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…

Our PE teacher in the 70’s used to make us all strip naked for a communal shower. And whip us with towel if we didn’t keep moving. It was so embarrassing

Catholic school in early 80s, age 10/11 in yr 7.
One of the teachers, no idea why, stood at front of class and declared ‘Of course we have 2 broken homes in this class’. I remember thinking “I know X is one, who is the other … oh it’s me”
No idea what she went on to say as I was livid for my wonderful mum being labelled like this.

Being poked hard in the back of the head by a teacher for not writing fast enough. 1994

sneaking off with the biology teacher for a cigarette at lunch time 2002 (and not old enough to smoke)

sharing a bottle of vodka with friends and our form tutor at year 11 prom

the list goes on for me 🤣

Mid 1960's Grammar School, our RE teacher used to go and sit next to a random boy on his bench seat, put his arms round his shoulders and start nuzzling his ear, did this every lesson to a different boy. I was a bit naive, and didn't know the teacher was gay until a worldly wise girl told me. Other teachers took the piss out of unusual surnames of pupils.

I had that done to me early 70s at nursery.. mouth held open and made to eat..and as expected it made a reappearance.😝

Primary school- there was a village parade in the Summer and each year the school chose a Carnival Queen and 2 'attendants'. The way this was done was that all the boys in the final year of the school were asked to vote for the prettiest girl in the year and the 3 who got most votes were chosen.

Senior school- in first year seniors (age 11), after everyone had arrived at school there was a snow fall that made the roads difficult and buses stopped running (very unusual in that part of the country). We were all simply told to leave- even though the school knew that the buses were not running and some of us lived quite a long way away. It was 80s, so no mobile phones etc to contact parents either.

6th form- head of 6th form (woman in her 40s) befriended some of the girls and regularly had them over to her house for sleepovers/parties etc. They would talk/giggle etc quite openly with her about which of her male friends they fancied and a couple of them ended up going out with men they met there. These girls were given special treatment at school including a room to hang out, store their belongings, get changed etc that no one else was allowed to use. A few students complained to the Head Teacher that this was unfair and his response was that they were very mature young women and had to be treated as such. As an adult, I wonder if the Head was a guest at the parties etc

70s Brownies, we did those type badges and played games around who had helped mummy doing chores..a) I wasn't allowed to do chores and b) I was a tomboy who wanted to do the stuff the boys did..I wanted to play bulldog with the cubs in the next room...I didn't last long! ( no going to anyone else to do jobs thankfully, although that would have been vetoed by DGM)

A female teacher (about 60+) in my last year of catholic primary school, post swimming lessons, used to spend a much, much longer time supervising the boys than she did girls (separate changing rooms).

Wondering if we went to the same school!!!

Then there was the Home Ec class. We had to copy down the next week’s recipe from the black board. I’m dyslexic and first got mocked for not being able to pronounce the word plait, then got shamed for copying down the wrong recipe. I’d copied down the bread recipe which was ‘clearly stupid’ as it was ‘far too difficult for a little girl like’ me. I’d been making bread for years but just held back tears from the public shaming.

I remember wearing the navy knickers, white t-shirt & really short pe skirt even in winter playing hockey/netball, our sports field was facing a main road as well.

My parents thought it was ok for me at the age of 14 to date a man age 20, no shits given at all this was the late 90’s.

A male friend aged 50ish went to a private boys school. When PE was swimming it had to be done naked. And it was an outdoor pool - wtf.

I got sent home sick one day. No one phoned ahead to let them know. I had to walk 20mins home by myself and felt so ill I had to sit on the pavement for a while. Luckily my granny was at home- mum was at work. I was mid primary age 1970s

😮😮😮

Another 80s childhood here, with PE being done in pants and vests at a young age and then the awful gym knickers aged about 11-16. We also had the enforced communal showers with a female or male teacher standing guard to make sure we went in.

At my prep school we had an outdoor above ground pool which in my memory was huge, at least 50m long but in reality was probably an ordinary 25m pool. We would all have to walk out of the school building in just our bathing suits, climb the ladder, shuffle sideways along the narrow metal rim and then all 15 of us would have to dive in at the same time to swim lengths. In the winter we might have to break a thin layer of ice on occasion before we could swim.

I remember everything being publically ranked at school, from cross country to history to maths to cookery. I don’t recall being bothered by that, but I was sporty and academic, it must have been awful for those who weren’t. My son’s school also ranks them for every subject but only privately.

1. We did the Can-Can in a show at school in full costume...
2. I was in a Show where all the boys French kissed the girls during a blackout. It was my first one and truly horrible. (Not scripted btw!)

Late 1990’s, A level field trip. I was the only one in my class that wanted to do a particular project. The class divided into project groups and each got assigned a teacher. My group was obviously just me, my science teacher told me to make up the results and took me to the pub for lunch where he bought me fish and chips and a vodka and coke! I was the youngest in my year so hadn’t long turned 16!
He was genuinely the nicest man. Not a bad bone about him. Still in touch even now 30 years later, but looking back I can’t believe that he did that!

If we forgot pe kit in primary school, we would have to do it in vest and pants

Being told to strip naked ( catholic boarding School dormitory situation)
and being beaten with a slipper by a nun
for talking !!!
wtf
looking back considered normal

Yeah I went to a very small (mixed) private school aged 4-9yrs (this was in the late 70s/early 80s) and we also had to swim in an outdoor pool naked - and the headmaster joined in (also naked)! Think there were some raised eyebrows at the time but can’t believe no parents raised objections! Years later the headmaster was done for interfering with young boys ….. no shit Sherlock!

Nobody’s “good with” kids being naked. The thread is titled ‘WTF moments from childhood’. I think you may be missing the point ….

It's amazing what was normal.

Yes to PE knickers.

Yes to communal showers and no curtains...we also had a creepy male PE teacher who'd 'accidentally' wander in.

We also played hockey in the snow which up north was pretty deep. They painted the ball black to help

We used to have to sit 3 to a seat on the school bus because they wouldn't pay for enough buses. There would also be several standing in the aisle. Bus driver would do emergency stops for a laugh to make everyone fall over. He also used to ping girls' bra straps. He'd be in his thirties.

One male teacher would touch girls hair as he went past them.

God so so many.... The eighties were wild.

Educated by nuns in the 60s and 70s. Where do I start? Not sexual abuse, but they were sadists. We were being taught to be good Catholic wives and mothers. Obedience was the greatest virtue.

They failed with me. I'm not a Catholic, divorced, and the kids went wild.

It does unfortunately. My kids secondary school do start if year tests were they are all ranked in order to out them Into sets. Woukdnt have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself

I remember going to London on a school trip to see the Tutankamun exhibition , this would be early 70s, when the bus pulled there was a very long queue, so the teachers decided we didn't want to wait in that and they set us free in the middle of London, we are from SW Wales, I had been to London before and managed the underground, but we still ended up just wandering around not really knowing were we were, I am sure we went down Soho, and luckily everybody managed to find their way back to the bus and get home safe not really sure how. I would have been livid if this had happened to my daughter.