Strange things your teacher did? (MOD NOTE in op)

NeuralNetwork

The one thing that stands out to me about my school era is a lack of ability to flag issues with anyone. There was no sense that if someone was way out of line that you could raise the issue with anyone.

We had a few total bullies, one absolute creep and a few that were just utterly underperforming, yet there was never anyone came in sat down and said “so how are you getting on?”

I mean you’d think that in a school a principal or year head would have a responsibility for just general feedback about student welfare. It never seemed to exist. Everything was top down, talk at people and there was a sense of lack of ability to raise issues with anyone without bringing the house down on you.

It’s a classic structure for bullies to thrive.

Businesses these days usually have all sorts of structures to handle this and ensure things work smoothly and a lot of instituons that had bullying problems have had to face them and change. I hope schools are learning some of those lessons.

banie01

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

It’s a classic structure for bullies to thrive.

Businesses these days usually have all sorts of structures to handle this and ensure things work smoothly and a lot of instituons that had bullying problems have had to face them and change. I hope schools are learning some of those lessons.

I'd agree that a lot of the stories here are from a time when schools were pretty much a fiefdom of the head.

Things have changed massively IMO, I'm not an educator but I do have a son in 5th year in the school my stories relate to.
The level of pastoral care for students is brilliant I'd hope its similar in other schools nowadays too.

In "our" day, questioning authority was rare and as I think you said yourself earlier?
If you did come home complaining about being targeted, the 1st question was invariably "what did you do to deserve it?".

I was lucky enough in that my Mother wouldn't let that deference to authority stand without question and I'd like to think it rubbed a bit on me.

thecretinhop

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

The one thing that stands out to me about my school era is a lack of ability to flag issues with anyone. There was no sense that if someone was way out of line that you could raise the issue with anyone.

We had a few total bullies, one absolute creep and a few that were just utterly underperforming, yet there was never anyone came in sat down and said “so how are you getting on?”

I mean you’d think that in a school a principal or year head would have a responsibility for just general feedback about student welfare. It never seemed to exist. Everything was top down, talk at people and there was a sense of lack of ability to raise issues with anyone without bringing the house down on you.

It’s a classic structure for bullies to thrive.

Businesses these days usually have all sorts of structures to handle this and ensure things work smoothly and a lot of instituons that had bullying problems have had to face them and change. I hope schools are learning some of those lessons.

oh totally it was lord of the flies. I think younger posters have no idea how batsht crazy som teachers were.
lol I'm noticing a trend here as regard geography teachers

Ger Roe

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

The one thing that stands out to me about my school era is a lack of ability to flag issues with anyone. There was no sense that if someone was way out of line that you could raise the issue with anyone.

We had a few total bullies, one absolute creep and a few that were just utterly underperforming, yet there was never anyone came in sat down and said “so how are you getting on?”

I mean you’d think that in a school a principal or year head would have a responsibility for just general feedback about student welfare. It never seemed to exist. Everything was top down, talk at people and there was a sense of lack of ability to raise issues with anyone without bringing the house down on you.

It’s a classic structure for bullies to thrive.

Businesses these days usually have all sorts of structures to handle this and ensure things work smoothly and a lot of instituons that had bullying problems have had to face them and change. I hope schools are learning some of those lessons.

That went for teachers too. In secondary we had one who never did any work, used to regularly come in to class and say he was simply going to do nothing, or worse would start telling stories about sex under the guise of education, even though he was supposed to be teaching other specific academic subjects. He basically liked to shock and had been complained about many times before.

When we as a class eventually had enough and challenged him, he vowed to make our lives a misery and said that better than us had tried to get him sacked before and had failed. Even parents complaining at school meetings could not get him shifted.

NeuralNetwork

Well, as an example, I did honours English and did very well, but in the entire two year course, the teacher corrected one piece of homework and we did one essay!

He did actually go though the poetry and dramas but he did it in the style of a 1960s workman’s club comedian.

The only reason I did well was based on approaching it as self taught.

I was really interested in science but my chemistry course was taught so badly that a week before the leaving cert he was still struggling to explain what a mole is. If you know anything about chemistry, you know how fundamental that is! Over half the class failed the subject and most of us were well capable of passing, in fact many of the group went on to do very well in careers in science!

I still find if you complain about an individual poorly performing teacher you’re immediately met with a defence of the entire profession of teaching. I think some teachers are fantastic and most are at least adequate but the were always a few who you’d wonder if they just drifted through college having gotten in by collecting cornflakes stamps. They seemed to neither want to be there nor knew anything about their subjects - often seemed to have little interest in the topics, yet they were somehow teaching them.

If you get someone who really loves what they’re teaching or at least has some vague interest in it, it comes across!

Quags

thecretinhop wrote: »

BTW this 100pc happened I was in de class.
there was one lad too who used to think he was cool blowing up condoms. worked in some classes till crazy geo teacher caught him
feckin chocked him bad. I think he got suspended for a week for dat one.
same kid was a clown tho. 4 borders pissed on him all at once, he was not right after dat. fk me ye have realsed something in me must ring my therapist lol..

Your school seemed a bit f**ked up

NeuralNetwork

Quags wrote: »

Your school seemed a bit f**ked up

They mentioned borders ... sounds like private school! It’s also the explanation for the state of the current Tory government across the water.

Lord of the Flies meets Hogwarts education.

Hurrache

BrokenArrows wrote: »

I think you are mistaking 20-30 years ago with 50+ years ago.
30 years ago hitting a kid in class was absolutely not allowed and wouldnt have been tolerated.

It certainly still happened.

L1011

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

They mentioned borders ... sounds like private school! It’s also the explanation for the state of the current Tory government across the water.

Lord of the Flies meets Hogwarts education.

There's been - suspect all gone now - a few rough as a bag of hammers boarding schools, usually just boarding wings attached to free day schools. Would often be 'scholarship' based, which would have been charity to try get the kids away from a problem rather than academic scholarships.

swimming in a sea

I remember one teacher very funny, but some of the guys were always the butt of the jokes so i think he was pri*k really.

One time he asked me where my book was and i said I'd forgotten it and started to laugh and out he came with "you won't be laughing if you forget your condoms some night"

I think I was about 12 or 13 so not sure if I knew what he was on about.

AlphabetCards

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

They mentioned borders ... sounds like private school! It’s also the explanation for the state of the current Tory government across the water.

Lord of the Flies meets Hogwarts education.

Much experience of it yourself?

Hellrazer

Posted this before in s similar thread.

1990--Halloween week.A first year decides to throw bangers in assembly.Head master looks in my direction,decides it was me and then literally pummeled me for about 5 minutes.I had 2 black eyes,a busted lip and most of my face was swollen--I looked like I had went 13 rounds with a pro boxer.Remember Rocky when he couldnt see out of that eye---that was me.
Then he decides to send me home in a complete mess.
So anyway my mam rang my dad to come and my dad takes one look at me and takes off like a rocket to the school.

Now the best bit.Whatever my dad did/said to that scumbag let me get away with absolute murder for the last 2 years in that school.My dad still wont tell me to this day what happened when he went into that office.Whatever it was it frightened the living ****e out of this asshole.He says he`ll tell me on his death bed and I cant wait to hear what happened in that office.

But from October 1990 to leaving cert 1992 I could not get into trouble no matter what I did. This scumbag headmaster used to run into the toilets to stop us smoking and he`d just nod at me saying "you finish up your smoke there or if you want another one work away"
See but then I had to try and push it that bit further. I started smoking in the corridors between classes and I still wasnt reprimanded over it.
I basically just broke every school rule for 2 years.At 16 years of age it was like I had won the lottery!!!

In hindsight though we probably should have just sued them for every penny they had.

No again Danni

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

I think some teachers are fantastic and most are at least adequate but the were always a few who you’d wonder if they just drifted through college having gotten in by collecting cornflakes stamps. They seemed to neither want to be there nor knew anything about their subjects - often seemed to have little interest in the topics, yet they were somehow teaching them.

If you get someone who really loves what they’re teaching or at least has some vague interest in it, it comes across!

We had one history teacher who was brilliant. She had a specific strategy and method towards teaching it. She'd take the important sentences of the topic from our workbook, make you underline them and write them out so it would form a summary. We would then have to learn them and she'd give a test every Friday where you would have to rewrite the sentences.

She basically condensed the whole history book and made us memorize it which is what you need to do with history at that level.

Funny thing is, I would have no idea if she was passionate about it or not. She showed absolutely no emotion whatsoever. She use to roll her eyes in this strange way sometimes when she was giving out and she sent pupils out of the room if they were misbehaving but other than that no emotion and never lost her cool. People rarely acted up in her class.

I only had her for first year, then I got some waster teaching history who just gave us a free class and I got stuck with her for the next two years. I didn't really learn anything here and had to cram for the junior cert. I did alright in the end but mostly down to that first year.

I still remember some of those exact sentences even now!

ShatterAlan

thecretinhop wrote: »

Ah christ where to start.

The greatest psychopath i will ever meet my geography teacher. This lad was not off the wall type he was genuinely scary, there was an air or presence which was not to be messed with.

He had a small room at the back of his class, if you were misbehaving he locked you in there for the day. One poor lad was terrified of mice. Every ten minutes or so he would get the class 40 plus to make mouse noises all at once the lad was begging to get out.

One kid stole a box of chalk, he opened the window 5 stories up and held him out until he gave it back. I think the kid needed therapy after it.

The day the inspector came he said "Yere the big boys now ye teach" walked out went to pub came back the week after.

Bizarrely I got a mini mars bar for naming all the moons of the planets in the solar system. Rlol he was saying how much class Mr cretin had not like Johnny over there who be on drugs by his 21st birthday (he was right)

I have truckloads more stories fk me thinking back my school was insane...

What exactly are "mouse noises"?

Kevhog1988

Had a teacher who only turned in for 3 months of the Leaving cert history curriculum. It got that bad that a free class supervisor ended up taking pity on us and attempted to teach us the curriculum. I got a c1 in it but it was a subject i was/am massively interested in and should have gotten at least a b if id of been taught.

There was another teacher who had real mental health issues after being engaged to be married twice and both fiances dying weeks before her wedding day. That poor woman wasnt fit to teach and definitely should have been given help.

Happened after my time there (sister was in 6th yr at the time) but apparently some 2nd years put weed in a bun and had the home ec teacher taste them. the woman was off her face and the principal rang an ambulance for her. I think the guards were involved with that.

corner of hells

ShatterAlan wrote: »

What exactly are "mouse noises"?

You know when you're working at your desk and you right click the mouse , you kinda sense a noise and then sometimes your mouse runs of the pad and you curse , them noises.

Captain Havoc

I did my leaving in '99, just to give some context to the timeline.

In secondary school we had a language teacher, I wasn't the most gifted at languages. Often he'd come in and just get us to read a chapter while he read the Irish Times. Other times, he'd have us moving chairs in the hall, he'd never ask a hurler to move a chair though. There were four or five of us in the class with the same first name, he'd ask a question and then call out our first name, we ostriched ourselves in the books and pray one of the others could answer. To be honest, I don't think he was calling a specific one of us, just the most common first name and hope one answered. He could often be late for class and one day he hadn't shown up after fifteen minutes, you can imagine the racket the class was making. Another teacher came into the class and sat in with us, he turns up five minutes later, sticks his head in the door and says "oh, are you taking this class?". Before the teacher can answer, he's gone. He's actually a lovely man, and I've had many conversations with him since leaving school.

I remember a school trip abroad and on the ferry over, a few, if not all the teachers were hammered, two came into our cabin on the way over and had a good chat with us while they were hammered. In one place, they brought us all into a nightclub. It was a great trip and I think the teachers being a bit more relaxed helped that a lot.

I was trying to compile all the stories from the teachers from all the people I know went to the same school as me. But it's just too many over a 10 year period and the post got too long. To be honest the strangest teacher in my school was the _single_ teacher who managed to actually teach his subject well and with empathy and dedication. By being an actual teacher - he was the strange one.

The weird personality disorders of the rest - from power trips - to alcoholism and drinking in class - to emotional break downs - was the norm. And it is good to hear some of the same stories from people who went to the same school in different years so I know it was not just all in my head.

I envy people who had good educations from competent teachers. There are subjects I have fallen in love with later in life that were destroyed for me at the time by poor teaching. And I wish I had inspired or inspiring teachers at the time who could have turned me onto them.

Looking back I am in awe that one school could have hired so many people with clear mental health issues. Some of them were seriously unwell and barely functioning.

YellowLead

We had a teacher who used to fart into a book. Seriously he would pick up a book, open it over his ass and we all heard a big fart sound (think he thought the book would block the sound or maybe he was trying to trap the smell???

Hangdogroad

We had an English teacher in secondary school who had a nervous breakdown and quite literally had to be taken off to hospital from the school. The poor fella was totally unsuited to teaching, he was very wound up was always just on the brink of losing it. For some reason when he was being taken away (I wasnt there, it was a different class) his shoes and socks were left behind in a corner of the room.

The J Stands for Jay

BrokenArrows wrote: »

I think you are mistaking 20-30 years ago with 50+ years ago.
30 years ago hitting a kid in class was absolutely not allowed and wouldnt have been tolerated.

Nope, we were getting hit with a golf club in 6th class in the early 90s.

begbysback

McGaggs wrote: »

Nope, we were getting hit with a golf club in 6th class in the early 90s.

We talking a wood or 4 iron here?

Tow

We had a teacher who stunk of OB, you could smell it once you entered his classroom. Anyway, in a South Dublin NS around the time of the H Block Hunger Strikes he decided to that the class play should be the Siege of Derry. While meaning of this was over our heads, needless to say it did go down well with some parents. When they moved teachers around the next year, he ended up being our teacher again. This resulted in several parents taking their children out of the school.

jem

Finished in secondary school in 1986 and confirm that school is completly different now compaired to then.
One maths/ science teacher def had one foot on either side of madness/ genius.
One trick of his was if it was raining he would pick out a fella who was messing , open the sash window upstairs put the youngfella's head outside and close the window down on his neck and leave him there for the rest of the class.
used to like the old punch in the arm trick, big man punching a 12/13 year old.
He also used to lift you up by the little hairs infront of your ears- hurt like hell.
While he was a mad b he also was an excellent teacher.

Another history/ Irish teacher used the old execution block. wh would make you bend over and he would hit you on the arse with his hurl. If you were realy "bold" he would make a run at it. one day he hit a younglad so hard the kid's head went straight through the partition into the next room. he was actually an excellent teacher who managed to make history and Irish interesting. Extremly nice fella outside school .

Third ****er who springs to mind was the laziest ever. So bad that when he took off a year to go to america the teachers all asked us to pray that his flight would be delayed- he was arriving the very last day.he used to run quizes in class for the "poor Black babies" so if we realy wanted a soft class we would ask sir can we have a quiz and that would be that.

Final one was realy a spiteful little ####### who was very balanced he had a chip on both shoulders . total ### who damaged kids menatly.
We got our own back though.
There was always a football match between the teachers and the leaving certs shortly before they finished.
Shall we say there was a lot of very hard off the ball tackeling by us.
Strangly that was the last year of these games.

NeuralNetwork

AlphabetCards wrote: »

Much experience of it yourself?

None, thankfully! I did work with a lot of ex public school types in England though and a % seemed to still be somewhat lost in old school tie stuff.

Random Account

We had a alcoholic teacher , quite sad once I got older and left school but crazy at the time.

Heard stories as I grew up but we had a trip to Spain for Spanish class for like 4 days maybe. Best trip of my life btw, still tell my kids about the ****e that went down. But our PE teacher came to drunken blows with another teacher over pool, resulted in teachers and hotel staff breaking it up as the whole student body watched from their balcony’s. Ended up coming into our room the last night , pissed out of his head and in his boxers. Luckily another teacher just guided him out. He took a break after the trip, and never returned. Turns out his wife died of cancer and he took to drink to cope. Had no kids either but ended up in rehab after he left the school and I’m still not sure if he’s fully right. Sad

JJayoo

JJayoo wrote: »

Had an elderly woman for french/english/history from 1-3 rd year, she hadn't a word of french and english and history consisted of us reading the textbook.

What a valuable education

For one term my chemistry teacher had done her degree in woodwork. She hand't a clue of anything scientific. Not even to a primary level.

A maths teacher in first year suffered from gas. We all hated having him after lunch because he'd stand at the back of the room, with his face going red and sweating and letting out little puffs he couldn't keep in.

My art teacher was late every morning and would arrive in with Sunglasses on, even on wintry days. My young naive self assumed she just wanted to look stylish. I know now she was a serious alcoholic. Aparently her and another big drinker took the transition years to Prague for a week and let them drink all week.

NeuralNetwork

We had a continental school tour where they made us wear our school uniforms and abandoned us in Amsterdam, entirely unsupervised for a full day. We were all younger than Junior Cert at the time!!

Somehow we all got back alive.

I ended up going to the Anne Franke house and the Van Gough museum on my own and just wandering the streets of Amsterdam - I didn’t even have a mobile phone.

I just remember sitting in a cafe trying to make a sandwich last as long as possible until the meeting up time.

Tourists were taking photos of us due to the uniforms...

And none of your fancy aeroplanes... we got the bus!

When I think back on it, it was extremely irresponsible! I did learn a lot about self sufficiency though lol

The J Stands for Jay

begbysback wrote: »

We talking a wood or 4 iron here?

It was a club with the head removed, so essentially a metal pole.

Stovepipe

The Mighty Quinn wrote: »

I don't view this as weird behaviour. Honestly. Okay, it's not curricular stuff but it's important all the same!

There were lads in my class and I swear you'd smell them before they entered the room. They obviously hadn't the best home lives. Some people just aren't taught how to wash themselves and to keep themselves right.

You're not wrong. When I joined the Defence Forces in 1984, we were given a hygiene class as part of our induction training and we were taught how to wash the Army way. While this was oriented towards field hygiene, it was clear from some of the reactions from some of the lads present that this was imparting new information to some of them. Several lads had no idea how to wash clothing and even how often to change socks and jocks; "me Ma does it for me". It was a bit of an eye opener.