Pyromancer wrote:
> How common is cycle training at schools these days?
IME more common nowadays than it was in "our" time (having read your website
and looked at your taste in music I am assuming you are in your mid 20s to
mid 30s although ICBW) Not being a dad I am unsure when the cycling
proficiency tests started again but I think it was very recently in some
areas perhaps the late 90s...
Our generation do not remember them (apart from maybe primary school) as
they seem to have disappeared from about 1984 onwards (as did cycling to
school) for a variety of reasons.
The teachers' strike meant staff (understandably) withdrew the goodwill
which encouraged teachers to supervise classes in their spare time; the
bobbies got landed with new rules, extra paperwork and an increase in public
disorder meant *they* also didn't have the time to help with the proficiency
tests; and the paranoia over health and safety liabilities/schools getting
sued for out of class activities started.
Also (I lived in Reading at the time) a lady called Angie Lee attended my
secondary school and went on about how you *must* wear these h*lm*ts when
cycling or you will injure yourself etc if you fall off.
She also kept on at our Headmaster, and one day they insisted anyone cycling
to school must produce a h*lm*t and a signed letter from parents and sign
some sort of disclaimer form. (I didn't even own a bike then as my parents
had also read the local paper where Angie Lee was also contributing and
decided from this that cycling was too dangerous for me!)
In 1985 lids were those solid Bell types and the height of uncool - but if
you didn't have one you got in trouble/detentions etc. Shortly afterwards
all the people I know who used to cycle to school stopped, and our bike
sheds ended their days as merely being places to experiment with tobacco and
(later) marijuana smoking. A great improvement to kids' health (not).
Alex
--
Mr R@T / General Lighting
Ipswich, Suffolk, Untied Kingdom
http://www.partyvibe.com