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What your teacher said to you that they wouldn't get away with now.

(114 Posts)
BRedhead59 Sat 24-Sep-16 10:18:29

I was listening to radio 2 yesterday and heard a guy say his PE teacher stood on the touchline with a fag on and shouted "get on with it, you're not on your father's yacht now" It reminded me that I had a maths teacher who said "If you do that again I'll crack your head in that desk like a walnut"
What did your teachers say to you?

granjura Sat 24-Sep-16 10:21:44

Never mind what they said- how about what they did?

As so many things, it has gone from the utterly sublime to the massively ridiculous. Teachers can get sued and lose their job now for saying 'boo'.

Linsco56 Sat 24-Sep-16 10:44:36

I had a chemistry teacher who would regularly throw the wooden handled blackboard duster at anyone he thought wasn't paying attention and finger flick pieces of chalk directly into your face. There were so many teachers with their own sadistic ideas of discipline. They knew very well what they were doing was wrong but the did it because they could.
It was just part of schooling in the 1960s and no one thought to complain. Not that anyone would have listened.

trisher Sat 24-Sep-16 10:53:34

As far as the things they did our maths teacher was probably the worst,he liked to run his hand up and down your back whilst you were sitting working. The older girls said it was to check if you were wearing a bra.

mumofmadboys Sat 24-Sep-16 10:54:20

I had an awful teacher called Mrs B. I remember her telling a boy who was very overweight he could do with foundation garments to hold it all in. She also told us that after Campbell's attempt at the land speed record when he died on Coniston ,his body was later found with his feet still in his boots implying his legs had gone! These memories stick unfortunately!!

BlueBelle Sat 24-Sep-16 11:21:22

Yes we had a board rubber thrower too Linsco very accurate she was an all and a chalk chukker Our sports teacher used to be wrapped in an afghan or a big sheepskin coat complete with boots while we froze and turned blue

My daughter who was never much into sport was told she moved like a baby hippo she was about 10, disgusting

Katek Sat 24-Sep-16 12:40:05

I remember a school padre who used to hit us off the back of the head with a rolled up map of the Holy Land. DH had a games master who used to dip his tawse (belt) in the swimming pool to stiffen the leather. Sadist.

Christinefrance Sat 24-Sep-16 12:52:18

How different times were. I remember a rubber thrower also being rapped across the knuckles with a ruler. If we went home and told our parents we got another slap for misbehaving. No parents going to the school to complain then.

Greyduster Sat 24-Sep-16 13:13:23

I can only ever remember one thing any teacher said to me. We had an Austrian needlework teacher who hated the sight of me (ditto the domestic science teacher). I was never any good at sewing - still am not - and after one particularly disastrous episode, she said to me, in her heavy accent, "You sew like zer blind cow is valking! You are a disgrrrace to my class!" It didn't exactly scar me for life, but I often wonder why it has stuck with me for all these years.

Greyduster Sat 24-Sep-16 13:16:56

I also remember my mother tearing a horrible strip off my piano teacher for hitting me across the knuckles with a ruler, shouting "no one hits my daughter and gets away with it!" This from a woman who walloped me mercilessly at every opportunity confused.

Stansgran Sat 24-Sep-16 15:30:16

Ah yes we had the ex army Major Cole who chucked board rubbers. And his mad wife who wouldn't let you sharpen pencils as you might stick them in each others eyes and blind each other.

Luckygirl Sat 24-Sep-16 16:00:14

Yes - board rubbers and rulers - all that stuff.

As to what they said - one teacher drew a picture on the board of me from behind and said "Are you trying to look like a horse?" (I had a pony tail). A boy in the class put up his hand and told the teacher he thought that was a very rude thing to say - brave lad. Maybe it was him who sent me the Valentine card!!

One teacher at my DD's primary school told one girl she was too ugly to be in the front row of the choir!

Charleygirl Sat 24-Sep-16 16:09:20

My teachers said very little to upset any of us, they just lashed out with the leather tawse with gay abandon. I am amazed that I still have use of my hands!

My rear end did not go unscathed at home using a similar instrument either!

thatbags Sat 24-Sep-16 16:39:23

The only unpleasant teacher I ever had was a PE teacher. She didn't like me. I had no idea why. I was twelve years old. Eventually I complained to my form mistress that the PE teacher was picking on me. Form teacher: "I'm sure she isn't." Me, with growling emphasis: "She is!"

It eased off after that and then in the fifth form (I was sixteen by then) when the same PE teacher was my form mistress I discovered what the problem had been. She asked me if my dad was going to be at the governors' meeting that evening. I said I didn't know. Turned out my dad had been chairman of governors all the time and she didn't like him because she disapproved of his support for getting the Fylde schools changed from grammars and sec mods into comprehensives.

Such a bitch!

gillybob Sat 24-Sep-16 17:12:50

We were going the high jump in athletics and my (chubby) friend made several attempts to get over the bar each time crashing into it. Our bitch of PE teacher said she had reinvented the Fosbury Flop (so???) and renamed it the Donna Drop .

gillybob Sat 24-Sep-16 17:14:03

Sorry about the use of the word chubby. It's horrible .

thatbags Sat 24-Sep-16 17:51:47

Chubby is just a description. Same as thin is. Or black. Or white. Tall, short, etc.

midgey Sat 24-Sep-16 18:22:43

My daughter had a swimming teacher who would tread on children's hands if they clung to the side.

Sunlover Sat 24-Sep-16 18:45:41

How times have changed. I'm 63 and still in school on a regular basis as a supply teacher. Recently I asked a child who was constantly interrupting and disrupting the lesson if he ever 'shut up!' OMG, the group all looked really shocked! I didn't actually tell him to shut up, even though I wanted to! The boy in question burst into tears.
When I was at primary school teachers would shout and smack us. I remember being smacked for getting a knot in my cotton when sewing. Not saying this was right but think we have gone to far the other way and teachers are often treading on eggshells scared of upsetting the child or the parents.

cornergran Sat 24-Sep-16 19:08:59

Not so much what they did or said but more what they didn't do. I was an only child, brought up in an isolated spot, shy, very quiet in class and lacking in confidence. I was fairly bright so there was little academic criticism, although no praise either. Every report said I should speak up more, criticised me for being 'me', there was no help to increase my confidence. Even now (after a solid professional career) I lack confidence and find it difficult to speak up in a group. It could have been so different.

thatbags Sat 24-Sep-16 19:12:52

corner, my DD2's secondary school teachers kept saying she should contribute more in class. It wasn't because she wasn't coping with the work, so at one parent-teacher meeting I asked why she couldn't just stay quiet and get on with stuff if that's what she wanted to do. The answer was that her 'contributions' would help others in the class. While this was flattering to DD, I felt it wasn't her job but the teacher's to help the kids and said so.

cornergran Sat 24-Sep-16 20:38:30

Hope it hasn't adversely impacted your daughter bags. I don't think my parents ever queried it - grammar school teachers were held in high esteem, they wouldn't have questioned them. It's in my mind because I was sorting a box and came across my reports, made me sad. I am very happy to hear the encouragement our grandchildren get now, so it's not all bad smile.

Thingmajig Sat 24-Sep-16 20:43:54

I remember my first year French teacher screaming on a daily basis at us that we weren't so much class 1-o, but were more like 1 nothing, as in not a brain cell between us!

The gym teacher at my primary school would use her gym pump to smack bottoms. She also made those who forgot their gym kit do the class in their underwear.

Don't think child abuse had been invented back then? smile

annodomini Sat 24-Sep-16 21:56:31

Every school in the country must have had a teacher who threw the blackboard rubber. Luckily they have whiteboards nowadays and those old wipers are obsolete. The teacher who taught the top Maths set, used to throw open the classroom door, throw in his belt ahead of him and growl 'I'll pulverise ye'. I am glad to say I was never in the top set for Maths.

thatbags Sat 24-Sep-16 22:20:38

Thank you, corner. DD2 is a confident adult now. It's a great shame that your school experiences had a lasting effect. I agree that kids nowadays get a lot of encouragement and that's how it should be.