School's out for summer!
People have taken off their school shoes. They're up on benches jumping for joy.
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Well, mostly. Some people who love school aren't feeling so great about it.
For many of us around the world, all that serious study is finally over.
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| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Depressed.svg |
For many of us around the world, all that serious study is finally over.
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| School's Out 1936, Alan Rohan Crite |
No more physics lessons!
No more maths!
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| www.etsy.com/shop/kilkennycatart |
My husband Mungo used to be a maths teacher. He says 2 + 2 = 4 is not serious study. Unless you're a cat.
Or very young and sit on pink school benches.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/arichards-gallery/5755442316 |
Mungo says this maths bench is more like serious study.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/8422710@N06/3061548006 |
And more serious still is this chalk-and-talk science lecture.
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| http://www.wall321.com |
You'd need to get your pencil bench out and do some careful calculations.
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| www.boex.co.uk |
My other husband is His Excellency. He's a philosopher now but there was a time when he studied chemistry.
Some of his experiments didn't go well.
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Maybe he just didn't understand the periodic
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/larrywfu/2027115602 |
After the explosion, His Excellency switched to Classics. If you're studying Classics, bench literature is more exciting these days.
And art lessons use benches to convey subtle symbolism and meaningful themes.
Whatever you're studying though, you need to put in the effort.
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| Esbjorn Doing His Homework, Carl Larsson |
You can't just loll about on your bench all day.
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| Christ's Hospital School, West Sussex |
Back in the day you had to behave yourself when you went to the Lernin' School.
You had to sit on your school bench and face forward, otherwise you would have to stand facing the wall.
You had to keep quiet and copy everything the teacher wrote on the board.
Teachers commanded a lot of respect in those days. His Excellency can remember having to bow to the Headmaster as he swept past with his Latin grammar.
No matter how uncomfortable your bench was, you had to sit still.
You were not allowed to fall asleep at your desk.
And you were not allowed to bunk off school, unless the circus came to town.
You had to sit on your school bench and face forward, otherwise you would have to stand facing the wall.
You had to keep quiet and copy everything the teacher wrote on the board.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/maclancy |
Teachers commanded a lot of respect in those days. His Excellency can remember having to bow to the Headmaster as he swept past with his Latin grammar.
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| http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28557/28557-h/28557-h.htm |
No matter how uncomfortable your bench was, you had to sit still.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/HeatherGillPhotos |
You were not allowed to fall asleep at your desk.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/sweetpeapalace |
And you were not allowed to bunk off school, unless the circus came to town.
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| my photo, Southampton |
This is Old Noah, who went to school in biblical times.
He went to a church school with very hard benches.
You sat on your pew and prayed for the end of the lesson.
He went to a church school with very hard benches.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/woodycollins/4252670300 |
You sat on your pew and prayed for the end of the lesson.
There were no computers, no screens.
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| Christ's Hospital School, West Sussex |
Before interactive white boards, before chalkboards even, you had to
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| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schulbank.jpg |
If you made a mistake, you might have to sit on the dunce stool at the front of the class.
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This is what happened when my best imaginary friend Miggy told the Home Ec teacher she was good at cooking.
School dinners in those days were horrible concoctions of vegetables and green custard. Mungo remembers how the classroom smelled of floor polish and boiled cabbage.
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| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WPV_One_room_schoolhouse.jpg |
It was probably Miggy who cooked the cabbage and floor polish casserole and topped it with a splash of green custard.
Times have changed though. Kids are more worldly.
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| World Tour 1865, Andre-Henri Dargelas |
Classrooms are more informal.
Although there is a bit of time still spent at desks, there is a lot more freedom in the classroom.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/vinylwalladornments |
These kids at Fribble Primary School have fun at school and sit on brightly coloured seats.
April, age six, shows me how she pimped her school desk in Year Two.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/honeypoopoos |
May and June, her parallel selves, also have colourful desks and benches.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/honeypoopoos |
Some schools even have bright and comfy sofas.
High school benches are a lot more fun too.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/MonsterMiniCustoms |
Lord Brassica, Fifth Earl of Drizzly: I say, this is a jolly good looking school uniform. Girls didn't look like that in my day.
I should explain that Lord Brassica went to a famous boarding school.
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Lord Brassica: It was a bit of a palaver getting all my kit up to school on the train.
Golly, Lord B, you certainly took a lot of stuff to school with you. A lot of books I guess?
Lord B: No. It's my Harrods hampers, my hunting gear, my crystal glassware, and my very small butler.
At Lord B's school they would not put up with any nonsense. If you didn't stick to the rules you'd find yourself on a bench at Disobedience School.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/DMParnellArt |
Some schools are very strict about school uniforms. This school is quite lax though; it allows some variation of orange.
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I went to school at St. Asphyxia's. They were fussy. We weren't even allowed to bring swords to school.
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Although I remember the uniform, it's funny how I've forgotten my school friends. I can't even remember their faces.
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Whatever the uniform though, there was always somebody who would break the rules.
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Miggy went to school in Scotland where it was obligatory to wear tartan.
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Lord Brassica: What ho, Migs! Seeing this makes me feel like dancing the Gay Gordons!
I must warn you that Miggy no longer looks like this.
Indeed it would take a lot of wizardry to get her into a skirt like this now.
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Rawlings Benchleigh-Press is our personal trainer here in Fribble-under-Par. At Rawl's prep school they wore white all the time because they had to do a lot of sport.
Worn out by too much physical education, Rawl switched to law and then found he had to memorise the law reports from all the King's Benches.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/pragmatic/2349042840 |
When it came to the oral exam at the Old Bailey, Rawl couldn't believe he had forgotten one of the statutes from 1906.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/gwensvintage |
Yes, exams were tough in those days. In England students had to memorise the English kings and queens. In order. From King Charles . . .
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/anyuser/959413361 |
To King Burger.
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| https://www.flickr.com/people/vauvau/ |
Unwin is Lord Brassica's butler. He went to grammar school and studied history, but after a while, memorising the terrible events of the past began to feel like a ball and chain.
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| photo from Cass Sculpture Park, Sussex |
Unwin still keeps up to date with current events though. And he makes sure to iron his newspaper every morning so the news is fresh.
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| Unwin, near St. Asphyxia's |
Like Unwin, Miggy's mum went to school in war time. She remembers bomb warning sirens screaming while they sat on their benches in the makeshift classroom.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/3895373807 |
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| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schoolgirl_Into_Nurse.jpg |
Lord Brassica's daughter-in-law Innocent also went to nursing school. Here she is in her demure training uniform at St. Smiley's.
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| Innocent at St. Smiley's Hospital |
And here she is now in the ICU, still wearing white but not so demure.
Innocent looks back fondly at her school daze.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/SteanFinds |
It's a pity she didn't learn to spell while she was there. Spelling Rules!
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| Sign Appreciation Society |
But of course not all of us are nokked out by skool in a good way.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/OxbowCreekExchange |
What is it with spelling? Doesn't anyone know how to spell anymore?
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| www.etsy.com/shop/luckyjackson |
Of course reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic are the 3 Rs of education. In many countries people feel very, very lucky if they are able to go to school.
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Some of them walk miles to school and then sit on very uncomfortable benches copying from a chalkboard.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/10444484183 |
Some of them sit on benches in the water.
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And some even have to bring their own bench.
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Around the world, everyone wants to know the magic of letters.
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| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Magic_of_Letters.jpg |
Once they start reading, some people can't be persuaded to put down their book.
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| photo by Pat McDonald |
Here at Drizzly Manor, Lady Brassica is having a literacy-enriching summer.
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She has ordered a Young Male Reader from young male readers dot com. Every evening, as last summer, a young male reader will arrive on the ferry at Paradise Island and spend the evening reading to Lady B at Drizzly Manor.
You wouldn't believe the books they get through.
But learning is not all fun and games. You have to work hard if you want to get to a good university.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/RedHedgePhotos |
Here are my two husbands in the crafts workshop at primary school. They started learning how to make benches in their kindergarten class.
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And here they are some years later, studiously preparing for their exams.
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| www.etsy.com/shop/AlaskaVintage |
Then they had a long, long wait for their results.
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| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchive, Berlin.jpg |
Lord Brassica's son Root went to a very posh private school but as for university, he was three A Levels short of a conditional offer. Maybe he should have left an apple for the teacher?
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/hashir/2089106143 |
But times have changed.
For a start, you can use your app at the bus stop.
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| www.cfennell.com |
Once you get to school, you can lark about with your mates and send instagrams of your body parts to each other.
Students no longer have to sit at their desks and hear some teacher rabbiting on and on.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/tuxxilla/ |
Teachers have to work hard to keep students' attention. To get the attention of people learning to drive, some traffic schools go to extremes.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomspixels/2561812485 |
Lord Brassica: Tally ho! I've completely forgotten how to drive. Must enroll in that traffic school.
Then too, there's lots of help online these days; many websites will give you a hand with your studies.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/mckln/5455746792 |
You can
With help like this, even Shakespeare is child's play.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/gog/29245017 |
Yes, school life has lost its formality. Very shortly, students in England will not have to call their teachers Sir and Miss anymore.
Lord Brassica: By jove, I don't approve of this.
Neither do some of the teachers.
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Lord Brassica: Holy Hogwarts! What class is this woman teaching? I'd like to enroll straightaway.
My two husbands are also suddenly feeling the need for Further Education.
Sorry, boys, you're too late. There's no more sitting on the old school bench this term.
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no more pencils
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no more books
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| www.justinillusions.com |
No more teachers' dirty looks.
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And we've got no principles.
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Yep.
School really is out for summer.
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| School's Out 1945, John Falter (1910-1982) |
And for some of us, school's out for ever.
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Credits
Meg is also known as ~nut*Meg~ on Flickr. On one particular Bench Monday, June 7, 2010, Meg photographed some people in bare feet jumping joyously on a bench. And we know why: school's out!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/32292539@N04/4678651833/
A depressed man sitting on a bench is a self-made illustration by Ysangkok. It's from 2007 and is released into the public domain at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Depressed.svg Depression is a little bit of a theme here on Benchsite. For example, see what a Blue Monday we had when we had to look at a lot of dismal benches.
A depressed man sitting on a bench is a self-made illustration by Ysangkok. It's from 2007 and is released into the public domain at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Depressed.svg Depression is a little bit of a theme here on Benchsite. For example, see what a Blue Monday we had when we had to look at a lot of dismal benches.
I love cats and I love art so Ryan Conners' Kilkenny Cat Art is one of my favourite sites on etsy. It's full of delightful paintings of cat folk art featuring cats in all sorts of disguises and situations. The Back to School cats are painted with golden acrylics. There are also some nuns with cats which look rather like my teachers at St. Asphyxia's. www.etsy.com/shop/KilkennyCatArt
And speaking of cats, here's a link to some cracking cat benches.
Amanda Richards is a hobby photographer, currently living in Guyana. She photographed the nursery class on their pink benches in Georgetown, Demerara-Mahaica Guyana in 2011. https://www.flickr.com/photos/arichards-gallery/5755442316
John Ayo, from New Orleans, took the photo of the mathematical graffiti on a park bench in in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he now lives. He says even the vandals are more sophisticated here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/8422710@N06/3061548006
The very large chalkboard and the very small lecturer at the front of the lecture hall is a desktop wallpaper download by http://www.wall321.com. wall321 is one of the largest desktop wallpaper sharing sites, offering unlimited free downloads of HD wallpaper and 3D wallpapers. If you like this one, you can find it at http://www.wall321.com/Technology/Science/science_serious_men_teacher_blackboards_college_mathematics_lecture_lecture_hall_a_serious_man_micha_40521
The pink pencil bench, which also comes in yellow, appeared on www.designbuzz.com as one of their Top 10 Unusual Benches. It won a Cornwall Design award in 2007. And it also appears on Benchsite World Book Day in 2013. The designer is Boex 3D Creative Solutions at www.boex.co.uk Many thanks to Sam Boex for permission to use this image.
My husband His Excellency has a long history of destroying benches (and indeed schools) with his ill-fated chemistry experiments. This photo of a destroyed classroom is by Thomas Hawk in 2011. Thomas is from San Francisco and when he's not taking or processing pictures he's mostly thinking about the pictures. His aim is to publish a library of 1,000,000 hand crafted, lovingly created, individually finished and processed photographs before he dies. Good luck with that, Thomas!
In 2003, two students, Nazila Alimohammadi and Anna Clark, built a picnic table in the shape of the periodic table of elements. It was created as a sculpture for a public art course and is accurate in every detail, right down to the auxiliary lanthanides and actinides tables that constitute the table's bench. The table is located, er, right by the Chemistry building at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. It was photographed in 2007 by Larry, who lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. https://www.flickr.com/photos/larrywfu/2027115602 From December 30, 2015 there are four new elements added to the seventh row of the periodic table. They are temporarily named as ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117), and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118). Just so you know.
Carl Olof Larsson ( 1853 –1919) was a Swedish painter representative of the Arts and Crafts movement. His many paintings include oils, watercolors, and frescoes. He is principally known for his watercolors of idyllic family life but there are also some serious and beautiful landscapes of his homeland.
Founded in 1552, Christ's Hospital School in West Sussex is one the the oldest boarding schools in the UK. It's a school like no other, according to the two artworks I photographed in Worthing Station. Current boarding fees for the school are £13,970 per term.
The Lernin' School is along the boardwalk in the Wild West town of Dayville, Oregon (population 149). There's nothing much behind it but that doesn't matter as there are plenty of benches out front. Have a look at some wild, Wild West Benches at http://benchsite.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/wildest-west-benches-of-usa.html
Heather Gill from Arizona does fine art photography for her etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/HeatherGillPhoto The vintage school house was in the most perfect condition in a ghost town in Montana. Heather could almost hear the teacher writing on the black board with chalk.
The newborn baby asleep at the desk is from Sweet Pea Palace at www.etsy.com/shop/sweetpeapalace They do a wide range of digital backdrops, including this school desk prop for photographers. You can find a backdrop for just about any situation you can imagine.
The Lernin' School is along the boardwalk in the Wild West town of Dayville, Oregon (population 149). There's nothing much behind it but that doesn't matter as there are plenty of benches out front. Have a look at some wild, Wild West Benches at http://benchsite.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/wildest-west-benches-of-usa.html
Heather Gill from Arizona does fine art photography for her etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/HeatherGillPhoto The vintage school house was in the most perfect condition in a ghost town in Montana. Heather could almost hear the teacher writing on the black board with chalk.
The newborn baby asleep at the desk is from Sweet Pea Palace at www.etsy.com/shop/sweetpeapalace They do a wide range of digital backdrops, including this school desk prop for photographers. You can find a backdrop for just about any situation you can imagine.
Imagine sitting in school all day on a hard church pew. Many Congolese students do not have a school desk so they sit on church pews borrowed from the nearby church. The photographer is Woody Collins (2009). He wonders if the students are assigned their bench positions at the beginning of the school year and whether they recognize their pew from church. https://www.flickr.com/photos/woodycollins/4252670300
The Victorian teacher at his desk is a photo from Marianne at Clancy's Classics in Oregon www.etsy.com/shop/maclancy Marianne loves history and the photographic history of the USA. She has a huge vintage photo collecton so she can offer the images printed out for you.
The headmaster sweeping through with his robes and Latin book is The Great Panjandrum Himself, an illustrated book written by Randolph Caldecott. I regret that I cannot find a date for it but the book itself is full of delightful illustrations like this one and is available through the Gutenberg Press at
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28557/28557-h/28557-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. The terms are that I publish this statement, so that's what I'm doing.
The slate is from the photo Schulbank by Bernd Hutschenreuther at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schulbank.jpg
Miggy wore this dunce hat whilst visiting The Ragged School in East London. The Ragged Schools were charitable organisations which provided free education, clothing, food and lodging for poor children in 19th-century Britain. They were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and Bible study. Around 300,000 children attended ragged schools in London.
The one room schoolhouse is in White Pine Village Marchido School. It was photographed in 2005 in Ludington, Michigan. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WPV_One_room_schoolhouse.jpg
Andre Henri Dargelas (1828-1906) was a French genre painter who was much loved for his playful depictions of children. World Tour (1865), the painting of kids running amok in the classroom and swinging on the world globe, is a delightful example.
Holli has hundreds of vinyl wall adornments which you can use to brighten up your space. The blue school teacher and students decal shows different kinds of classroom behaviour which many of us will recognise www.etsy.com/shop/vinylwalladornments
DiCeY lives in beautiful downtown West Dundee in Illinois. Her shop is Honey Poo Poo's, where she up-cycles vintage treasures to infuse new life, vibrancy and purpose. Honey Poo Poo's sells whimsical and funky, colorful and unique items - everything from hand painted rocking horses and school desks to Fabulous Boot Bling and more. www.etsy.com/shop/honeypoopoos April's pink Princess school desk is sprinkled with fairy dust and feathers. Golly, school desks were never like this at St. Asphyxia's.
William at High School Monster Mini Customs does accessories and furniture for 12 inch dolls. It just so happens that I have a couple of innocent 12 inch dolls around (without naming any names). You can buy the furniture assembled, unassembled, finished, or unfinished. The high school monster couch is a spider web which you can paint any colour you like. www.etsy.com/shop/MonsterMiniCustoms
You may have recognised the luggage waiting to be loaded onto the Hogwarts Express. The destination, of course, is Hogwarts School (not Lord Brassica's school - that was Eton). The train platform at King's Cross station is 9 and 3/4. The photograph was taken by Scott Smith in 2011 at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Islands of Adventure, in Orlando, Florida. - https://www.flickr.com/photos/scottrsmith/9616529429
These kitties certainly look disobedient. In Lord Brassica's day, as he is fond of saying, they would get a clip round the ear. But not so here, where they sit happily on a bench being disobedient. Kitty Disobedience School is just one of many artworks by Diane in Orlando, Florida. She makes all kinds of art - especially cats, dogs and abstracts - at DM Parnell Arts. www.etsy.com/shop/DMParnellArt
This year Dietmar Temps visited some novice monks at a monastery called Vat Sisavangvong in Muang Pak Lay (Paklei) in
The anonymous students in school uniform were photographed at Nanjing educational museum at Nanjing Number 1 Middle School in 2009. The photographer is Graeme Eyre - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gceyre/3741035352
Danny Choo is from London but now lives in Tokyo. He has photographed a lot of Japanese school uniforms, which seem to be quite a thing in Japan. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dannychoo/4409088406 He also has a portal to Japan at www.dannychoo.com/jp If you're interested in Japanese benches, we have them here on Benchsite.
The look alike Harry Potter and friends were photographed in their Hogwarts school uniforms by rmkoske in 2007.
The set of King's Bench Division books was photographed by Greg Smith at https://www.flickr.com/photos/pragmatic/2349042840 Greg lives in Waterloo, Canada and describes himself as a pragmatic radical. He pragmatically photographs Scrabble boards and Toronto, poster and signs, and shops that don't suck.
Gwen in Mantua, Ohio is soooooo vintage. No, make that sewwwwwww vintage. She has vintage photographs well organised in categories so that you can select anything you want in colour or black and white. I chose the four 1960s students for Rawl's exam and there are many, many other photos I could have chosen. It's hard to stop looking. www.etsy.com/shop/gwensewvintage
Tinka is the King charles spaniel sitting on a blue bench. She was photographed by any.user in Westerstede in Germany. https://www.flickr.com/photos/anyuser/959413361
Clemens V. Volgelsang is a communications designer and creative director from Liechtenstein. He photographed the bright red Burger King benches in Zurich. https://www.flickr.com/people/vauvau/
Sitting on History is by Bill Woodrow, 1995 at www.billwoodrow.com I photographed this bench at Cass Sculpture Park in 2009.
In the post-war reconstruction of the Netherlands after the Second World War schoolchildren were taught in a temporary, badly lit classroom, a so called "tinhouse". In the summer it was a hothouse, in winter it was freezingly cold. The photo was taken somewhere in The Netherlands on 14 September 1946. It's from the Netherlands National Archive at https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/3895373807
Schoolgirl into Nurse medical training in Britain 1942 is a photographed from the Ministry of Information's World War collection at the Imperial War Museum on the IWM Non commerical Licence. The image (Imperial War Museum number D8602) is considered Crown Copyright, now expired as the photograph was taken prior to 1 June 1957. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schoolgirl_Into_Nurse-_Medical_Training_in_Britain,_1942_D8602.jpg For some Feelgood Medical Benches, including doctors and nurses, see http://benchsite.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/feelgood-medical-benches-for-world.html
S. Bowen from Connecticut says that at Stean Finds, vintage is their vantage. What does Stean find? Clocks, plates, candle holders, cups, and music boxes like the School Daze desk one. www.etsy.com/shop/SteanFinds
Susan and Gordon are in Ashland, Nebraska where their shop is the wonderfully named Oxbow Creek Exchange. They sell antiques, vintage items, collectibles and curiosities. Glass, furniture, pottery, kitchenalia, tools, toys, jewelry - they've got it all. I recognise the Playskool Nok Out bench from the 1950s/60s. Makes you wonder if this was when we started to ignore bad spelling. www.etsy.com/shop/OxbowCreekExchange
OK, the letter from Annabelle to her teacher does not have very good spelling. But who could doubt her sincerity? Annabelle looks to be very young and her experience of school with Mrs. Zacco seems to have been a very happy one. Let's hope that Annabelle continues to be joyous and grateful for everything her teachers techt her. The photograph of the letter is by Steve Winton, taken in 2011. - https://www.flickr.com/photos/winton/5964386043
If you're a young school student in the industrialised world, you probably take your education for granted. In many countries, however, people are very keen to get educated and would love to have your opportunities. This adult literacy class is for Chad/Darfur refugees at Gaga refugees' camp in Eastern Chad. The camp is located 71 km from the Sudanese border, and was opened in 2005. The class is mixed, although men and women do not sit on the same bench. The photo is from F. Noy at the United Nation's European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection in December 2011. https://www.flickr.com/photos/69583224@N05/8022577966
The child alone in the classroom is in Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/10444484183 The photograph comes from the collection of GIZ in Germany, who is responsible for the secretariat of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA). This photograph is about peepoo bags, which are used in areas where toilets have not been constructed. Peepoo bags are one of the few ways to provide safe sanitation where there is no water, as in Kibera. Another method is urine diversion dehydration toilets (UDDTs) which were photographed by staff members and other contributors to the group and are shown on the Benchsite Short History of Toilet Benches. A photostream showing GIZ's good work is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/
The boy sitting on a bench in the water is Pidahouse, who was a young student in Grade Six when he was photographed by Shawn Ahmed in Bangladesh. https://www.flickr.com/photos/uncultured/4790032704 Pidahouse explained that, although he survived Cyclone Sidr, his school was destroyed. Teachers used the few remaining benches and taught outside in classrooms with no ceiling.The photographer, Shawn, is a Canadian from Toronto.While on scholarship at the University of Notre Dame he was inspired by a speech made by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (author of “The End of Poverty”). That speech inspired him to withdraw from grad school, liquidate his savings, and go to Bangladesh to start what he calls The Uncultured Project. It's not a charity, NGO or anything formal. Shawn feels that the best way to connect to people on the issue of poverty is to make it personal. Shawn's Facebook is uncultured.net and his blog is uncultured.com
The boys moving benches were in Sudan in North Darfur. The new classrooms were sponsored by UNAMID, the United Nations - African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). With 26,000 personnel, UNAMID is the largest peacekeeping mission in existence worldwide. The photo of the boys and the benches is by Albert Gonzalez Farran from UNAMID https://www.flickr.com/photos/unamid-photo/7090446779
The magic of letters was photographed in Livingstonia in Malawi around 1895. It is part of the collection of the International Mission Photography Archive (1860-1960) and it is in the public domain in Europe and the USA because it was registered with the US copyright office before January 1923. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Magic_of_Letters,_Livingstonia%22_Malawi,_ca.1895_(imp-cswc-GB-237-CSWC47-LS3-1-038).jpg
The photo with Mark Twain reading a book was taken at Walter's Ferry on the Snake River in Idaho many years ago. Pat McDonald from Boise photographed his cousin Gerhard from Germany, who appears to be trying to persuade Twain to put down his book. If it's Huckleberry Finn, no wonder he wants to keep reading. Cleo's Ferry Museum is a sculpture park in Melba, Idaho, and from all accounts, it's a gem of a place. http://www.yelp.com/biz/cleos-ferry-museum-melba Many thanks to Pat for making me aware of it.
Tim Lauer is principal of Lewis Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. He took this picture of a school literacy enrichment message in 2010. https://www.flickr.com/photos/timlauer/4711623321
The Oxford bench was photographed by Stephanie Byron, who is from Iowa. I don't know if she was actually in Oxford at the time, or maybe even another place called Oxford, other than the well-known university one. Her shop is Red Hedge Photos, which sells simple, beautiful, and unique products inspired by nature. There are floral prints, animals, textures, objects, letters and all kinds of prints to add a dash of cheerful inspiration to everyday life. www.etsy.com/shop/RedHedgePhotos
The two little boys were in the craft room at Daven, photographed by Philip Howard at - https://www.flickr.com/photos/22326055@N06/3576434535 This is one of those photostreams full of fascinating photos that tell a life story. Starting in London in 1957, it's a story of a life in care. http://www.theirhistory.co.uk/
The skeletons waiting for their exam results are from the Bundes archive Bild in Berlin's Arbeitsschitz Museum in 1931. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-11038,_Berlin,_Arbeitsschutz-Museum.jpg
It used to be common to bring an apple for the teacher. Hash Milhan is a digital creative in London but he originally came from Sri Lanka. He took the lovely photo of the apple on a bench at Pettah in Colombo Sri Lanka. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hashir/2089106143
The American school bus bus stop is in Athens, Georgia. It regularly appears in all kinds of lists about best bus stops and indeed appeared as one of Benchsite's brilliant Bus Stop benches. It's by sculptor Christopher Fennell who kindly gave permission for me to use it. Chris's website is at www.cfennell.com
The wonderful Wednesday in Easter Bunny School was photographed by Markus Reinhardt, a software engineer from Forchheim in Germany. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tuxxilla/ It uses the blurring Bokah technique in photography; apparently egg bokah is quite popular as a way of creating an abstract image. The image appeared previously on Benchsite for the Easter rabbit story.
The Topless Traffic School bench in LA was photographed by Tom, who lives at Big Bear Lake in California. Makes you wonder whether a topless traffic school is really a good way to learn how to drive safely. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomspixels/2561812485
The handprints bench is in Kelletts School in Hong Kong, photographed by David Woo. David is a research student from New Jersey, currently living in Cambridge. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mckln/5455746792
The incredibly glamorous teacher fancied by Lord Brassica is The Diva, who appeared at The Rouge opening party in 2008. Looks like the Rouge might be a nightclub or perhaps even some other kind of place Lord B might like to frequent. The photo is by Jessyka Richard, who has flickred her second life at https://www.flickr.com/photos/jessykarichard/2655226640
https://www.flickr.com/photos/technokitten/169781579
The oak book benches were made for Clarkston Primary School in North Lanarkshire in 2010. They were photographed by Justin Wilson whose website is at www.justinillusions.com
Oh, I love this young teacher's dirty look! She makes the disapproving rabbits look . . . well, approving. Her father photographed her in these wood shop safety glasses. - https://www.flickr.com/photos/clarkmaxwell/8523342832
Phossil says he's the kind of person who doesn't like talking about his likes and dislikes. His dreams for the future are none of your business. And the only thing I know about Phossil is that he currently lives in Guatemala, has lots of hobbies, and an eye for school uniforms. See www.animoe.net and Phossil's Flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/phossil/7767471606
The words from Alice Cooper's famous song were on the window of Eatz 'n Treatz in Melbourne in 2010. Someone called Smith Street, Collingwood happened to be there to take the photo.
May 10, 2014 was my very last day of teaching after 25 years. I snapped these corridor benches outside my classroom on the way out.
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