"At school I was told I would amount to nothing"

18-12-2019 11:21PM

veryangryman wrote:

Can you, the reader assure me one way or the other whether this is a real thing? I mean we all had some bad teachers but really was this a normal thing. Never heard anyone knock me or anyone else in the school that way.

I think it depends on your age. I'm in my 50s and have had this feedback from teachers 40 years ago. My kids are in their 20s and they have had the complete opposite. I think in 20 years time there will be threads here by someone shocked that our children today have school sports days where everyone wins. Everyone does a great job.

Ubbquittious · 18-12-2019 11:21PM

I was told it and similar versions of it quite a few times. I was wondering is it something they tell everyone in the hope they'll knuckle down, but telling me that made coming into school seem all the more pointless to me.

LaFuton · 18-12-2019 11:36PM

u probably wont, its kinda their area of seeing these things play out, ans by the numbers they are usually right

but sure we all have lovely unique butterfly bottoms

andekwarhola · 18-12-2019 11:38PM

It's like something Damien Dempsey would include in a bio. Along with being brought up by feral greyhounds at the back of a boxing club in Donaghmede.

Strumms · 18-12-2019 11:46PM

Ubbquittious wrote: »

I was told it and similar versions of it quite a few times. I was wondering is it something they tell everyone in the hope they'll knuckle down, but telling me that made coming into school seem all the more pointless to me.

Yes, it’s going to demoralize you, either way...

I was told by my Physics teacher not to bother turning up for my Physics leaving cert exam, use the time to study for something I’ll pass....

I turned up and did pass, just as much to spite the bullying cûnt.

Man was known to be a Physics encyclopedia, a genius but couldn’t teach for shît. Ruled a class with an iron fist... fear and intimidation... his reputation in the years preceding was worse, violent and intimidatory but at least the violence had ended by my time...

thecowgoesmoo · 18-12-2019 11:47PM

My mother's favourite sentence.

pgj2015 · 19-12-2019 12:20AM

it is a great thing to be told when you think about it, its a challenge to prove them wrong.

arybvtcw0eolkf · 19-12-2019 12:26AM

gabe1977 wrote: »

I went to a rural National school until the late 1980's where 4th, 5th and 6th were taught by the one teacher.

He was nothing short of an animal.
I was told "the only place I would end up was Mountjoy" for the crime of not being the best at having my homework done. I nor any the rest of the kids were unruly, just stuff like not having homework done, forgetting things, maybe saying the odd word to your classmate etc. but we were all absolutely terrified of him.

His punishments included:

- Heavy role books smashed on top of your head.
- Slapped students across the face (once banging a classmates head of the door frame cutting his head)
- Sellotaping our mouths closed.
- Force feeding us mustard.
- Rulers broken across your knuckles
- Vicious insults (told one girl when i was in 6th class she'd need to lose weight or she'd bring the plane down when she answered a question on what she wanted to be when she grew up and she replied an air hostess)
- PE was sprinting around the school yard and the person who came last had to put the fatest girl in the school on his back piggy back style and do a lap around the yard - i **** you not!
- I believe after I left he would weigh the fat kids on a weekly basis and ridicule them.

I used to wet the bed and all sorts i was so afraid going in every day.
I'm actually still quite bitter that those were the times back then and doctors, priests and teachers authority wasn't questioned by the older generation.

Have you ever returned to the school or spoken to someone about it?.

I won't say where I went to school here but shortly after it and some of the teachers who I knew very well were mentioned in the Ferns report the school was mostly demolished.

Although its less than a kilometer from where I work I avoided going near it for years (like you we'd some absolute monsters in the guise of Christian Brothers, cunts
.

Anyway, I sought permission to go into the school grounds (parts of the school was still being used but it wasn't a Christian Brothers school anymore). I explained my past connection with the school and the Ferns report.

It was well worth my while going back, walking around the old yards and sheds, remembering where those bastards dished out awful beatings.

I could go on, but I won't. I've wrote about it here before.

I'm glad I went back and put some ghosts to rest. Thankfully the shower of pricks are all dead now, I hope they died screaming.. Thankfully I wasn't a boarder, God only knows what those lads put up with.

RhubarbCrumble · 19-12-2019 01:26AM

gabe1977 wrote: »

I went to a rural National school until the late 1980's where 4th, 5th and 6th were taught by the one teacher.

He was nothing short of an animal.
I was told "the only place I would end up was Mountjoy" for the crime of not being the best at having my homework done. I nor any the rest of the kids were unruly, just stuff like not having homework done, forgetting things, maybe saying the odd word to your classmate etc. but we were all absolutely terrified of him.

His punishments included:

- Heavy role books smashed on top of your head.
- Slapped students across the face (once banging a classmates head of the door frame cutting his head)
- Sellotaping our mouths closed.
- Force feeding us mustard.
- Rulers broken across your knuckles
- Vicious insults (told one girl when i was in 6th class she'd need to lose weight or she'd bring the plane down when she answered a question on what she wanted to be when she grew up and she replied an air hostess)
- PE was sprinting around the school yard and the person who came last had to put the fatest girl in the school on his back piggy back style and do a lap around the yard - i **** you not!
- I believe after I left he would weigh the fat kids on a weekly basis and ridicule them.

I used to wet the bed and all sorts i was so afraid going in every day.
I'm actually still quite bitter that those were the times back then and doctors, priests and teachers authority wasn't questioned by the older generation.

I went to a rural primary school too and in 3rd and 4th class (1989/1990) had a teacher very very similar to what you've mentioned there.
An absolute and utter bullying b***h.
The way she treated me (and others) definitely had an impact on me and it stayed with me for a long time afterwards.
I saw her in a shopping centre two years ago and actually got so upset that I had to go out to my car where I ended up in tears.

I rarely use the word, but she was an absolute c**t. There's no other word to describe her.

Quantum Erasure · 19-12-2019 01:31AM

they were always saying that to me in school.
the kids were the worst... 'those that can, do. those who can't. teach' is what they used to say

wiggle16 · 19-12-2019 02:07AM

My maths teacher once called me a "f#cking retard".

In fairness he was having a really, really bad day.

Charles Babbage · 19-12-2019 02:24AM

My music teacher said that I couldn't sing.

endacl · 19-12-2019 02:26AM

Pretty sure I was told stuff by teachers. I was there for years. Don’t remember a single thing though. I was pretty vacant during those years...

Oddly enough, I’m a teacher now.

Lefty Bicek · 19-12-2019 02:26AM

Charles Babbage wrote: »

My music teacher said that I couldn't sing.

No bother with your maths teacher, presumably ?

Ficheall · 19-12-2019 06:14AM

I was always one of the top students in the school and great things were expected. I sure showed them.

RayCon · 19-12-2019 09:18AM

Charles Babbage wrote: »

My music teacher said that I couldn't sing.

Same here .... and in fairness to him he was 100% correct.

sbsquarepants · 19-12-2019 09:39AM

My 1st year religion teacher, in my 2nd or 3rd religion class in my new school (A nun who's name I now can't remember, but who's face is etched in my memory) had me stand in the back of the class and told the class to laugh at the thought of me being refused entry at the pearly gates. Now laugh at the though of him burning for eternity.

My crime was asking the question, "if everything requires a maker, why doesn't god?"

That's very christian behaviour i opined. Irony alas was not her thing. She basically specialised in the auld sadism i think!:D

That was also my last ever religion class. So cheers for that Sr. Whatsyourname. I reckon if there is a lake of fire, you'll be doing the backstroke in the lane next to me!

boombang · 19-12-2019 12:37PM

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I've seen how After Hours usually speaks of Travellers.

Surely you're effectively doing the same thing to their kids.

Really don't see how calling people out on bad behaviour equals putting people down unnecessarily.

KevRossi · 19-12-2019 12:39PM

I did history up to the Inter Cert (old Junior Cert), despised the teacher, so dropped it for the Leaving initially. Used to read the history book for leaving cert in supervised study and i always had a deep interest in politics/history, especially 20th Century stuff. Anyway, I decided to do history for the leaving as an extra subject and I got a C in it. Showed it to the teacher the day we got the results and he actually went into a rage, threatening to call the Guards unless I left the school grounds.

A priest in the same school always despised me, when he saw my results and realised that I got what I wanted in Uni, he openly accused me of cheating and continued that for a few years afterwards. Total cnut and an utter shlt to a lot of other lads. He died in his 50's.

take everything · 19-12-2019 01:02PM

Well the principal in my school told me I should aim for Bs rather than As.

No sign of him when I got straight As.
Never liked him anyway. Prick.

Edit: actually that felt weirdly cathartic.

Charles Babbage · 19-12-2019 01:05PM

Lefty Bicek wrote: »

No bother with your maths teacher, presumably ?

No. But the Physics teacher wasn't impressed when I pointed out he was talking bollix.

partyguinness · 19-12-2019 01:39PM

Never said to me but then again I was one of the best in the class but this also meant I was a real smart ass- I was clever and I knew it the worst kind. To be fair I was not the only one. I would have hated to have my younger self as a pupil

In fact years later one of our primary teachers begrudgingly said that we were by far the best class he ever had in terms of ability during his 40 odd years but he also said we were the biggest showers of pricks/**** he ever came across. This was pretty much borne out by the fact by the amount of lawyers, doctors, scientists the year produced and university graduates. From a small rural primary school it was unheard of in our parish. No other year came even remotely close. Even the guys who into the trades are **** hot with national awards.

We got to the stage at LC that we openly ignored our teachers as idiots because they were so used to teaching pupils who had no academic ambition (went farming or into the local factories or trades) whatsoever the teachers likewise did not care anymore. Our contempt for the teachers was barely disguised and we succeeded despite them- all since retired thankfully.

I got regular wallops across the face and smacked with rulers and sticks. While not condoning it I can safely say I deserved it 100% of the time (during the 1980s).

Claw Hammer · 19-12-2019 01:56PM

A lot of the time the teachers were dead right. The most a lot of my former schoolmates can do is post photos o themselves on facebook drinking pints and posting nonsense about politics with bad spelling and displaying considerable ignorance of politics and economics.

Lefty Bicek · 19-12-2019 02:00PM

Claw Hammer wrote: »

A lot of the time the teachers were dead right. The most a lot of my former schoolmates can do is post photos o themselves on facebook drinking pints and posting nonsense about politics with bad spelling and displaying considerable ignorance of politics and economics.

How's their punctuation ?

Dakota Dan · 19-12-2019 02:11PM

gabe1977 wrote: »

I went to a rural National school until the late 1980's where 4th, 5th and 6th were taught by the one teacher.

He was nothing short of an animal.
I was told "the only place I would end up was Mountjoy" for the crime of not being the best at having my homework done. I nor any the rest of the kids were unruly, just stuff like not having homework done, forgetting things, maybe saying the odd word to your classmate etc. but we were all absolutely terrified of him.

His punishments included:

- Heavy role books smashed on top of your head.
- Slapped students across the face (once banging a classmates head of the door frame cutting his head)
- Sellotaping our mouths closed.
- Force feeding us mustard.
- Rulers broken across your knuckles
- Vicious insults (told one girl when i was in 6th class she'd need to lose weight or she'd bring the plane down when she answered a question on what she wanted to be when she grew up and she replied an air hostess)
- PE was sprinting around the school yard and the person who came last had to put the fatest girl in the school on his back piggy back style and do a lap around the yard - i **** you not!
- I believe after I left he would weigh the fat kids on a weekly basis and ridicule them.

I used to wet the bed and all sorts i was so afraid going in every day.
I'm actually still quite bitter that those were the times back then and doctors, priests and teachers authority wasn't questioned by the older generation.

Will somebody please pass the salt?

hibble · 19-12-2019 02:13PM

Lefty Bicek wrote: »

How's their punctuation ?

Hopefully, better than his grammar and proof reading skills.

RWCNT · 19-12-2019 02:26PM

gabe1977 wrote: »

I'm actually still quite bitter that those were the times back then and doctors, priests and teachers authority wasn't questioned by the older generation.

I'm young enough to have escaped this period, thankfully. But the stories I hear from older relatives about this are heartbreaking. I think a state apology is in order to be honest.

Conor Bourke · 19-12-2019 02:26PM

Mostly I got told the opposite: that I could possibly achieve greatness if I would just concentrate/work harder/stop chatting and daydreaming.

My junior cert french teacher and I took an instant dislike to each other from day one in first year, her class was not a pleasant place and I remember her making many inappropriate remarks to my classmates including comparing people less favourably to their siblings and being disparaging about her estimation of your general intelligence. I wasn’t disruptive in school but fairly disorganised and talkative, I now realise how irritating that must have been for teachers but there was never any badness in it from me. I don’t remember what started this particular row with Ms. French Teacher one day at the start of third year but it ended with her telling me that the sight of me made her sick so I told her the feeling was mutual and walked out. I can’t even remember what I did next but my parents obviously got involved. I sat in her classes for the rest of the year but barely participated, did my work through grinds instead and got an A in the JC.

DrPhilG · 19-12-2019 02:47PM

Wen I was in infance my teecher told my moter that I was stoopid and wood never be able too reed or rite.

OK the spelling above was a joke, but serious about the teacher. She did tell my mother that.

is_that_so · 19-12-2019 02:54PM

Had a teacher who used to go round the class testing our Irish grammar knowledge and dispatching the "dunces", often nearly the entire class, to the line. Then he'd rant at us about our poor future exam results. We wised up after about 4 months that this was how he taught and the line was down to only a handful of miscreants. As a class, we gave him the best ever results in the Inter Cert and he just muttered that the examiners must have been drunk! I think he might have been pleased!

"At school I was told I would amount to nothing"

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