
Mighty cannons.

Letterboxes trembled with fear!!!

[gijoe1313]

Or ripping up an old (or even new cardboard box by "discovering" it via unloading contents :innocent:) box and using it for a sled down grass slopes... then "improving" by having the rider hold onto a rope as you "slingshot" them for faster takeoff velocity!

Making little battleships out of leaves and sticks and floating them down in streams/old watertubs/drains and pelting them with pebbles till they sunk...

Or making crossbows out of ice cream sticks and using kebab skewers for ammo and twanging them at fellow class mates under the desk (you get max points for actually impaling a leg! :lol:)

Making impromptu catapults out of old bicycle inner tubes and launching potatos dug up from the garden as far as you could...

Rubber band guns with the ammo doused in lighter fluid as you flicked them past a lighted candle...

Finding ant nests, laying down sugar trails so the opposing sides would find each other and watch the war begin... and then being the UN and using a magnifying glass to do the old zap-zap (and using the magnifying glass to put match heads on fire ... burning patterns into wood... and the other myriad uses..)

Getting bamboo and making dart whips with them or old fashioned spears to practice your javelin skills...

Substituting vinegar into L&P bottles just so you could watch your mate splurt it all out over someone at lunch...

Using your steelies to smash the catseyes/colours/etc. of your opponents.. and then using them in your catapults to smack bottles/cans off the fence palings...

Dismantling old alarm clocks and use the mechanism to make little wind up cars...

The list goes on and on and on... I think I need to do more of this stuff with my students... :shifty:

[MisterD]

Tom thumbs, Double Happys...
Mighty cannons.

Letterboxes trembled with fear!!!

Bah! It's more fun to make your own splosives....Ammonium Tri-iodide anyone?

[cowboyz]

I havent tohought about it since but reading that just brought back memories of when we used to setup ramps for our bmxs and see how many kids we could jump. Drew straws and the shortest one went last in the queue to be jumped. Usually that person had a bike land on them every now and then but that was the fun of it.

[Ocean1]

Bah! It's more fun to make your own splosives....Ammonium Tri-iodide anyone?

Occasionally one of the fishing boats out of Bluff catches one of the JATO bottles dumped in Foveaux Strait by the big military transporters that used to fly out of Invercargil. Some of them were dumped unused. We got access to one of them (don't ask).

Not technically an explosive as such, but a great deal of fascinating mayhem can be wrought by the creative application of small quantities of solid rocket fuel...

I sometimes wonder how it comes about that I'm still possesed of most of my critical appendages, (or still actually alive for that matter).

[vifferman]

Bah! It's more fun to make your own splosives....Ammonium Tri-iodide anyone?
Indeed... we got into mucho trouble for spreading that on the floor of the chemistry lab.
It was fun watching the teacher trying to sweep the floor clean, but more fun watching ants walk on it on the concrete,

[R1madness]

What a fantastic article. We should post it to the minister of eduction. In fact it think i will.
It truely is a sad reflection on our society that boys can not be boys anymore. When i was a boy there were trees to climb. Now when my son gets up a tree in a park some do gooder says "you shouldn't be doing that, you will fall" or more likely "you shouldn't be doing that you might hurt the tree".
Yes i got the strap and the cane at school. It was part of the rites to manhood back then. Nothing to snivel about. Much better than a "family confrence" where the parents get the blaim and the kid gets a hug.
Super heroes were cool and you were allowed to be one, or the villan if you choose. Now its lets all sit down on the mat and read about how Mary saves the day. Where the hell is superman when you need him.
Political correctness. BLAH.

[gijoe1313]

Well here at the school I "mis" teach at, we suspend our timetable for 3 days
(known as 3 day episodes) and basically the teaching staff is let loose and able to offer whatever fancy takes them!

I've done episodes on crazy inventions, rocketeering and other such hulla balloo. This book has given me the inspiration for the next 3 day escapade!

"The 3 Day Dangerous Episode for Boys and Girls of All Ages"

Basically, I'll just run amok with the class and do all sorts of wild and wack ythings (we have a wetland pond...stone skipping! leaf boat sinking!), I'll track down parts to make.... down hill soapbox carts (we have a perfect downhill drive with a left hand bend for added mayhem!)

Make some fighting kites and see who is the Fighter Kite King! Also be doing the usual cotton reel racers, who can make the best paper airplane, dead-eye catapult contest, the garbage bag full o'water bomb experiment, hot air balloons, ooh my giddy aunt... I could so get in trouble for this... meh, what the heck, I can always teach at another school! :lol:

[Bass]

Bah! It's more fun to make your own splosives....Ammonium Tri-iodide anyone?

Agreed. But that stuff is seriously amputatingly unstable. To be avoided in amounts greater than milligrams.

Just to be thoroughly anal for amoment - it's actually nitrogen tri-iodide and it's hard to purify; usually made as part of an ammonium complex.

Now if you mix glycerine with potassium permanganate and wait..... in about 5 minutes it will burst into flame. Simple delay fuse - works great with small bombs attached to large hydrogen balloons. Instant UFO, especially around dusk.

Oh and simple recipes for rocket fuel etc......... ah, youth, stupidity and a key to the chem lab storeroom.........heaven.

[Ocean1]

Now how did this get so fuckin dangerous all of a sudden guys? :shit:

At the risk of attracting attention for all the wrong reasons (well from the wrong people...).

Ingredients:
1 plastic rubbish bag
Oxy Acetylene set.
Several metres insulated wire.
1 12V light bulb.
Tape.
1 enemy

Solder the light bulb to two lengths of wire.
Gain access to enemy’s car boot.
Connect one wire to a tail/brake light.
Connect other wire to earth.
Close boot, with bulb outside.
Break bulb.
Insert bulb/wires into rubbish bag.
Fire up Oxy set and adjust flame as per normal.
Leave gas on and extinguish flame.
Inflate rubbish bag with gas.
Tape bag closed.
Place rubbish bag out of sight somewhere not too close to enemy’s car. (so definitely not in the boot or under the fuel tank, unless you don’t mind being locked up).
Run away.

Note: try to get it all done in the correct order fer fuck’s sake.

Disclaimer: try to make sure the enemy is either a) well smaller than you, or b) doesn’t know where you live. (So no, don’t try this at home…).

[Wolf]

This thread deserves resurrecting. Ocean1, I'd bling ya for the OP but I've blung ya too recently.

Ahh, the days of acetylene bombs (like letting off one in the back yard, feeling the predictable impulse welling up from within and having to run indoors before collapsing on the kitchen floor and cracking up with laughter - because I knew that if my mum had heard that explosion and looked out the window to see me curled up in a foetal ball convulsing uncontrollably she'd've shit herself and called the ambulance. At least when she came running in she was able to see and hear I was unharmed despite being quite unable to stand up or answer her "what was that bang?" line of enquiry...)

Sliding down hills on cardboard boxes or nikau palm fronds or racing down a Wainuiomata hill on my cousin's go-kart and trying to take the corner at the bottom. Helmets? Elbow and knee pads? WTF are those?

Making my own flying fox with a length of old rope and the large pulley from dad's block and tackle set - I got all of three feet before the rope gave out under the combined weight of me and the pulley, after that there was another 6 feet of travel (albeit straight down) and then the pulley landed on my 'nads and removed the last vestiges of air that the impact with the ground hadn't knocked out of my lungs.

Riding to the local swimming hole on the back of a flat-bed truck (past the local cop) wearing no more protection should we fall (supposing we could have made it past the adult bodies surrounding us) than a pair of togs and a towel draped over our shoulders.

Spud guns and a spring-powered bolt-action "rifle" that fired corks. A real bamboo bow that could fire arrows quite some distance.

Frog hunting in the ponds, climbing trees, building our own tree huts, home-made swings involving a length of rope and a length of wood or an old tyre - best placed where they could swing you out over a swimming hole, of course.

One tree hut I made was accessed by climbing a neighbouring tree and crossing a "swing bridge" made from an old wire-wove bed base I'd slung between the trees.

All the cool old fireworks that could go bang and actually put a metal jar lid onto the roof of the house or (when inserted into the overflow pipe from the cistern) could get your niece to leap off the toilet and slam into the toilet door (not that anyone would be so unkind :innocent: )

Making penny rockets more aerodynamically stable by taping them to cheap kitset aircraft.

Walking the perimeter of the section on the top rail of the fence; riding to school without helmets on dad's farm bike - me on the back, my younger brother in front of dad.

I let my kids climb trees and Taliesin occasionally (shock, horror) rides his bike without helmet or footwear. All the kids, even Nessie, have their share of bruises and they don't know how they got over half of them - they just spontaneously form as part of the playing and seldom warrant an "Ow!"

The kids demonstrate that a braced A-frame with three swings on it is not just for swinging on and the ladder is not the only part of a slide you climb up. Since before they were 2 they've been tackling the big kids' adventure playgrounds (easier for me to accompany them up and keep an eye on them).

As parents it is our responsibility to tear off the bubble wrap wherever possible.

[Ocean1]

Wee dredge. Seemed appropriate.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/9650581/School-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies

What's the chances this'll make the safety Nazis back off some?

[unstuck]

Good stuff, a bit of common sense at last, and a kick in the arse for the PC brigade.:Punk::Punk:

[awa355]

BUT,,BUT ,,BUT what if little Wilma is told she cant be in the bullrush game, Dont you see what a devastating blow this could be to her aspirations, her self worth?? :facepalm::facepalm:

[mashman]

BUT,,BUT ,,BUT what if little Wilma is told she cant be in the bullrush game, Dont you see what a devastating blow this could be to her aspirations, her self worth?? :facepalm::facepalm:

Agreed... more H&S is required and schools that encourage free play should be burned to the ground with their principles still inside, or even better, strung up a flag pole. As not every school has flag poles they could create a new industry thereby boosting the economy and all will be well with the world. Jesus christ, I hope they don't think about doing similar for adults.

[pete376403]

. And they closed all the swimming pools. Sigh. Wana make a bet the drowning stat's will rise over the next decade or so?.

In 2007 you wrote this. Here's your answer:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6312422/Drowning-toll-highest-in-eight-years

[Tazz]

Wee dredge. Seemed appropriate.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/9650581/School-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies

What's the chances this'll make the safety Nazis back off some?

Slim :(

But man that was a refreshing read. Good on that principal and school.