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

josip · 03-03-2021 7:40pm

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 · 03-03-2021 7:44pm

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 · 03-03-2021 7:52pm

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 · 03-03-2021 8:18pm

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 · 03-03-2021 8:35pm

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 · 03-03-2021 8:45pm

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.

03-03-2021 8:55pm

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 · 03-03-2021 9:29pm

We’d a teacher who used to pick his nose and wipe it in his beard &#55358;&#56610;

03-03-2021 9:59pm

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.

03-03-2021 10:25pm

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....

beggars_bush · 03-03-2021 10:34pm

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

A school in Raheny by any chance?

No! A long way from there actually

03-03-2021 10:51pm

beggars_bush wrote: »

No! A long way from there actually

Ah, sounded familiar. They must make woodwork teachers a certain way

Sgt Hartman · 03-03-2021 10:52pm

I had this terrifying wagon of a teacher in 3rd class in CBS Limerick who was not shy about using corporal punishment. She was a middle aged wan with a big bouffant head of black curls and a pair of dark sunglasses permanently affixed to her face. She had these knobbly rings on her fingers which would hurt a lot when she would knuckle you into the back of the head. I'll never forget the day she repeatedly slapped one of the kids into the back of the head after he was messing in class, she was clattering the head off him. She was a vicious bitch and I was terrified of her. This was back in 1988.
Her equally vicious daughter took over our class for about two weeks. She was another frustrated wagon with mad eyes and an 80's head of bouffant hair. She wouldn't hit us but her shrieking screams would curdle your blood.

NIMAN · 03-03-2021 10:54pm

Used to have a guy at secondary school who would send students across the street to the local shop to buy a lb block of cheese.

Occasionally also sent for fish and chips from the chipper.

L1011 · 03-03-2021 10:57pm

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

Ah, sounded familiar. They must make woodwork teachers a certain way

Same in my place, not a huge distance from, but also not really that near Raheny.

Throwing chisels, if he was absolutely sure they weren't going to hit anyone, was another. He'd then retrieve it and if it had been nicked by its ordeal of getting stuck in the floor/wall/desk, make a show out of sharpening it on the giant oilstone setup he had.

fryup · 03-03-2021 11:27pm

Sgt Hartman wrote: »

She was another frustrated wagon with mad eyes and an 80's head of bouffant hair. She wouldn't hit us but her shrieking screams would curdle your blood.

yep, thats it in a nutshell...sexless

they then take out their inner emotional frustrations on poor defenceless children

War ensemble · 03-03-2021 11:42pm

I was playing hurling for the school team and had a match after school so I had my hurl in with me. Anyway the Irish teacher took my hurl and started swinging it and pointing with it during the class, trying to look hard maybe. Who knows. Towards the end of class one of the guys near me was chatting or messing and the teacher hit him a fair crack of the hurl on his arm. He was in fair pain but the bell rang shortly afterwards and we left. I kinda forgot about it until a few days laterthe other lad arrives into school with a cast on his arm. The teacher had broken his arm. Needless to say the teacher **** a brick when he seen him. Offered to pay all the costs. Apologised etc. Unbelievably nothing happened to the teacher. No assault charge. Didn't lose his job. Nothing. I even heard he became vice principal before he retired !

Neames · 03-03-2021 11:49pm

A few Christian brothers used to beat the crap out of us.

Repressed men full of hate.

We didn't think it was strange at the time which is sad really.

I look at the education and care my daughter receives now and think to myself what a complete horror we went through.

Ten of Swords · 03-03-2021 11:59pm

A number of posts dropping hints about the identity of some teachers referred to in this thread have been deleted.

Anyone naming, or hinting at the identity of, teachers in this thread will face a minimum of a threadban

bnt · 04-03-2021 12:07am

I spent most of my school years in South Africa, and in the equivalent of Fifth Class (I think) here, we had a female teacher who looked a lot like Bo Derek. (Look up some photos if you don’t know who that is.) Every other week (when it was warm enough) we would have a swimming class in an outdoor pool, and our teacher would put on a bikini and sunbathe while the rest of us swam.

I was one of the youngest kids in the class, too young to fully appreciate what I was looking at, but still have some memories. Some of the older boys would hang around her like flies, to the point where I remember her telling them to go away. I also remember she was just a good teacher in general, a bit of a hippie chick but very encouraging to shy kids like me. I literally can not remember anything about the teacher I had the following year, and then it was high school. The teachers there really made my earlier teacher stand out as very unusual, in a good way.

The Mighty Quinn · 04-03-2021 12:14am

But in the town it was well known
When they got home at night, their fat and
Psychopathic wives would thrash them
Within inches of their lives!

bnt · 04-03-2021 12:23am

Another “strange” thing a teacher did - still in South Africa, 2nd last year of high school. A few weeks in to the year we moved to a different part of the country, so I had to start in a new school where I knew no-one. In my second week there, first class on Monday morning was English: I arrive before the bell, and all the other students just sat there in silence, no-one saying anything. I had no idea what was happening, so I asked something like “what’s going on, who died?”

The English teacher had died, over the weekend. I was off to a good start...

Ryertex · 04-03-2021 12:56am

First class in primary school when we went for PE the teacher would often have us practicing scrums with a basketball. It would have been late sixties in a CBS and I’m sure “the ban” was still in force so probably a bit unusual. I remember going home one day with a big bump on my forehead after the scrum collapsed onto the tiled floor.

Yeah_Right · 04-03-2021 11:48am

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

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.

Fair enough. One story I remember that might fit... In 6th form (16-17 years old) we went on PE camp. about 100 students, maybe a dozen teachers all staying in old army barracks for 4 nights. It was a lot of fun (co-ed school

) Each afternoon a group of students and a couple of teachers would hike a couple of hours or so along the coast and over some hills to stay overnight in tents, cook on open fire etc. On the last night 2 of the teachers did the hike in the pitch dark and let down all the tents while people were sleeping in them and then hiked back.

I've just remembered that one of those teachers started dating the former deputy head-girl about a month after she graduated. He would have been late 20s or early 30s.

Feisar · 04-03-2021 11:55am

Yeah_Right wrote: »

Fair enough. One story I remember that might fit... In 6th form (16-17 years old) we went on PE camp. about 100 students, maybe a dozen teachers all staying in old army barracks for 4 nights. It was a lot of fun (co-ed school ) Each afternoon a group of students and a couple of teachers would hike a couple of hours or so along the coast and over some hills to stay overnight in tents, cook on open fire etc. On the last night 2 of the teachers did the hike in the pitch dark and let down all the tents while people were sleeping in them and then hiked back.

I've just remembered that one of those teachers started dating the former deputy head-girl about a month after she graduated. He would have been late 20s or early 30s.

:pac::pac::pac:

Keyzer · 04-03-2021 1:45pm

I posted already in here but when I think back on my school days, its a miracle the teachers didn't box the head off us all day.

Some of the stuff we did was insane. We went through a phase of bring our mothers hairspray canisters into school, spray them on each other and then set each other on fire. Hilarious at the time.

ShatterAlan · 04-03-2021 4:07pm

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

As a teacher working in a very small school, I had to bring an infant to get their head stitched . It was pre-mobile phone times ( the school phone was the old black button a type)
I put the child lying on coats in the back seat of my car and drove to the gp in the nearest town . I ended up with the child sitting on my lap when they were being stitched.
Now, that story could be spun to be “ weird” in a more sinister sense , but the child’s mother actually got me a gift ( this was the early 90s, most unusual ) and wrote me a beautiful letter, which I still have .

Nice one. The little kid was probably frightened and upset and outside of sitting on a parent's knee while in a strange and scary place the next best thing would be a neighbour or teacher.

If it was my child I would have bought you a gift too.

Lollipops23 · 04-03-2021 5:44pm

We had a physics teacher in the early 00s who looked like Hagrid. He let us play with liquid mercury. For the craic.

Ubbquittious · 04-03-2021 7:57pm

Im glad to see boards are still sticking up for the rights of violent school teachers. I was starting to feel sorry for them, imagine the horror in their eyes when they're sitting in their comfy armchairs at 80+ years old and discover all their dirty secrets are being spewed out on the public interwebs

Paddycrumlinman · 04-03-2021 9:23pm

6 of the best with two of those yellow wooden rulers. Teacher would make you put your hand out, 6 whacks, big ones and if you pulled your hand away he'd start from the beginning.

Same teacher is in prison for abusing boys, creepy person obviously.

PhilOssophy · 04-03-2021 10:26pm

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Im glad to see boards are still sticking up for the rights of violent school teachers. I was starting to feel sorry for them, imagine the horror in their eyes when they're sitting in their comfy armchairs at 80+ years old and discover all their dirty secrets are being spewed out on the public interwebs

Or rightly heading for the slammer in some cases

angel eyes 2012 · 04-03-2021 11:08pm

We had a science teacher that was obsessed with films. Instead of learning about bunsen burners or whatever, he would roll in the tv and video and put the latest film on that he had watched the night before. It was usually an extra-vision rental.

He had a thing for Marilyn Monroe and the Curtis family for some reason. So there we were 20 or so ,15 year old girls watching Some Like it Hot and True Lies on repeat. We would have Roddy Doyle weeks too, the Snapper, the Commitments... and the teacher would give an indepth analysis of each film and the actors involved.

I dropped Science after the Junior Certificate as I knew the films would continue and I couldn't risk getting him again. But great times all the same.

kildare lad · 04-03-2021 11:19pm

In primary school we used to have a teacher who'd send you out to the shelter if you were talking in class . She come out and grab you by the top of the jumper and start shaking you back and forward telling you to stop messing . It'd actually be quite sore cause he wore lots of rings and they'd be digging into your shoulders everytime he was shaking you. We'd another teacher that used to pull you up out of the seat by the ears and throw you out of the classroom for talking ,

Its nothing compared to what happened my dad when they got in trouble . He said their teacher was an melted bxitch . She used to bring the kids underneath a bridge that was beside the school and whip them in the ass. I'd an uncle who got his jaw broken by a christian brother aswell. It's a bit more psychotic than strange I suppose.

AlejGuzman68 · 05-03-2021 12:22am

Woodworking teacher cut off 2 of his fingers being distracted by porn while using a band saw.

Purple Mountain · 05-03-2021 12:24am

AlejGuzman68 wrote: »

Woodworking teacher cut off 2 of his fingers being distracted by porn while using a band saw.

We'll need more details...

AlejGuzman68 · 05-03-2021 12:31am

Purple Mountain wrote: »

We'll need more details...

we were too busy cutting pieces for a bird house when it happened. After it happened we went to his desk and saw the porno on his pc.

Purple Mountain · 05-03-2021 12:38am

AlejGuzman68 wrote: »

we were too busy cutting pieces for a bird house when it happened. After it happened we went to his desk and saw the porno on his pc.

Who picked up the fingers for him?

AlejGuzman68 · 05-03-2021 12:40am

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Who picked up the fingers for him?

Well it wasn't us,we was too focused on the porn,lol.

Hangdogroad · 05-03-2021 12:47am

One time in secondary school we got a temporary female religion teacher who was insanely attractive and didnt wear a bra. She was the spit of Theresa Lowe, would wear a tight sweater and her nipples were like bullets. It was nearly all too much for one fella sitting behind me who kept saying to himself "I'll suck her tits dry!".

kildare lad · 05-03-2021 1:17am

AlejGuzman68 wrote: »

Woodworking teacher cut off 2 of his fingers being distracted by porn while using a band saw.

He never saw it coming

Jequ0n · 05-03-2021 8:39am

This thread is a fascinating read. I am glad I didn’t go to school in Ireland

mojesius · 05-03-2021 10:25am

Irish teacher in secondary school used to stick recordings of Ros na Rún on VHS. If there was no episode the night before, she'd spend the class bitching about the principal.

Maths teacher (nun) would go off on a tangent about divorce or abortion, handing out youth defence leaflets.

Geography teacher was lazy as sin. Shame really, as he was quite the genius at the subject. He would tell us we had a test in X topic coming up and we'd have to remind him we hadn't learned that yet. We spent our leaving cert watching Michael Palin around the world documentary. Thankfully my mam sent me to Easter grinds so I scraped a B.

AndrewJRenko · 05-03-2021 11:30am

My 6th class teacher was convicted of sexual assault of students years before me. He had a reputation roaming hands and 'tickling' in our day, but had obviously been worse in his early years.

Sebastian Dangerfield · 05-03-2021 1:07pm

We had a teacher for who covered religion among other classes in secondary. Word around the school was he had entered the priesthood but had dropped out for some unknown reason, that we speculated about wildly. It was left to him to teach us sex education, and he seemed obsessed with the term "mutual masturbation". We'd come into class and he'd have it written on the blackboard. He'd get more nervous and red faced every time he used the term, but couldn't seem to stop himself.

He lived in a B&B in the town, my mother worked there as a cleaner. He loved making jokes about how my mother was in his room that morning in front of the class, but didn't have anywhere near the charisma to pull it off (no pun intended).

thecretinhop · 05-03-2021 1:13pm

talking to my brother about this. he went to same school. an extremely hungover maths teacher. my mother complained priest principle we all have crosses to bare.
geography teacher used grope kids, often stuck his hand down. my brothers pants. Borders got a much worse deal...
moved him to two schools where he did it again. died in mental asylum he was shuffled into.

thecretinhop · 05-03-2021 1:20pm

to lighten the mood after dat lol
I had same maths teacher
one day before he came in we were doing the Mexican wave. we were in them really old desks.
I was beside a red neck yolkle who was morbidly obese.
he got a bit too energetic on one go and put the table 360.
we were front desk so it blocked the door.
very surreal being upside down in a desk with maths teacher trying to get in and class behind going wild..

fryup · 05-03-2021 1:27pm

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

My 6th class teacher was convicted of sexual assault of students years before me. He had a reputation roaming hands and 'tickling' in our day, but had obviously been worse in his early years.

and he was still allowed to teach?? either you're telling porkies or someone in the Dept of Ed should be sacked

Your Face · 05-03-2021 1:29pm

There was this teacher in my secondary school. He was a little aul lad and used to just shuffle around the place.
He never taught me but lads ahead of me said he used to be a terror before he came back after his breakdown.
He used to hate the country lads and he'd pick one in every class to denigrate for the year.
He made a comment to a pupil insinuating that his parents farm was in trouble.
It turned out to be true.
This lad lost it and slapped the lips off the teacher who broke down immediately after the retaliatory slapping session.
Nothing happened to the pupil and the teacher took extended leave.
Lads were dreading this teacher coming back but he was nothing to worry about when he came back.

The Mighty Quinn · 05-03-2021 1:49pm

fryup wrote: »

and he was still allowed to teach?? either you're telling porkies or someone in the Dept of Ed should be sacked

I'd suspect he means after the student left the school, the teacher was convicted of assaulting students that were ahead of the student in school. Not that he was convicted of sexual assault and let continue working.

fryup · 05-03-2021 3:14pm

you should all be listening to Liveline right now,

they're talking about that peado teacher Fr Joe Marmion

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

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