How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
WILLIE. Okay. Help me.
SAM. (His turn to hold an imaginary partner) Look and learn. Feet together. Back straight. body relaxed. Right hand placed gently in the small of her back and wait for the music. Don't start worrying about making mistakes or the judges or the other competitors. It's just you, Hilda and the music, and you're going to have a good time. (171-178)
Willie and Sam show that education doesn't always have to do with book learning. Sam transmits his knowledge to Willie through movement, by showing him how to get down on the dance floor; we have a feeling that Master Harold wouldn't consider that to be education at all.
Quote #2
HALLY. (Examining the comics) Jungle Jim…Batman and Robin…Tarzan…God, what rubbish! Mental pollution. Take them away. (261-263)
Hey, who said that comics weren't educational? Apparently Hally doesn't see the finer points of graphic novels. He thinks that they're garbage; kinda ironic that they're for his dad, and he, the teenager, is the one wishing for more sophisticated material. Role reversal or snobbery? We report, you decide.
Quote #3
HALLY. [. . .] So, six of the best, and his are bloody good.
[…] SAM. With your trousers down!
HALLY. No. He's not quite that barbaric.
SAM. That's the way they do it in jail. (363-369)
"Six of the best," for those of you uninitiated into the finer points of corporal punishment, means six lashes, strokes, swats, spankings…get the picture? Hally's teacher is a champion student-beater. Next time you get detention you might be grateful that you aren't one of his classmates. Some of our Shmoop elders remember the "Board of Education"—the paddle used by the Vice-Principal to keep students in line back in the day.