“Most schools used to call it Muck Up Day, but we saw that as being something negative.”
So said year 12 co-ordinator Annette Hall of Presbyterian Ladies' College – one of many schools who have changed the name given to end of year festivities for graduating students to “Celebration Day”.
Negative? Muck Up Day? What school did you go to, Annette Hall? What kind of young person were you?
I remember looking forward to Muck Up Day from the moment I entered Year 7 (then called 1st form). Far from being negative, it was a major incentive keeping kids at school (now called with typical modern-day pomposity, student retention).
After 13 years of the frantically increasing pressure that now characterises what passes for our education system (if only passes were all that were required) is it any surprise some students might actually feel like mucking up? But all the control-freaks like Ms Hall will allow is an appropriately decorous “celebration”.
Personally, I suspect the exam bound (and shackled) Presbyterian ladies would probably benefit from an anarchic blow out more than most.
Every time I look at school age kids today – from the poor little 5 year old mite in the uniform of an expensive boys private school whose backpack was so heavy he couldn’t actually lift it off the ground to the weary kids, trombone under arm, trudging home late from one of their myriad of after school activities – the more grateful I am that I went to school in the laid back 70s.
Our Muck Up Day, I am proud to say, was awesome – even though we didn’t use that word back then. It was the stuff of legend. Our disruptive achievements on the teacher vs student battlefield are still related in the hushed tones reserved for the truly heroic – at least by those of us who were there.
It started with an all night scavenger hunt, where the entire 6th form (Year 12 as it would be called now) – including one David Koch – split up into various carloads and roamed a sleeping, unsuspecting Sydney, looking for ways to wreak havoc and impress our friends.
My carload thought we were in with a hell of a chance of gaining top honours. Along with the usual booty of street signs with teacher’s names on them and various other bits of amusing junk, one of our number – a normally recessive and well-behaved young man named Paul – suddenly developed super human strength and nerves of steel.
Passing HMAS Kuttabul on Macleay St on our way to (where else) The Cross, he suddenly yelled at the driver to stop the car. Before we had fully come to a halt, Paul had launched himself from the vehicle and wrenched the decorative life buoy bearing the legendary ship’s name from the wall next to a guardhouse and borne it in triumph back to our vehicle (somebody’s Mum’s Mitsubishi Colt).
Pumped with our first triumph, we searched for even bigger fish to fry.
In 1974, the hottest teen radio station in Sydney was 2SM. At 4am, we parked outside the station and pushed the buttons on the after hours intercom, not really expecting anyone to answer.
But they did.
“Who’s there?” “We’re the Class of 74 out on our pre-Muck Up Day scavenger hunt,” we yelled back, probably not quite as coherently as that. “Cool!” said the voice, and pressed the buzzer that opened the door, “Come on up.”
Once inside the only two staff members on the premises – a producer and a DJ – cooked up a plan whereby we were going to “spontaneously” burst yelling into the studio and kidnap the DJ. It was late, they were bored and we were thrilled with the idea that our audacity would be broadcast.
The kidnap went well as it usually does when you have the full co-operation of the victim. When we finally emerged into the dawn, a few other carloads of students – tuned in as we had known they would be to 2SM – had gathered at the door. We were the heroes of the hour… for about an hour.
When we arrived at the school, we found the place already crawling with police. We hid HMAS Kuttabul quickly and poor old Paul went a bit ashen. But it turned out it wasn’t such small beer they were after.
Another group of Class of 74 scavengers had pulled up outside Government House and one of the boys had scaled the roof and stolen the flag from the flagpole.
It made the papers. It also resulted in a full-scale overhaul of security at Government House. I can’t tell you how proud we were. And although our teachers tried to look cross, I think they were fairly impressed as well.
No real harm was done. All the “borrowed” items were returned, and we had a wonderful, exciting and subversive time.
We didn’t drink any alcohol on Muck Up Day at all, as I recall, though we definitely smoked a few Alpines (shudder). And we settled down to doing our exams a couple of weeks later with a sense of having blown off some steam.
Today’s Year 12s are much more controlled and restricted than we ever were. School achievement is taken much more seriously today than our parents ever took it, and the HSC exams, never pleasant, are now a kafkaesque nightmare.
A litigious society, helicopter parents, a punitive press hungry for shock/horror headlines about schools have all combined to make schools much more nervous and defensive than they ever were in the 70s.
Indeed, I suspect given the generally rebellious and anti-authoritarian mood of the times, our teachers secretly approved of our desire to disrupt things a bit and break a few rules. How times have changed. Conformity and obedience is everything these days.
Trouble is, the need for young people to muck up at the end of 13 years of what is an increasingly miserable and high pressure education has not gone away. If anything, it has ramped up. Hence, perhaps, the advent of Schoolies, a much more dangerous, week long, disruptive drug and alcohol-fuelled bacchanalia than our late lamented Muck Up Day.
terry lockwood
maths teacher
All true Jane but as with any activities where succeeding generations try to top the previous, things get out of hand. Trashing schools and being drunk does get a little naff after a while. These days many kids do find creative and touching ways to mark their departures. These don't make the trashy tabloids so they may have escaped your attention.
Best not to get all misty-eyed about the 'glory days'. And why the focus on PLC anyway. These corporate colleges get much too attention anyway. Our school has traditionally invited the the Year 12 into the staff room for morning tea on the last day for twenty years or more. It is a celebration. There are moments of lasting beauty that we all cherish.
Kate Smart
Teacher
Jane, I love just about everything you do but I have to agree with Terry here. Rose coloured glasses are wonderful but alas, this is no longer the 1970s. I work in a state school in Melbourne's outer North/West and we have a fantastic Celebration Day. We cook the kids breakfast, they dress up, their teachers come and mingle with them and they parade around at recess for the younger kids to see. You're right though, kids from yr 7 do look forward to their last day and to dressing up and having fun…
Read moreJim KABLE
teacher
Jane
With heart and feeling you put your finger on the nub of the matter. Young people yet again being corralled into decorous behaviour - when the need for some kind of release is so evident - in our society. And behind all the hi-jinks almost always a gift left to the school to commemorate their presence anyway. Far better the odd "kidnap" or 'liberated' street sign - or a popular teacher's house or car decorated with loo paper - than the true dangers and fleecing nature of the oddity called…
Read moreBernie lloyd
Teacher
Sorry to disagree, Jane, but as an Assistant Principal at a big high school in Melbourne the muck up day is well and truly gone. It's never funny to be hit by eggs, squirted with fish sauce, covered in flour etc. We have dress-ups, breakfasts, concerts and more formal events but we want our kids to show the school people and grounds respect as our partnership ends and they move off to the rest of their lives.
Mike Swinbourne
logged in via Facebook
Sorry to disagree Bernie, but it sounds like you are part of the problem.
It IS hilarious to be hit by eggs, squirted with fish sauce and covered in flour etc. You just need to have a sense of humour and get a bit of perspective.
And it is even funnier to hit some pompous assistant principal of a big high school in Melbourne with eggs etc. It is not always about what you want you know.
Nick Osbaldiston
Lecturer in Sociology, Monash University at Monash University
It's good to see teachers and principles commenting here in this space. I think the 'on-the-ground' experiences of those who engage with students daily are important to understand in the context of this article. I think that they've already made some quality points that ought to be taken seriously and maybe there is a bit of rose-coloured glasses on the past going on. But moreso Jane I can't help but ask the question of where this article emerges from in relation to your own area of expertise/research?
Jim KABLE
teacher
It IS good that all these responses are from teachers, Nick. A range of opinions from the "Go for it" to the more cautious "Celebrations" - all with valid perspectives. Pause for reflection on changing cultural perspectives. As a young teacher at Hay War Memorial HS in 1971 - my first appointment - I remember as the successful House Patron of 'Bidgee House at the Swimming Carnival being thrown into the pool for my exhortatory pains throughout the day! An affirmation of approval! But I wonder what the attitude to that might be nowadays - Lack of respect for the staff member? Forty Lashes for the miscreants (Just joking.) I spent most of the two decades from 1990 to 2009 in western Japan (teaching - middle school to university level) and I can sense a creeping "accountability" and - as Jane suggests - litigious response to accidents/untoward occurrences has driven the caution!
Philip Dowling
IT teacher
Nick, Principles follow their principals no doubt.
But Nick do you think that litterasy is immportant?
Heidi Stabb
Librarian
As a year 7 student in 1991, I was so terrified by the year 12's actions on muck up day (which involed a lot of permanent vandalism and harrasment of younger students that year), that in years 8 and 9 I convinced my mother to let me stay home. Nor did I attend my own "muck up day", arriving at school just on 9am which unfortunately meant that I was required to help clean up a great deal of mess that I had no part in creating. By that stage it had been made clear that verbal and physical harrasment of other students was unacceptable, but as far as I was concerned, it only took once for the damage to be done.
Ross Holding
Agricultural Research Consultant
Jane, couldn't disagree more. I think you may be suffering from too many media engagements of late as once you were very erudite. However, just recently I have found much of your commentary way off mark.
Similiar here. I have just returned from a Y12 Valedictory assembly as a parent guest and witnessed a very emotional gathering with some great reverence. It would have been spoiled if the previous day's Celebration day had gone off the rails. The students still had a great time with dress ups etc on Celebration day without all the idiot behaviour and still let off some steam
There's no doubt "Muck up day" in general got out of control particularly in the 2000's with incidences of minor vandalism, theft etc.
I think leave all that to a past era- time to move on.
Zoe Brain
logged in via Facebook
1975,, with a constitutional crisis looming, inflation at 18%, employment prospects grim... we basically didn't have one.
The teaching staff got increasingly nervous, as nothing happened, a school day like any other - just happened to be the last. The tension was palpable. Waiting for the other boot to drop, certain that there must be something truly cataclysmic planned,something that would out-do the notorious happenings of 1974.
Nope. Not even a damp squib.
I think the staff were, in some ways, disappointed. Feeling that they'd maybe gone too far, with the dire warnings that had been given over the last month. a tradition had died... or at least, hibernated that year.
Whatever. We had rather larger worries.
Leonie Khoury
Student
I just finished Year 12 this year (yay) and I totally agree with you Jane. Beyond the bias, 'muck up day' is constantly perceived negatively thanks to exaggerated media attention. I truly think that if it didnt carry such a negative connotation, it wouldn't be half as bad. For example, at my school we were told that we were allowed 'measured fun' and through building a trust with the students, they effectively avoided crazy acts involving property damage. We had a great day, running a 'muck' being psycho (measuredly), releasing the frustrations we had built up over thirteen years of conformity. It is only when we are denied this rite of passage that things go pear shaped. And don't get me wrong, I understand the dangers involved with such occasions, set out reasonable rules - just don't kill the joys of finishing school! Jeez, for the children!
Jennifer Raper
Mrs
In the 70's, it was very tense as the last day approached, so the staff, together with the school captains decided a breakfast, a 'roasting' ( kindly) of the yesr 12 staff to entertain the other students and a bus ride out of town for a day of letting off steam on the beach, in a forest or similar.
This worked quite well and everybody had a good time. It is an emotional time for both students AND teachers and as such needs to be tailored to the culture of both. One size does not fit all!
In Copenhagen, in 1982, I experienced their tradition of giving all final year students a special hate with year printed on it. They were carried through the CBD on brewery wagons, which were decorsted with hay bales and flowers
Lynne Newington
Lynne Newington is a Friend of The Conversation.
Researcher
I believe it's a little more about the practice of self restraint, if the message is there to muck-up under certain conditions psychologically the seed's been planted for other emotional outbursts, some destuctive.
I recall when a standing ovation was what it says, a standing ovation, these day's it's whooping at the top of the voice, (not good for the vocal cords), and anything goes.
There are many ways to celebrate an occasion than "mucking up" and some of the examples given I wouldn't care for.
I'm with Annette Hall on this.
Philip Dowling
IT teacher
Poor old Jane has the rose-coloured glasses on again.
Read moreMuck-up days antics kept escalating. Too many parents found that their children didn;t sit for their HSC exams, as they were in hospital or in the morgue.
Poor old Jane doesn't let the facts get in the way of her interpretation of reality. She thinks that if she keeps saying that the world is as she wants it to be that it will be.
It would be useful if Jane could grow up... sometime.
http://www.tacsafety.com.au/jsp/content/NavigationController…
Philip Dowling
IT teacher
The Stupid Country:
How Australia Is Dismantling Public Education
is one of Jane's more intellectually feeble efforts.
In it she and Chris Bonnor show a startling ability to ignore reality that choosing one's postcode in NSW consigns one's children to a highly variable standard of education. They argue that for the greater good one should children to schools that place them at risk and low educational achievement.
Linus Bowden
management consultant
I thought this site was created to give scholars a forum to share their scholarship with a broader audience? Who next? Eddie McGuire? Sonia Kruger? Humphrey Bear?
Jane, perhaps your next article can whinge about the price of choc-tops at the "pictures"? How much better it was in your day dear, when you paid for the tram, a movie, and the jaffas to roll down the aisle, and all for two and six, eh?
Jim KABLE
teacher
Philip and Linus - why the patronising tone - just deal with your particular viewpoint!
Presby pride
class of 2012
Jane you have absolutely no weight behind those harsh comments, sounds like you just found a quote, chucked it in and bagged PLC. Mrs Hall is in fact highly respected and much loved by the year 12's of last year, and it is a lot more than one person and one school that has changed views on muck up day.