Secondary school in the 90s - how much rudeness to teachers was there?

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I was just watching the Netflix series Adolescence with my secondary aged kids and asked them if the depiction of behaviour at the school was like their school. They said it was. In one scene a boy shouts “shut up miss” at a teacher who tells him to get back into class, she does nothing and walks on. In other scenes the kids are just all shouting and messing about in class to the poking the teacher can’t be hear. My kids say that is normal both from the student and the teacher who ignored it.

I went to a very average state comp in the 90s and there were many kids who didn’t work, messed about etc but I don’t remember rudeness to teachers. I don’t even really temper kids disrupting lessons except with a couple of really useless teachers. Am I just blocking out memories of rudeness and very disruptive behaviour or was it not common in the 90s? I don’t remember my school ever giving detentions, let alone isolations, as they weren't needed, a good shout was as bad as punishment got, but at my kids’ school they are using detentions and isolations in large quantities each day.

Nope I can't remember any rudeness either. Not even from the 'naughty/rough/most likely to be in trouble' group of students.

Same. I wonder when it changed.

I went to a Convent, all girls Grammar school in the 90’s. There just would not have been any real bad behaviour. I am so shocked with some of the things my son tells me about crap behaviour in school.

I was teaching in the UK late70s to early 2000s. In every case notably "tough" inner-city comps. There were problems of course, but nothing like that portrayed on "Adolescence" where whole classes have plainly reached the tipping point where rubbish behaviour becomes normalised. Also, personal rudeness was almost unknown, and not because of my basilisk eye.

The change for me became apparent about 2000, when exclusion, due to government edicts, became more difficult, and a piss-poor SMT handballed discipline down to classroom teachers and failed to back them up. Problem with a student? You failed to engage them. Show me your lesson plans.

Arsey parents were very very rare indeed. I'm hard put to use the fingers of one hand to count them.

Not as bad as in Adolescence, but there was definite cheekiness to certain teachers but not others. Very dependent on individual teachers and how tough or soft they were. I do remember one teacher being brought to tears though by difficult kids 😬

I left school in 2001. There was a bit of back chat from the 'naughty' ones. Most of the teachers general complaints were people talking in class and not walking on the correct side of the corridor! Every so often you'd hear of fight but it was a push and shove out on the foot pitch at lunch. Don't remember swearing or walking out of class. Can't remember much shouting especially to teachers. We stood up in class if the head teacher walked in the room.

I’m a teacher and I’ve taught in some rough London comps. Husband too- we’ve worked in some of the same schools but some different ones too. Neither of us recognised what we saw in Adolescence. In fact we thought it was laughable; 90% of those behaviours wouldn’t be accepted anywhere I’ve ever worked (been teaching for almost 20yrs, including in a PRU!) and Mr. Malick would be on performance plan at the very least!

I went to a top well known single sex school in the nineties and there just wasn't this. You had the one or two who sometimes piped up, occasionally someone would walk out of class. We had detentions but it was mostly missed homework.

I went on to work in a couple of secondaries in the noughties and noticed things began changing immensely. My parent was a teacher at that time also and was physically assaulted more than once at one of the schools i worked at. It was unacceptable but the kid wasn't expelled.

My mum left teaching 9 years ago because the ridiculous excess paperwork teachers are expected to do now was taking more and more time away feom her engaging with the kids themselves, she had a rep for being the one teacher any year group pupil could be sent to if there was a problem, she was firm but fair and very quirky and always made sure all kids knew their worth, no matter their behaviour etc. She just no longer had the time to put in and help those kids anymore and it saddened her.

I have one child still in secondary and what happens in the classes and in the playground disgusts me. And unlike when I was at secondary, parents now are getting into bother with each other over things as well, rather than leaving the kids and school to sort out school issues.

I don't think detentions mean so much anymore. When I was at secondary, it was an hour after school or the whole of lunch. Now, it's ten mins at lunch and an after school one has to be given notice for, via the parent, and many parents don't authorise them.

I can't really remember much bad behaviour at my school. I think there could be some low level stuff if you had a supply teacher in. Kids could be pretty vile to each other and bullying was rife but behaviour to staff was generally respectful. There were fairly relaxed rules about uniform and most detentions were for missing homework. I lived in quite an affluent area if that makes any difference. My parents didn't get involved in school stuff except to attend annual parent's evenings.

I'm a primary school teacher now and I do agree that behaviour worsened when exclusion was made much more difficult.

We were awful to each other lots of bullying but very polite towards teachers then I attended highschool (in a Scandinavian country).

High school in affluent area in the early to mid 90s. Never any rudeness to teachers directly. There was some silly, low level behaviour, and a few paper aeroplanes were thrown when they shouldn’t be, people would melt a biro top in a Bunsen burner, etc but we were not rude.
When we got to the sixth form, we noticed the kids coming in Y7 were increasingly obnoxious. So I think it changed then.

Im from a military family so I didn’t attend school in the UK until I was in my teens. When I did, in the 90’s, it was a massive culture shock. But the demographic in the military is obviously very different, as every child has at least one parent in employment, all had married parents, and all have the same access to facilities etc. I went to a “rough” secondary in the UK, there was a lot of rude/disruptive behaviour but I don’t think as bad as portrayed in Adolescence.

I went to an all girls school so behaviour might have been different/better because of it but don’t recall any rudeness to teachers. Plenty of bitchy meanness to each other but everyone was generally respectful and a bit scared of teachers.

I went to a rough school in a deprived area in the 90’s . I haven’t seen adolescence but at our school bullying was rife and teachers ignored it. The pupils had a smokers corner . Some teachers ruled with fear/threats. Some teachers were bullied/mocked in class. And a small minority had a good rapport with students. Awful place where if you weren’t a bully you spent the day keeping your head down and hoping no one looks your way.

@LambriniBobInIsleworthISeesYa this 100%! I’ve been teaching in secondary schools since 1994 and the depiction of school in ‘Adolescence’ had me laughing- totally ruined it for me.

Must be the exception here, went to a huge secondary school in the mid 90s with a "rough" reputation and kids were awful to the teachers, and I remember them being in tears. It was honestly hell. Swearing, things thrown in class, literally no control in any lessons. Free for all at break/lunch you could go home/smoke etc. Safeguarding was non existent and the public could wander onto the site at any given time. Haven't seen adolescence but might have to watch it now to compare!! I lasted 2 years at said school then literally had a breakdown myself. Environment was horrendous for all involved.
I'm glad my experience was the exception and not the norm.

We were cheeky madams at times (convent all girls) & some teachers were useless, but bad behaviour was cracked down on.

I went to a state school in the 80’s. It was extremely disruptive, quite violent, teachers punching kids.

I was at secondary from 1987 to 1993, local comprehensive, a bit rough. London borough, not affluent.

When I think back, there were truly obnoxious kids just starting to appear. I can remember one boy in my class leaning back on his chair and sneering at the teacher "what are you going to do about it?!" The realisation that there was no corporal punishment and that teachers couldn't lay a hand on us was probably just starting to have an effect.

There were strict teachers and other teachers who just had an amazing rapport with the kids. Neither of those had any issues. Some teachers just seemed to manage to control the class, and never got any backchat.

But there were a number of soft teachers who the class often ignored, and were subjected to really unpleasant behaviour. Pupils just ran amok in their class (seemed to be mainly science teachers!) and barely listened. Mocking questions. Girls asking sexually explicit, provocative questions. Refusal to go and stand outside the classroom when instructed to do so as a punishment. Just laughing in their face really. They'd have to go and get one of the stricter teachers to back them up and get the class to behave.

I absolutely hated those chaotic lessons, it was no fun at all. I was quite happy with strict teachers who were fair - luckily we didn't really have any teachers that were absolute arses.

Nope, never saw that. Is it really that bad now or was it just dramatised for TV?

Some kids in my year locked a trainee teacher in the supply cupboard , put chalk and drawing pins in her coffee and caused her to have a nervous breakdown. Others came to school off their heads on E after lunch one day and one guy who’d been expelled came into the school and punched the headmaster. Fun times.

I went to a big comprehensive which was mostly OK with pockets of trouble making. One teacher in GCSE years decided that as we were older we could have more "banter " which mostly involved him calling boys gay & them calling him a fat sheep. It got very tedious very quickly and I absolutely dreaded the lessons as I wanted to crack on with work not listen to endless insults.

This was exactly my experience.

Although, I do wonder if I was sheltered from the worst of it because we were streamed for almost all lessons so I was rarely in a class with the disruptive kids.

I remember a teacher being locked in a cupboard, another being the victim of homophonic taunts, others being sworn at etc. I grew up in an affluent area and was in secondary in the late 90s.