Shallow Thinkers
 

hi,
do you remember in the 60's in school when we were told to hide under our desks in case of a nuclear bomb attack, dah!

The same instruction is given to school children if there is a shooter on the premises

Have we not learned anything in 60 years?

I had not heard that. What I saw was that teachers and others should do what they can to protect the kids. Block doors with things as well as windows, etc.

Robocop is never around when you need him.

I’m not biting ….

I'll wait for Shallow Thinkers 2

If you respond (you did), then, at the very least, you nibbled. 😀

Better have fun now, because there might not be a sequel.
😌

Great concept.......................How shallow can we go.

Let your imagination be your gauge. ☺

Time for elevensies. Coffee, Apple turnover and some britcoms.

Growing up in Hawaii, at school we had sirens go off at the beginning of each month. Lasted about 30 seconds. Whenever I watched the Time Machine I got flashbacks and would dive under a desk.

Well, I remember being told to wear cloth masks and not touch anything to avoid C-19 when it was known that this did not and does not stop C-19 transmission.

So to answer the OP, no we have learned nothing.

Shallow
 

It was cool when doctors endorsed Chesterfields in magazine ads.

Is either instruction incorrect or harmful?

Blast effects from any bomb attack could include flying debris and glass shattering. Duck and cover under a desk provides at least a little protection against both of those and is much better than standing in front of a window to see what is happening.

In the case of a shooter in a school, hiding under a desk (or hiding anywhere) is better than making yourself a target by standing in a doorway or hall.

If the blast is close enough or the shooter is standing over you then nothing is going to help. If it isn't close or the shooter isn't in the same room then it just might.

But no, human behavior hasn't changed much in 60 years.

Or Lucky Strike.

Other than vilifying an invisible enemy and an occasional scrape or splinter, there was no harm done in hiding under our desks. We even changed the Pledge of Allegiance to reinforce “us-versus-them” attitudes, even though Francis Bellamy, creator of the original Pledge, was probably spinning in his grave. But there were no mass school shootings back in the 1950s, when all this was going on.

Today—exaggerating, I realize—it’s practically become ‘mass shooting du jour’—not only in schools. Perhaps we need to look at what has changed in our world, both in attitudes and availability of weaponry that make hiding under our desks in the 1950s, well, child’s play. I agree with the poster who pointed out the potential benefit, though possibly remote, of a child being safer during a school mass shooting less visible under a desk rather than sitting at it or standing in the classroom or trying to run.

As an aside, the history of Francis Bellamy and his Pledge of Allegiance is interesting. Here’s a link from the Smithsonian about it:

Attention Required! | Cloudflare

I graduated in the early 60's so don't recall the hiding under desks. When I first heard it I wondered at the wisdom of that....thinking about "IF" an automic bomb went off near-by wouldn't folks be incinerated??? What kind of protection would be offered?? When we lived in the upper midwest I worked for a time in the public schools. One afternoon we were told to go to a center hallway of the building as a tornado was headed our way. Herding a bunch of elementary kids and getting them situated is a bit like herding cats. Anyway, we did our job only to have the principal announce---"the danger is past, go back to your classrooms!" We'd have been injured or killed by the time a twister might have gone over-head but guess it's better to prepare or be sued by angry parents.

The reality is, masks do work. Read this from the mayo clinic. Sadly, we have taken a giant step backwards regarding gun control.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-...k/art-20485449

& smoking lounges in hospitals :shocked: LOL

Oh stop complaining. As I recall under the desks was a great place to meet girls ! !

Well I started grade school in 1948. WWII had just ended with a bang...make that two big bangs. The Iron Curtain went up and the Cold War was on. I remember we had bomb drills at school and we got under our desks; we had fire drills where we marched out of the building in orderly fashion. . Edward Teller and others were developing the H bomb; there was a nuclear weapons race with the USSR.

No mass school shootings back then that I can recall.

[QUOTE=fdpaq0580;2137142]If you respond (you did), then, at the very least, you nibbled. 😀[/QUOTE. Now that’s funny!!

Good info. Scientists made recommendations based on best data at the time and regularly reviewed and updated as we learned more about the virus. And subsequent variations of the virus may have different characteristics and require different behavior. Now I believe they are saying that a good fitting N95 mask, used properly, is very effective, cloth masks not so much.

Yes, we were told to hide under the desk with our hands over our heads. If they did that today, the kids would need therapy.

:agree::pray:

The fact is we learn as we go, and when we look back, we realize our mistakes.
I still hide under my desk when I hear thunder.

And I hide under the bed when my wife discovers I ate the cookies she baked for company. 😦

Guns were far, far more available prior to the gun control act of 1968. There were sales ads for guns of all descriptions in many magazines. You filled out the order slip, enclosed a money order or check and mailed it out. A few days later your friendly postal worker would deliver it right to your doorstep. No background check, no identification required. What has changed? If you don't know the answer, I'm not going to waste my time and effort to explain it.

I remember in 1964 buying by mail order an old beat up Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, the type used to assassinate JFK. It cost me either $17 or $23. I can't remember which. I stored it and never used it.

Idk, but
 

what about those rubber door jambs.
A few in every room would make entry diddicult

Your link only cites old CDC data. Data that they've since backed off from...

To your 2nd point... Another topic for another day...

Masks may have some benefits. Of course some are better than others and masks are still required last time I went into doctors building last week. Surgeons wear them while performing surgery. People are still getting Covid and some are dying. IMHO vaccines are best for protection but nothing is 100% guarantee.

Good post
 

Good post. I didn’t have to get under a desk as the OP originally suggested was the practice in those days. Getting under your desk was a good practice for an advancing tornado but for a nuclear bomb not so much. When you think
about it, nothing was gained but then nothing was lost either by the practice.

So have you actually been through the instructions given to teachers, staff and students. I have and that’s not what they are told.

what are they told? enlighten

Same thing back in Southern Minnesota. The tornado sirens were tested the first Wednesday of every month at 1:00 PM sharp.

I didn't know where the town siren was located until one day I rode past it on my motorcycle when it kicked in. Sound that loud has some funny effects: I was disoriented and dizzy, and for a couple of moments I couldn't remember where I was going. Fortunately the road had a wide shoulder; I pulled over and let the effects wear off. Took maybe a couple of minutes.

I remember those days. The NRA magazine "American Rifleman" used to regularly run ads selling surplus military rifles. Even by the standards of the day they were ridiculously cheap. Dad ordered a couple of (I believe) 30:06 Springfield rifles which arrived packed in cosmoline. Dad was an amateur gunsmith so he sporterized them: looked pretty good as I remember.

Funny--we feared The Bomb back then but not each other.

I just retired from education. The standard practice for a shooter in the building was to hide out of view from the locked door's small window and close all the window shades. We would go to a safe corner of the room. If you were in the halls, you would get students into bathrooms and classrooms immediately and if in the cafeteria all students into the kitchen area. If there was a potential threat outside the building or the surrounding community, all window shades closed, all doors locked, and none can leave or enter the building. No hiding under desks!