I hope I played my role in the softening of both the prefecture and the cool crowd. But I don’t kid myself . Life outside those elites , could be pretty nasty , brutish and short . My status , like Steve’s size bought me safety . Not very satisfactory , but then in other similar schools boys were still beating each other in the name of discipline, or fags warming toilet seats for their elders and betters. At least that had gone for us .
This is respect is it ?
I must say that when in the sixth form we had joint biology taught in the girls school, I found the atmosphere in those lessons far more egalitarian and congenial. But bullying there was beneath the surface, and currents and eddies can run deep. Bullying with not a mark to be seen , and that is what today dominates many many schools . Just like mine in the past , they generally ignore it .