[Ads-l] "go to school on"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is some information about the phrase "go to school on" from a
glossary of golf terms. Further below are citations in 1962 and 1967
(GB date).

Website: leaderboard.com
Website description: Gold statistics and information from StatMasters (sm)
Date: Unknown
http://leaderboard.com/GLOSSARY_GOTOSCHOOL

[Begin excerpt]
GO TO SCHOOL

To "go to school" on a putt means that one competitor gets to watch
how another ball on the same line will roll towards the cup.

Here's how the situation arises...

Player A's ball lands upon the green about 12 feet away from the hole.

Player B's ball lands upon the green and stops about 10 feet away from
the hole. But not just anywhere. It stops at a position "inside" the
ball of Player A.

By "inside", we mean that (when putted towards the hole) the ball of
Player A will roll on a path that takes it very close to the ball of
Player B.
[End excerpt]

 (See more of the definition above by visiting the website.)

Below is an instance of "go to school on" in a golf context. The use
includes wordplay using "church", the name of a golfer. But the sense
does not quite correspond to "to learn from".

Date: December 9, 1962
Newspaper: Independent Star-News
Newspaper location: Pasadena, California)
Article: Tee Talk: Junior Tourney Dec. 27
Article author: Don Johnson
Quote Page: A-5 (Database says 40)
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
LYNN CHURCH of West Covina's South Hills CC did more than go to school
on his tee shot on the 155-yard No. 17. He went to "church" with it,
scoring an ace.
[End excerpt]


Year: 1967 (from GB; WorldCat agrees with date)
Title: Organizing men and power: patterns of behavior and line-staff models
Author: Robert T Golembiewski
Publisher: Chicago, Rand McNally
Series: Rand McNally series in the organization sciences.
(Google Books snippet data; may be inaccurate)

[Begin excerpt]
Consequently, calling for changes in staff behavior is no substitute
for appropriate changes in structure and techniques. Like the golfer
watching the line of a putt similar to his, one can "go to school" on
the experience of contemporary attention to staff. Basically, the
common criticisms of staff have been both too hopeful and too narrowly
conceived. Of course ...
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 2:35 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "go to school on"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Only 20 years, and still in quotes, but it confirms previous use in a
> golfing context:
>
> He "went to school on" the other golfer's shot. Good players do it all the
> time.
> books.google.com/books?isbn=0671892584
> Google Preview
> Why Smart People Do Dumb Things: Lessons from the New Science of Behavioral
> Economics
> Mortimer Feinberg, John J. Tarrant
> Simon and Schuster, 1995
>
>
>
> DanG
>
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 1:38 PM, David Daniel <david at coarsecourses.com>
> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       David Daniel <david at COARSECOURSES.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "go to school on"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Andy Cuomo must be a golfer. "Go to school on" = "learn something from" is
>> a
>> common and old golfing term (well, I can attest to 60 years or so of use,
>> if
>> that counts as old).
>> DAD
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      "go to school on"
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---
>>
>> 'To learn from':
>>
>> Andy Cuomo to NYC public health official:
>>
>> "So did you go to school on what happened in Dallas?"
>>
>> It's been around for at least a year or so.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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