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

Strumms

banie01 wrote: »

Very true. I was in primary school in the mid-late 80s.
There was very much a culture corporal punishment.
No outright beatings as in times previous, but clips around the ear, rulers on the knuckles or back of the legs and the ubiquitous thrown duster.

It persist into secondary school.
The "culture" of the vast majority of teachers in the system post '82 and up to the early 90's saw corporal punishment as part of the system.
If one has ever dealt with any type of organisational or cultural shift in any type organisation.
One would know behaviours don't change at the flick of the switch.
It is a long and rigourous process that requires constant monitoring to prevent a slip back to past behaviour.

That level of oversight isn't something that Ireland was ever capable of until the far more recent past.
Out record of transparency and accountability up to the late 90's wouldn't really support the argument of "the law change, it stopped"
It didn't, it diminished and lessened over a long period and now seems thankfully to be a thing of the past.

I think nowadays 99.999% of teachers would be too frightened to give a kid a smack. Not because of only the repercussions of loosing their job, but most parents or at least a good percentage now don’t hold teachers on a pedestal like generations before with reverence and if their kid got a smack off a teacher, they’d be taking the law into their own hands...or making a complaint to the Gardai.

In primary school in the 80’s the principal of the junior school used to clatter kids on the hands with a plastic picture frame... a nasty individual although I only experienced it once...I know if he tried that with a kid of mine he’d be in pain x20.... the following day I’d give him a cheery wave outside his house.

Gregor Samsa

Strumms wrote: »

I think nowadays 99.999% of teachers would be too frightened to give a kid a smack. Not because of only the repercussions of loosing their job, but most parents or at least a good percentage now don’t hold teachers on a pedestal like generations before with reverence and if their kid got a smack off a teacher, they’d be taking the law into their own hands...or making a complaint to the Gardai.

I don't think it's even about fear. I think that (most) teachers today wouldn't even consider it as something you'd want to do - particularly to primary school children.

One can discuss the merits or faults of various forms of discipline and punishment, and the difference between a tap and a slap and a punch, but I think that most people now recognise that gratuitous violence against small children is inherently wrong.

Sebastian Dangerfield

Secondary school - late 90s. We had the same teacher for metalwork and science. Every science class would start in the lab, then about 5 mins in he'd go "how many of my metalwork class have I in here?" - the answer was less than half - "ah sure we may as well take it in the metalwork room where we're all most comfortable." The science books would never re-emerge, those who took metalwork would work on bits and pieces, and the others would just chat.

Primary school - late 80s to mid 90s. We had one teacher who would wear riding boots and bring a riding crop to class, and walk around smacking it off the side of her own leg. Every now and again she'd crack it off one of the desks and frighten the sh1te out of us.

Another would pick one person every day and sit them under her desk, which was covered on all sides bar the part she faced into - you were essentially between her legs. Every time you moved you got a kick.

The worst though would come up with these horrible threats instead of giving out to you - e.g. putting you in a washing machine and turning it on. He once threatened to cover me in brown sauce and put me on the roof so the birds would eat me. Every now and again he would mutter "they love brown sauce so they do" and the next day a bottle of YR appeared on his desk. He said it with a wink to the class like everyone was in on the joke, but gave an air of "it might not be a joke" at the same time.

We also had a teacher who would make the class recite Our Father as gaeilge each morning, but he'd do it so fast we couldn't make out a single word. If we ever had to repeat it in later years - funerals, graduation mass etc - all our class used to say it in this indistinguishable outpouring of incoherence. I could still say it his way now, but no idea how to say it properly.

cjyid

Mac_Lad71 wrote: »

Had a teacher in senior infants in the mid 70's who used to make whoever was sitting at the front of class unzip her boots while she sat on a desk at the top of the class and smoked a cigar.

HA! had a teacher in junior & senior infants who did similar, minus the cigar part! Late 90s for me.

Yeah_Right

Reading this thread makes me glad I wasn't educated in Ireland

I look back on my high school (early 90s) teachers and have to say that most of them were great. There were some very interesting characters. Had a geography teacher who had been a photo-journalist in the 70s and showed us pictures he took in the Vietnam War, the Killing Fields in Cambodia and Pinochet's Chile. He made the classes interesting with stories about various places we were studying and I still remember a lot of what he taught us.

Had a social studies teacher who was a full-on hairy armpit feminist. She was brilliant. Encouraged us to question everything and loved a good debate on what she was teaching us.

A couple of great history teachers who made the classes very interesting and wouldn't just teach us about the major events but what led to them and the consequences.

Had a science teacher who was very funny. He sometimes turned the lesson in a long joke involving science that lasted the entire period. It kept everyone's attention.

Had a maths teacher who had actually written the text books used by the Dept. of Education nationwide. My mate and I asked him about it and calculated that he was making well over 100K (after tax) per year from the books. Yet he was still there teaching. Good teacher.

The Mighty Quinn

Yeah_Right wrote: »

Reading this thread makes me glad I wasn't educated in Ireland

Move along now you, your kind aren't welcome here, with your happy childhoods, mush, hyah, onward, mush.. :)

Aglomerado

Praying seven times a day with a pious wagon bully in primary school (6th class) at the expense of English and Maths. (1980s)

When we got to secondary school some teachers would wail at the 'thickos' they were sent from our village school. Took us a while to catch up, especially in Maths.

We had an older woman, close to retirement, teacher in second class. If we complained that we were cold she'd tell us to warm ourselves up by running a few laps of the school building while she made herself a cup of tea and got out her Woman's Weekly.

My secondary school (which I attended in the early 90s) seems to have been boring by comparison with some of the other entries here! We had no psychos hurling things around the room. The teachers were a fairly stable lot and decent pretty much all of the time! I think we were lucky.

I was at a class reunion a few years ago and met about 10 of them who turned up to say hello, most of them retired at that stage. They all remembered our names and were interested to see how we were doing as adults.

AndrewJRenko

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

Primary school - late 80s to mid 90s. We had one teacher who would wear riding boots and bring a riding crop to class, and walk around smacking it off the side of her own leg. Every now and again she'd crack it off one of the desks and frighten the sh1te out of us.

Another would pick one person every day and sit them under her desk, which was covered on all sides bar the part she faced into - you were essentially between her legs. Every time you moved you got a kick.

Are you certain that this isn't a repressed memory of a certain movie you watched or something?

sbs2010

What's the story with all the dusters flying around?

They were fairly hefty yokes if I remember rightly. Did anyone ever get it in forehead and get knocked out or a bad cut?

ByTheSea2019

The worst was 6th class. She was in her final year before retirement and didn't give a f**k. She just did Irish dancing with us for half the day every day because it was easier than teaching Irish and maths.

There wasn't too much weirdness. Maybe it was because I was in school in the 90's and 00's and as has been said people were becoming less deferential to teachers and willing to complain about inappropriate behaviour.

Sebastian Dangerfield

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Are you certain that this isn't a repressed memory of a certain movie you watched or something?

Certain. The same lady sent me to the staff room to make a cup of tea for her when I was 5. I dropped the kettle and burnt my arm. She was removed (or most likely just moved) shortly after.

We did also have a teacher who pronounced zero / nought as "ought", and used to get awful agitated if we didn't say ought (e.g. "ought point two") when doing maths, like we were the ones who were mental and not him.

freshpopcorn

I was in secondary school in the mid 2000's.
The principal had a thing about ties and black shoes.
He'd blow a whistle in your ear and poke you with his boney finger into a corner if he had an issue with you.

We also had older teachers who couldn't control their temper and they'd throw chalk. You could see in their eyes they'd love to hit somebody.

lalababa

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.

If only you were right🙄

One teacher used tie students up with the cord off the window blinds (around the neck) and then proceed to stab them with the point of a compass from a geometry set

pgj2015

I got hit over the head by a female principle in national school a few times in the 90's. I don't hold it against her to be honest, she was old school. I met her a few times as an adult, lovely woman.

mfceiling

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

I don’t think anyone is doubting your stories, G.

It’s only the heroic fantasy tales of lads “chinning” the teacher or getting into some dramatic fisticuffs that end with the teacher on his back with some dweeby nerd standing over him, showing him who’s boss, before he’s cheered out of the school gates and getting the support of the staff that no one really swallows.

My mate went to a rough enough secondary school in the mid 80's. His metalwork teacher was a local farmer. One of the lads in his class was a neighbour of mine (farmers son and a tough nut).
Teacher asked him one day if he was such a hard man he'd have no bother having a go in the store room. To the whole classes delight "glen" replies "not even a problem".
Teacher and pupil in the store room going hammer and tongs for about 10 minutes. Neither gave an inch. My mate said it was the best day in school he'd ever had.

His class was wild....full of mental young lads. 15 and 16 year olds drinking and smoking half the day away.

My school was a grammar school and very much into tradition and the "correct" way of doing everything. Teachers weren't bad but some of them were clearly marking time to retirement.
Geography teacher was a bear of a man and could tear a phone book in half (made him do it a few times which wasted an entire class). If you mentioned sheep farming you could put your feet up as he would talk the rest of the day about the hardships of farming!!

Goodigal

Went to secondary in early 90s. All girls school but we went to the local boys' school for tech drawing on Mondays. Tech drawing teacher used to smoke in class! Half the class was jealous, rest of us just hoped we didn't need his assistance cos he reeked!

Sebastian Dangerfield

We were also made to watch an abortion video in 5th year. Hopefully nothing like that goes on now!

Wanderer78

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

We were also made to watch an abortion video in 5th year. Hopefully nothing like that goes on now!

jesus, religion seriously needs to be removed from our educational system

JustAThought

Strumms wrote: »

I think nowadays parents and indeed students don’t hold the teaching profession on the sort of pedestal that previous generations did. Teachers exist to educate, they are paid to educate, it’s a job and responsibility. They should be doing that while respecting their pupils.

If that carry on was going on with my child I’d simply write to the principal, inform them what is going on, it’s to stop immediately... my child is attending school to learn, to be educated, not to be indulging some gaeilgeoir egomaniac...

1. If the teacher continually after being instructed not to refers to my child by the name other then the one they were christened with, I’ll be preparing a complaint and seeking legal advice and contacting the department of education.

2. If the teacher refuses to teach the class the subject they have been assigned to and the subject my child is attending and attempting to learn, I’ll be preparing a complaint, and seeking legal advice and contacting the department of education.

It boils down to the fact that an educator is refusing to educate, refusing to do their job because children will not recognize being called names to which they were not christened with. We are paying them to educate.


Incidentally when I worked in France a manager constantly mispronounced by name which is Irish but not a very hard name to say , after about SIX occasions correcting him, I started mispronouncing his name on purpose... Emmanuel became Dammanuel... within a day or so and his and my colleagues thinking this was hilarious...he got around to learning to pronounce my very easily pronounceable name. He got the D removed, from his name and got his E back, the fûckin eejit.

Yeah right - shows how little you experienced of the nonsense people had to out up with in school from teachers - and peers - back in the day. As they say, the past is a different place.

I somewhat pity teachers now as they hvn’t much of a chance in hell - mentally disabled and profoundly behaviourally challenged kids lumped in with little capacity to learn or in many cases to even sit still, badass childten and their patents threatening their jobs and careers at every move, and unable to expel or remove a nightmare child from yhe class - even violent ones.

Nobody eant to go back to the days of deadners & knuckles in the head, or being made kneel on the edge of fold down seats for hours to to lean into the wall face in on your thumbs - but I’d be happy with some kind of outlet for actively removing or punishing students for teachers. I wonder if the TU will be working on a plan to hold back or corral children following the covid - if I was in that line of business I certainly would.

josip

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

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

We had a school tour to Rome back in the 80s when I was in 1st year.
We stayed in a monastery 50km away.
One day, the Art teacher brought myself and another 1st year on a day trip to the Sistine Chapel, along with an 11 year old nephew of another teacher.

I think we were delayed getting into the Sistine Chapel, but halfway through he said to us that he had to leave, but we could stay and finish off in our own time. Just head back to the main bus station in Rome afterwards and make sure we got the right bus home.
So off he went, leaving a pair of 13 year olds responsible for an 11 year old. We'd a great time, went up to the top of St. Peters, pigged out on pizza.

By the time we got to the bus station, the last bus to our town had left, even though it wasn't that late in the evening.
Luckily some helpful Roman showed us another bus that could leave us off half an hour's walk away from home.
Fair play to ya Sniffer for trusting us and that little adventure.

the purple tin

I remember this guy who rang in to the radio years ago when they were asking for peoples stories from school.

Lets call him John. He said there was this lad from a quite well off family who every day would have a chocolate bar with his lunch. John was from a poor family and very rarely would get chocolate, so one day he managed to steal the bar from your mans bag. Come lunchtime the boy noticed it was missing and told the teacher.

The teacher said own up, whoever took the bar I want it back. John kept quiet. Then the teacher came up with an idea, he pulled down the blinds and said he would turn off the lights and the person had 30 seconds to go up and leave the bar on his desk, then nothing more would be said about it.

Teacher turned off the light but John is too scared to walk up so instead he slips the bar into the guy who sat in front of him's bag, he said the guy was the class bully, a real arsehole. The teacher turns the light on- no bar on the desk and he's getting angry now. he says everyone will bring their bag up to him and he will search it.

When he finally gets to the bully's bag and finds the bar he thinks he has got his man so he grabs his stick and starts beating the life out of the bully. The bully is shouting the whole time that he never saw it before in his life, that he's innocent, running around the classroom trying to get away with the teacher chasing after him like a madman!

Anyway the next day there is a knock on the classroom door and as the teacher opens it this fist comes flying through and clocks him right in the face and sends him flying back over his desk. It was the bully's da come for a bit of payback!

I think John was in his 50s, and he said it was the first time he ever came clean and told anyone the story and his part in it. A real old dub, it was hilarious the way he told it

JustAThought

Does anyone else remember the bomb scares? You’d have a drill one week and few weeks later someone or their big brother would call a bomb in the school into the local garda station from the local phone box & you’d all be marched out to wait ‘silently’ standing in class lines on the pitches/ yard while teachers stood about smoking & counting you. The gaurds from up the road would come in & ‘search the school’ and we’d all have to trudge back in frozen solid a few hours later. We never go the day off and rarely were sent home. If there had been a bomb we’d all have been blown to shreds with all
the brick and glass flying about. Never dawned in them I guess. IRA got us off a few exams allright.

Sebastian Dangerfield

Wanderer78 wrote: »

jesus, religion seriously needs to be removed from our educational system

Completely agree, but it had its benefits too!

If you served mass in the local church, you were on one of four teams on a weekly rotation. On your week you got to serve 9am mass on weekdays, which meant you were excused from school til it was over. If anyone made school before 10:30 theyd get a thump from the others.

If there was a funeral or midweek wedding you got to leave school again at 11, and got a few bob too. If you volunteered to do a reading on Sundays, you got an hour down at the girls school practising with the nuns. Same for the choir.

I never went to mass again once in my life when it stopped being of benefit, but from the ages of 7 to about 12 it had its uses!

YellowLead

glasso wrote: »

One teacher used tie students up with the cord off the window blinds (around the neck) and then proceed to stab them with the point of a compass from a geometry set

This can’t be true??? It made me laugh out loud the idea of it seems so ridiculous. Is it true????

Timing belt

JustAThought wrote: »

Does anyone else remember the bomb scares? You’d have a drill one week and few weeks later someone or their big brother would call a bomb in the school into the local garda station from the local phone box & you’d all be marched out to wait ‘silently’ standing in class lines on the pitches/ yard while teachers stood about smoking & counting you. The gaurds from up the road would come in & ‘search the school’ and we’d all have to trudge back in frozen solid a few hours later. We never go the day off and rarely were sent home. If there had been a bomb we’d all have been blown to shreds with all
the brick and glass flying about. Never dawned in them I guess. IRA got us off a few exams allright.

Yeah I remember that in secondary school..spent 5 hours standing on a pitch one day just because one fella wanted to get out of French exam. Army even called that day with dogs.

YellowLead

YellowLead wrote: »

This can’t be true??? It made me laugh out loud the idea of it seems so ridiculous. Is it true????

it is true.

of course I'm just someone on the internet but it's true.

not "as bad" as it sounds as the stabbing was in the ass, not the eyeballs or anything but still...

we used laugh at it.

was sort of the teacher's "party trick"

Neg10

We’d a teacher who used to pick his nose and wipe it in his beard ��

Yeah_Right

Yeah_Right wrote: »

Reading this thread makes me glad I wasn't educated in Ireland.

Ah well in all fairness I have a hundred stories of great teachers dragging me too grades I didn't think I could get or supporting me in education and personal issues beyond their professional responsibilities. That's just not what this thread is about.

Thankfully I don't have any stories like my partner who can point out past pupils who married / were actively and openly sleeping with teachers.

TheDavester

Balmed Out wrote: »

Thats right I mixed up his name with another. The fists pressing into his face is hard to forget. I remember Mr W fancied himself as a swimmer and would win a teachers vs pupils race each year but skipped it every year which had someone in 6th class that swam competitively.

I finished primary in 91 just before the change of principal, there apparently was no more hitting pupils.

Had one teacher there who didnt hit anyone but lit up a pipe on occasion.

Also remember the future principal was a kerry man and a lot of teachers would send you to his class to tell a kerryman joke to him if you got caught saying one as punishment. I was in my 20s when i realised they were taking the piss out of him.

Wow started in that school a year or two later....