WTF moments from childhood

[Lyannaa]

I vividly remember sitting in a circle at primary school and playing a game (facilitated by teachers). It was a variation on ‘spin the bottle’ and this boy named the girl he wanted to kiss. The feeling was not mutual from her end and she began running around and around the circle, trying to evade both the boy and the disgraceful teachers trying to hold her down. Vile. How was this a thing? All I remember was sitting there thinking ‘thank goodness this isn’t me’.

This was 1989…

Were adults taught that that shaming and humiliating kids was the way to go do you think? I can remember being at home playing out and it was hot so we were having water fights and I was in my swimming costume. Got called in by my mum to go into town, I didn't come quickly enough so as punishment she wouldn;t allow me to get dressed and I had to go shopping in my swimming costume. I can still remember the feeling of total shame and praying I didn't see anyone from school. That will have been early 80's, i was junior school age not sure exactly how old.

We used to do a dance in PE called The ' Gay Gordons', anyone remember that?

When my mum was at school (she's 84) they had a "flat" in school set up like a home where secondary aged girls learnt to clean, iron, make the bed etc. Meanwhile, the boys did metalwork and woodwork. Learning how to keep house was definitely a role for girls only! Pretty shocking by today's standards.

You're not wrong. In the 70s there was a pop song called
' Leap up and down wave your knickers in the air'!

I went to a ball once with my family. I am severely dyspraxic... I had quite a low cut ball gown on. My Dad hag a few drinks and swept me on the floor to do the GGs. I remember him vividly yelling "Swoop, swoop!!" at me and being terrified I was going to fall out of the front of my dress!!! 🤯 🤯

Having my pencil snapped and made to sit on my left hand in primary school when learning to write. My mum and sister are both left handed, I'm right handed for writing but ambidextrous for every thing else.

Who knew that Crunchem Hall was real?

Cut your losses. Stop hoping he’ll marry you,evidently he doesn’t want to.
If relationship is rocky hardly surprising he’s fondly recalling a past relationship

Tell us what paedophile free utopia do you come from? Yes Saville was a sick fucker but he fooled many, they are not all idiots. Good for you for spotting it but how many others have you misjudged? A society where someone is claimed to be a paedophile based on their looks sounds like a very dangerous place to be.

@marmamia , for me, at least, knickers is a joke word. I’m using the word for effect. If I wanted to talk about the base layer for below the waist I’d say pants.

There are probably universally understood technical differences between bloomers, knickers, briefs and so on, but the words can also be used for general comic effect.

I agree that the behaviour of many of the teachers reported on this thread is egregious. What a blessing that there’s so much emphasis on safeguarding now.

Something which can be forgotten is that in the 50s and 60s, as Europe was recovering from WW2, some families were extremely poor. Outside toilets were common, ie no indoor plumbing except in the kitchen at the back of the house so no bath. My first primary school had only outside toilets and none of the schools I went to had showers. Taking a top layer off and wearing just vest and pants for PE was more practical than needing special clothes.

@Newbie887 we also visited a crocodile park in the Gambia and stroked Charlie! (Are all crocodiles called Charlie?). Given we were young but adult and completely sober, there was absolutely no excuse for such stupidity. As a consequence, I've made quite point of drumming the dangers of stroking, holding, petting wild animals into dc and can only hope they've taken the advice on board. Nevertheless, the photos are great but guaranteed to reduce me to hysterics as I image Charlie bursting into life and glamping his jaws around my arm! The crocodile's keeper was with us but there's no sign of our guide in the photos; I assume he'd had the sense to remain somewhere safe.

It was normal in each class that the teacher would have a yard stick - which were quite flimsy - meant to dry lines on the chalk board.

The only male teacher we had in the whole school had this special yard stick which was a good half inch thick. He would hold it behind his neck and drape his arms over it as he'd walk around the room spouting wisdom. But if you misbehaved he'd quickly grab it and twack it down on your desk and regularly caught people unawares and cracked it on their hands.

I never gave him cause to do this but did misbehave one day and he made a concession for me as I was nearly a year younger than anyone else in the class. He picked my up by the back of my shirt, flung me over his knees, lifted my skirt and spanked me on my knickers with his yard stick instead. Not sure what part of that bothered me the most. Still not sure either.

Infant school in the early 60's, I was picked on by the teacher for not knowing the time on the big clock she was holding. I had just returned to school after yet another bout of tonsillitis and the class had learned to tell the time when I was off sick. She kept insisting that I DID know what the time was and she reduced me to sobbing tears in front of the whole class. I go really blotchy when I cry (still do!) and it takes ages for it to go down, she eventually stopped asking me the time and went to get some wet paper towels to put on my face to try to calm it down, all the time saying to me "don't tell your mum about this, don't tell your mum". I did tell my mum eventually and even though I am in my mid 60's I still get anxious if anyone asks me what time it is!

In the early 00’s in year 7 (so age 11-12) having to walk the long way to and from school to avoid workmen who wolf whistled and cat called … I was in my school uniform and absolutely looked my age. Disgusting. It happened to me the whole way through secondary school like my uniform was a magnet 🤢 As an adult looking back it’s even more sick

Yup I had this too, so awful!

Late 60s school trips for the favoured few (I was one) - we would go off in the teachers estate car with 4 in the car and 2 in the boot.

@ANonEMouseYouSir I remember similar. We had to weigh ourselves at home as homework, I remember the science teacher saying to me 'well I think you weigh more that that' when I said my (made up) weight - I was mortified as was definitely one of the bigger girls at that age.

No, people I referred to are either retired or dead.
It was a long time ago, but the consequences on my generation are dire.
(Women with MH problems, men - boys in prison for bullying and violence, my step sister in a MH institution, my cousin chose not to live anymore at 27).

Sounds very similar, although I don't remember teachers groping pupils, one was later charged with keeping indecent images of minors....

Forgot to mention that in the sixth form we all thought it was cool that Jane* who had just turned 16 had a boyfriend who was 34

*Not her real name

Brownie’s in the mid 90’s. It was a summer camp where our whole brownie camp went away Monday-Friday. It wasn’t tent camping, you slept in bunk beds in a large country house. I remember having to line up to wash in a middle of big hall. You were given a washing-up bucket of warm water to stand in and a sponge. The brownie leaders (all women) were sat along the end of the hall watching the entire thing like judges on xfactor. Me and my friend were one of the youngest brownies at the time maybe 7 years old but I thought the whole set up was completely strange and so uncomfortable because were communal working showers.

One of the girls in my year was close 'friends' with one of the female PE teachers. On a school ski trip (we were all 15 years old) they shared a bedroom whilst the rest of us were in dorms....

Some of it was innocent and just a nice thing to do.
We had one teacher who at the end of 6th year (Scotland) invited some of us for dinner. We met his wife who was lovely, had a very civilised meal where we spoke about our futures and what we hoped to do. The two of them wished us well and our parents picked us up. There was nothing sinister, no alcohol etc.
Another teacher we became friends with towards the end of school and a group of us remained in touch with her through uni- she was a lovely person who had a genuine interest in our wellbeing.

One of my GCSE teachers needed a long period of time on the sick. She selected a few pupils, who she felt had the best chance of passing the exam, to come to her house for lessons. By today's standards this isn't OK as we shouldn't have been in her house, but in hindsight I feel bad for the pupils who weren't picked to go. What message did they get about themselves? This was in the 90s.

We had this and I’m in my 50s! But we also did woodwork and metalwork as girls

We had it too. All girls school. Had to cook and serve meals to staff. 1980's