"Complex meanings and conventions can be passed along generations of schoolboys while largely evading adult intervention and almost regardless of what changes are taking place in the adult world."
It's interesting how many barbaric rituals happen in the pressure-cooker environment of schools, passed on through the years, and conveniently forgotten by those who have left and become adults. Whether it's "fagging" at Eton, primary-school homophobia, fraternity hazing in U.S. universities or aggressive Columbine-style "jock culture", it's like most adults tune it out, deemphasising how cruel and savage children are, or writing it off as a necessary fact of life or character-building initiation into adulthood.