Modern education
"Angus Solomon," sighed Ms Lowry. "Is that a penis you've drawn in your exercise book?"

Angus jumped, startled, and remembered where he was.

Ms Lowry was standing next to his desk, staring down at the page. Other kids were sniggering.

Angus felt his mouth go dry and his heart speed up. For a second he thought about lying. He decided no to.

"No, miss," he admitted, "it's a submarine."

"Ms Lowry nodded grimly. "I thought as much," she said. "Now stop wasting time and draw a penis like I asked you to." She pointed to the one she'd drawn on the blackboard.

Morris Gleitzman Bumface (1999)

Losers are for Americans
It is not until 1955 that the Oxford English Dictionary records the first British use of "loser" to mean an unsuccessful or incompetent person, a failure in life. This notion that there is a whole category of people who are doomed to flop in all significant departments of existence was originally American.

Over here we would once have felt it indecent to brand people in this way. Not any more.

Ferdinand Mount Mind the Gap (2004)