# Lockers in school corridors... TV trope **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 12, 2024, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547 "2024-12-12T10:29:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/181 "2024-12-15T16:32:37Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I always wondered what was “overhead” about overhead projectors. The periscope lens was overhead ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/182 "2024-12-15T16:48:18Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > The periscope lens was overhead But over _whose_ head? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/183 "2024-12-15T16:59:58Z")
I’ve always thought that the name referred to the image that is projected over everybody’s heads. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/184 "2024-12-15T17:18:53Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > the tv shows shot at schools in LA that were open air I think that in the television show _Glee_, set in Lima, Ohio, they had lockers in corridors that were between buildings, so the lockers were open air. I grew up twenty-five miles from Lima, so that and various other things in the show convinced me that the creators of the show knew nothing about the area around Lima. There are days in middle of winter when no one would want to go outside between each class. I concluded that the creators of the show had never been outside of southern California in their life. They just randomly picked Lima as the place to set the show. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/185 "2024-12-15T22:13:02Z")
To summarise, it appreas the main reason that these lockers exist is: - these schools are in very cold parts of the world where a lot of warm clothes are needed travelling to and from school - minimise carrying heavy text books to and from school I think that is the gist of it? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/186 "2024-12-15T22:19:32Z")
> [@antechinus](#): > > I think that is the gist of it? Also, it appears that: - With many schools increasingly going to digital textbooks and coursework, school lockers appear to be becoming less common, even in areas/schools where they used to be used. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/187 "2024-12-15T23:30:12Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Not necessarily an idiocy. My father was a college professor who used chalk until he developed an allergy to it. It’s been decades, so I don’t know what the exact problem was, but Googling, some people get contact dermatitis from the metals in the chalk or asthma symptoms due to chalk dust. Yep. A friend of mine tried writing on the board with gloves on, but that just looks weird, so finally he set up an overhead projector and wrote on blank acetate transparencies with markers for his lectures. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/188 "2024-12-15T23:42:32Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > In my school, in the 80s, we still had a smoking area outside. Yep. When I started at my school, my current classroom was at a location known as “Smoker’s Hill.” Just a small hill that everyone would smoke behind, so Admin. didn’t have to look at or take notice of them. Bulldozed flat as part of campus expansion in 1994. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/189 "2024-12-15T23:47:17Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > When I started at my school, my current classroom was at a location known as “Smoker’s Hill.” Just a small hill that everyone would smoke behind, so Admin. didn’t have to look at or take notice of them. At my high school (early '80s), the informally-designated smoking spot was on a small rise at the edge of the school property, which was called, by everyone, “Butt Hill.” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/190 "2024-12-15T23:49:00Z")
At the college I attended (1984-88), overhead projectors were used for lectures, though the professors wrote on a roll of acetate rather than individual sheets. One advantage is that the professor could write facing the students while the image was projected behind them, unlike a blackboard, where you’re writing facing away from the students. (I used to wonder whose job it was to go around to the classrooms and wipe all of those acetate rolls clean.) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/191 "2024-12-16T01:06:04Z")
Japanese and Taiwanese schools also have the classes stay and the teachers move, with special classrooms for science and such. Coming from Salt Lake City, I was surprised to see that Taiwan schools had corridors outside because that’s impossible where it gets cold in the winter. We had lockers in junior high and high school. They changed our system to put 9th graders into high school the year I was in 8th grade and the 9th graders got the crappy lockers on the lower level. Fortunately my sister was in 12th grade and let me share her locker. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/192 "2024-12-16T01:15:06Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > > > The periscope lens was overhead > > But over _whose_ head? The lens is overhead of the flat surface the transparencies lay on. In context, it just means “above the main part of the machine”. See also “overhead cam engine.” There used to be a much bulkier version called an “opaque projector”. The lens system was integral to the main case of the (comparatively ginormous) machine. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/193 "2024-12-16T01:56:34Z")
Belco, 77-80 ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/194 "2024-12-16T03:32:45Z")
Is anyone familiar with this “Arctic Fox” school backpack? [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/K%C3%A5nken.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/K%C3%A5nken.jpg) Wikipedia says it was introduced in 1977 as supposedly more ergonomic for kids carrying textbooks to and from school. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/195 "2024-12-16T12:33:25Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > There used to be a much bulkier version called an “opaque projector”. The lens system was integral to the main case of the (comparatively ginormous) machine. Opaque projectors, in my experience, are _less_ bulky than your standard overhead projector. I built one as a kid. (I still have it, and it still works). The major drawback is that you need to flood your opaque picture with a lot of light in order to get a decently bright image, and this tends to fade your original quickly. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/196 "2024-12-16T16:15:24Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > Richard Feynman recounts his days of learning to lockpick during the manhattan project - those combination locks were acurate to +/-1 number, so a file cabinet dial with 30 numbers had 15 choices. That would be 10 choices, since (for instance) if you turn it to 12, that stands in for 11 and 13 as well as itself. And from Feynman’s example in _SYJ_ (p.122 in the Bantam paperback), it’s clear that that’s what he saw: in that example, the wheel had 100 numbers, but the lock was accurate to +/-2, so you could divide by 5 to get the numbers you had to try. Which he did. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/197 "2024-12-16T16:39:47Z")
> [@antechinus](#): > > these schools are in very cold parts of the world where a lot of warm clothes are needed travelling to and from school Or in places where it rains, so raincoats can be stowed somewhere where they won’t drip on books, papers, &c. Smokers at the high school where I spent the most time went across the street to the 7-11. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/198 "2024-12-16T16:46:46Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > If you want, you, too, can gave your own school lockers. Line a hallway at home with them. _Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!l!!!l!!!l!!!_ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/199 "2024-12-16T16:54:17Z")
“Found stuffed in a wall locker in his home by his cats” is not a headline I want to be a part of. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547/200 "2024-12-16T17:13:56Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Smokers at the high school where I spent the most time went across the street to the 7-11. Our smokers were traditionalists - they smoked in the boys’ room, just like [the song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK-hzAyTgn0). The boys’ bathrooms were usually filled with a haze of smoke, and you only went there if you really really had to. Can’t speak to what the girls’ bathrooms were like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lockers-in-school-corridors-tv-trope/1011547.md?page=11)