History Main / SchoolOfHardKnocks

* The ''{{Pokemon}}'' school ''The Pokémon Technical Institue'' which appeared in episode 9, ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The School of Hard Knocks]]''.

* Boot camps in military. Recruits are encouraged to settle their disputes with a fight.

* ''MakenKi''. Infact, it's the entire premise of the show.

* Oh dear God, ''YakuzaGirl''. The school is divided in various Clan that spends their time killing each other and a poor NaiveNewcomer gets trapped in that war to gain the love of a girl.

* The entire plot of ''VideoGame/RivalSchools'' involves teams of students visiting other campuses and fighting their representatives in order to uncover clues about a string of mysterious disappearances. Most note worthy of the characters involved are a language teacher, a school nurse, school principal and a HotBlooded PE instructor.

** The Assassins' Guild School. It is first referenced in ''Discworld/{{Wyrd Sisters}}'' as a place which less fortunate scholars at the Fools' Guild School next door look at in helpless envy and longing. The Fools are tormented by the happy piping voices of young people at a school they love drifting over the dividing wall. however, it is noted that, as the Assassins value competitive examination, the number of happy piping voices grows considerably ''less'' towards the end of each term.

* ''VisualNovel/MajiDeWatashiNiKoiShinasai'' is largely set in Kawakami High School, where official duels are sanctioned and all manners of replica weaponry are kept in every classroom for such occasions. Duels scale from simple betting to the Kawakami War, which involves pretty much the entire school with some extra hired troops, divided into two armies.

* Sadly, all too often [[AdultsAreUseless badly or ineptly led]] schools, especially single gender schools, tend to be this way. Violence is not only tolerated but actually encouraged.
** Occasionally given some sort of formal sanction in the days when boxing was still considered a suitable Phys. Ed activity [[ScienceMarchesOn and much less was understood about its potential risks]]. Two students with a particularly nasty feud to settle would be provided with gloves and a referee and allowed to settle their differences and work out their aggression in a way that minimised the risk of lasting injury. By some accounts [[TropesAreNotBad it was actually a good way to clear the air.]]

* Various {{Discworld}} examples including, but not limited to:
** The Assassins' Guild School. It is first referenced in {{Wyrd Sisters}} as a place which less fortunate scholars at the Fools' Guild School next door look at in helpless envy and longing. The Fools are tormented by the happy piping voices of young people at a school they love drifting over the dividing wall. however, it is noted that, as the Assassins value competitive examination, the number of happy piping voices grows considerably ''less'' towards the end of each term.
*** The Assassins' School is expanded upon in the opening quarter or so of {{Pyramids}}. Terry Pratchett noted that to create the school, all he had to do was to take a typical British boarding (fee-paying) school with a long pedigree, and turn all the knobs up past eleven. ''"Especially the one marked "violence"''.

* The entire plot of ''RivalSchools'' involves teams of students visiting other campuses and fighting their representatives in order to uncover clues about a string of mysterious disappearances. Most note worthy of the characters involved are a language teacher, a school nurse, school principal and a HotBlooded PE instructor.

* ''Real Bout High School''. School-sponsored K-Fights are used to solve every possible dispute, ''including "too many K-Fights"''. Eventually, it's made so that students don't even have to be on campus or fighting a schoolmate for it to be an official K-Fight, with play-by-play and color commentary from the principal himself.

* ''{{Kanokon}}'', somewhat. Fights between Youkai aren't encouraged, but the teachers don't seem to have a problem with these fights and they do observe/referee the matches. Fights between regular students aren't mentioned.

** This troper goes to a famous boarding school in Sweden where this system has long been banned - and illegal - but remnants of it still exist among the students (both the guys and girls).

->''"I am a fully rounded human being, with a degree from the university of life, a diploma from the school of hard knocks, and three gold stars from the kindergarten of getting the shit kicked out of me."''

** The Unseen University from the various Wizard series also leans towards the hard knocks style of education, particularly in teaching the difference between Monkeys and Apes.

* the Assassins' Guild School appears in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It is first referenced in {{Wyrd Sisters}} as a place which less fortunate scholars at the Fools' Guild School next door look at in helpless envy and longing. The Fools are tormented by the happy piping voices of young people at a school they love drifting over the dividing wall. however, it is noted that, as the Assassins value competitive examination, the number of happy piping voices grows considerably ''less'' towards the end of each term.
** The Assassins' School is expanded upon in the opening quarter or so of {{Pyramids}}. Terry Pratchett noted that to create the school, all he had to do was to take a typical British boarding (fee-paying) school with a long pedigree, and turn all the knobs up past eleven. ''"Especially the one marked "violence"''.
** By the time of {{Thud!}}, the Assassins' School has gone co-educational. As the female of the species is, if not more deadly than the male, then at least ''nastier'', the new generation of women teachers, such as Miss Alice Band, are capable of sending students out on potentially kamikazi assignments, such as targeting Commander Sam Vimes. A student called Jocasta Wiggs learns to her cost and the loss of personal dignity that Sam is well-protected.
* In ''Discworld/{{The Truth}}'' we learn of a more conventional boys' school, Hugglestone Academy, a dour grey granite edifice out on the bleak moorlands where boys are sent to be turned into ''men''. This process is accepted to entail a certain degree of ''wastage'', among the fat, lame, lazy and effeminate.
* The Quirm Academy for Young Ladies, which appears in ''Discworld/{{Soul Music}}'', might be its female equivalent. It employs a sports mistress nicknamed Iron Ronnie, who is as tough and uncompromising as any male equivalent in GymClassHell. Sybil Ramkin was a pupil here and ruefully remembers that a closed community of girls can be as unsympathetic and prone to bullying as a male school. Only the weapons used are not physical. Oh no, nothing so trivial. Women atre ''nastier''.

* The Quirm Academy for Young Ladies, which appears in ''Discworld/((Soul Music}}'', might be its female equivalent. It employs a sports mistress nicknamed Iron Ronnie, who is as tough and uncompromising as any male equivalent in GymClassHell.

* The entire plot of ''RivalSchools'' involves teams of students visiting other campuses and fighting their representatives in order to uncover clues about a string of mysterious disappearances. Most note worthy of the characters involved are a language teacher, a school nurse, school principal and a HotBlooded PE instructor.

* The Swedish novel/movie ''Evil'' (''Ondskan'') has a very serious version of this, as a private boarding school essentially allows students to fight each other to settle disputes.
** This is sadly a real life example. The boarding school, Solbacka, was closed down because of the violence that went on there. The fighting was not actually encouraged in order to solve disputes, but to maintain a hierarchy among the students. It was supposed to 'harden' the boys.
** This troper goes to a famous boarding school in Sweden where this system has long been banned - and illegal - but remnants of it still exist among the students (both the guys and girls).
* WhatelyUniverse has several variants of this. The Combat Final is required and students can take part in simulations or arena duels. Given the treatment of mutants in the setting learning how to fight is a very important real world skill.
* ''Real Bout High School''. School-sponsored K-Fights are used to solve every possible dispute, ''including "too many K-Fights"''. Eventually, it's made so that students don't even have to be on campus or fighting a schoolmate for it to be an official K-Fight, with play-by-play and color commentary from the principal himself.

* ''My Schoolmate the Barbarian'' has a place where students brawl in an elaborate ringout fight.
* The Foremost World-Renowned International School of Lucha in ''MuchaLucha'', naturally, seeing as everyone in the show is a MaskedLuchador.
* In ''HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', students at Dudley's new school, Smeltings, are given "knobbly sticks used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life."

* The Tenchi Gakuen in HayateXBlade not only encourages fighting, actually all students are part of an in-school kendô championship with great monetary prizes for the winning [[BattleCouple teams]].

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