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School Signs International
Today I passed a sign near a primary school, warning drivers to watch out for children. It looked like this, as such signs have for as long as I can remember (perhaps with a couple of minor tweaks):
I suddenly realised that all my life I'd read this sign as showing a little brother being taken to school by his elder sister. Now, I was suddenly filled with doubt. Could the female figure be the mother? I suppose my instinctive reasoning was that she doesn't seem that much bigger than the child. If it's her son, he'd be a bit too big to need his hand held, perhaps. But how do you read it?
This of course got me looking at the international picture. My hasty Google search showed that the UK was an exception: in most countries, it's the male in charge - either leading or guiding a smaller female from behind in the general direction of learning, sometimes at pace, sometimes slowly, occasionally through the medium of jazz dance:
In a few countries, though, there are no females at all. Indeed, the person ar the school-adjacent crossing in France may not even be a child:
Feel free to add your own images to this little gallery - and, even more welcome, your sententious conclusions!
I suddenly realised that all my life I'd read this sign as showing a little brother being taken to school by his elder sister. Now, I was suddenly filled with doubt. Could the female figure be the mother? I suppose my instinctive reasoning was that she doesn't seem that much bigger than the child. If it's her son, he'd be a bit too big to need his hand held, perhaps. But how do you read it?
This of course got me looking at the international picture. My hasty Google search showed that the UK was an exception: in most countries, it's the male in charge - either leading or guiding a smaller female from behind in the general direction of learning, sometimes at pace, sometimes slowly, occasionally through the medium of jazz dance:
In a few countries, though, there are no females at all. Indeed, the person ar the school-adjacent crossing in France may not even be a child:
Feel free to add your own images to this little gallery - and, even more welcome, your sententious conclusions!