Hello Miss

You should try living On a small island ?

geekesse my two were scouts and that’s a very sweet anecdote . Sometimes even though when they have grown into men, the little boy is never that far from the surface.

Eloethan Before retirement DMiL found meeting the parents of her pupils locally all the time, was like eating a box of chocolates. Meeting (eating) a few now and again is nice, but eating a box at a time/seeing several every time you left the house can become too much of a good thing.

I would have thought it would be nice to see former pupils and to be greeted in such a respectful way. It makes me wonder if some people followed the wrong profession.

I do understand that on occasion it might be embarrassing or uncomfortable, but still .....

My sister was a teacher. She always insisted on living at least 20 miles from any school she taught in, well away from the catchment area, to limit her chances of seeing any of her pupils out of school.

DMiL only lived a couple of hundred yards from the school she worked in, so stood no chance, but she did say that after retirement it was nice meeting pupils, long grown up, who always greeted her, if she met them in the High Street. She was a popular and well respected teacher.

My DH grew up in a large town where you could go from one end of the year to the other without bumping into a teacher.

In the early 80s we moved to this small town where he taught at the local Gymnasium (Grammar School). He never did get used to meeting pupils everywhere - or their parents, as they would be working in the Bank or bookshops, were doctors or we would bump into at concerts, in church, at the theatre - you couldn't get away from them. But the subject of conversation was never about the children's schooling, just a short exchange of small talk.

He also sometimes has to apologise to an ex pupil that he can't remember them or their names. After all, they have grown up, often beyond recognition, and he did have more than half the pupils in each year for 40 years.

One teacher I knew arrived on her pre-wedding honeymoon (there was a reason) to be greeted in the hotel foyer by a child and family from her class; another one took off her bikini top on a large flat rock by a river in France to hear, Hello , Mrs....... as the child splashed past.

I used to be a Beaver Scout leader (boys 6-8). Many’s the time I’ve been in a supermarket or pub and a hulking young man in his 20s has come up to me, offered his left hand for a scout handshake, and said ‘Hello, Badger’. The only problem is that I usually don’t recognise them and can’t remember their names.

Before I retired, and was dependent upon school holidays, I bumped into pupils at the the airport, then different pupils at the resort in Majorca. It was more embarrassing for them than me. I've always lived near or in the catchment area so I have often heard, "Hello Miss." Usually from boys who I didn't actually teach, who were extremely difficult but who loved to tell me how they were at college, had their own place, had become a father etc. I really enjoyed meeting them and listening to their news. Especially as they had left school!

My DC have bumped into their ex-teachers in far-flung places of the world!
There's no escaping ex-pupils. Sorry.

I ended up one summer partnering a student from my school in mixed doubles matches . Opposition thought it must amusing when he’d shout “good shot Miss!”

My daughter said she is glad she lives a long way from the college she teaches at as she is unlikely to meet any of her students when she is out in her neighbourhood.

I agree, students not the problem their damn parents another thing altogether !!

'Hello you two'

Teachers to me and a friend hanging out in the saloon bar of the school's local, as fifth formers......

I try to book holidays in places where children are not welcome. Just occasionally, I encounter a child. I peer over the top of my sunglasses and ask them gravely what homework they have for the holiday. Or, if camping, I hunch over my primus and mutter ‘I eat children for breakfast’. Either way, they don’t come near me again.

It’s not the kids I dread, it’s the parents, who think that any time they see you, it’s a free parents’ evening. I live and work some considerable distance from the capital, but occasionally go up to town to meet my daughter for lunch or dinner. On one occasion, well into the summer holiday, we had agreed to meet in Covent Garden, and as I waited, I was spotted by a parent. Her first words to me were ‘This is convenient. I was hoping to talk to you about xxx’s performance in her school exam in May.’

The first thing my DMiL did after retiring from 30 years as a reception class teacher, was go on holiday in term time.

She, husband and son, were very early pioneers of package holidays to Majorca (late 1950s)I think because it limited the chance of someone coming up to her and saying 'Hello Miss'