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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...in thinking a head teacher and staff taking part in a Gangnam YouTube effort is inappropriate at best?

175 replies

QueenieLovesEels · 20/12/2012 08:41

Or am I getting crusty?

I just don't understand how you can hold yourself up as a figure respected in the local community and performance a jiggy dance like a kangaroo chucking a lasoo- along with other 'mature' members of staff.

It is a Boys Grammar School and yet female members of staff are jiggying around to 'sexy lady' lyrics.

Purlease. It is in no way cool but more cringe making than David Brent.

Can't link from iPad but it's Boston Grammar School Gangnam.

Maybe I am just a bit of an old fart but I can't help feel standards are at an all time low when you feel the need to debase yourself this much to 'get down wid da kidz'

OP posts:
FelicityWasSanta · 20/12/2012 10:57

I don't feel it is an appropriate display of humour considering the participants and the audience. I think the teachers just look rather awkward and they are going to be laughed at rather than with IYSWIM.

Forgive me if we don't give your opinion much weight as you have failed to notice that every other poster on this thread is laughing with the teachers and many are talking about similar events up and down the land...

NotWankinginaWinterWonderland · 20/12/2012 10:58

My sons school just done this too, I may try talk them into putting it on youtube. I think it's hilarious! My son has an 'upbeat dance' teacher and they were all very good.

IncrediblePhatTheInnkeepersCat · 20/12/2012 10:58

YABU

It's a bit of silly fun. Similar performances will be happening in schools around the country, particularly this week when staff and students are all knackered after a long term.

This will probably out me, but for comic relief a few years ago I went to school in pyjamas (very unsexy ones with clothes underneath) and sang the full version of 'The Big Bang Theory' with actions I'd made up to my year 11 class. It was a running joke for us and they'd been begging me for weeks to show them my actions when I'd accidentally let it slip that I'd made some up.

Didn't affect my authority with them at all. They worked hard and I had a fantastic relationship with them. It helps teenagers to trust you if you can poke fun at yourself occasionally. They can relate to you more. The new teachers who I've seen quit are those who never relaxed in the slightest in front of the students and constantly caused tensions with a rigid me/them attitude. There should be a separation, I'm not there to be their friend, but being able to relax and have a joke really does help the classroom to gel.

A different class I took over in year 11 had had one of these teachers quit on them in year 10, followed by temporary teacher after teacher. They were very wary of me to begin with, though worked hard. Once I demonstrated The Rock's 'people's elbow' signature move (came about through a random conversation, there was a noticeable shift in attitude.

Btw I do spend 90% of my time doing formal teaching, but the 10% conversations/fun/relaxed time is important too!

MrsMelons · 20/12/2012 11:02

I think teenagers would actually think it was quite funny TBH. At DS's pre prep/junior school the head teacher dressed as an Angel for their pupils v teachers rugby match. The DCs loved it.

aPirateInaPearTree · 20/12/2012 11:03

where did you find out your interpretation of the song op?

ShatnersBassoon · 20/12/2012 11:03

I don't feel it is an appropriate display of humour considering the participants and the audience. I think the teachers just look rather awkward and they are going to be laughed at rather than with IYSWIM.

FFS, it's an end of term skit. These things have been going on for decades. I'm amazed anyone could see anything morally reprehensible in it. It's just fun, but you're not the intended audience so you're not going to find it especially funny or be able to laugh along with those in the clip.

WorraLorraTurkey · 20/12/2012 11:06

So you've decided the teachers are going to be laughed at OP?

Given the fact just about everyone on this thread thinks YABU

I think the teachers are quite safe not to trust your judgement Grin

mumofthemonsters808 · 20/12/2012 11:08

They did a similar thing at my DD's school and she was thrilled to mintballs and it made her laugh that much her sides hurt.For me it is simply good fun and that is what Christmas is all about.The teachers involved have gone up in her estimation and she respects the fact that they can be silly, trendy and relaxed on fun occassions and formal and authoritarian the rest of the year.

manicinsomniac · 20/12/2012 11:09

YABU
We rewrote the lyrics to make it 'X School Style' (a bit like Eton Style) and performed it as one of the numbers in our staff panto for the kids at the end of this term.

I'm sure we looked ridiculous as we did in all the other numbers but the worse we looked the more the children loved it. It's just entertainment.

Hobbitation · 20/12/2012 11:10

I loved to see teachers taking the mick out of themselves like this at school. Made me like them much more. YABU.

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 20/12/2012 11:13

BUT all the teachers are dancing and sometimes it's men on the "sexy lady" bit. The are dressed amusingly but actually perfectly well covered (especially the women actually) and there is no suggestive wiggling that I saw just silly dancing. Really missing why this is anti-feminist.

Alisvolatpropiis · 20/12/2012 11:16

Yabu.

The dance is hardly sexy even if the lyrics do include the words "sexy lady". I imagine it will be very similar to watching the BBC news crews do their hilarious children in need dances.

MrsMelons · 20/12/2012 11:25

Just watched it with DS (4) and he was in hysterics!

MackerelOfFact · 20/12/2012 11:32

WFT? YABU. I suggest you look up the translated lyrics, which include lines such as:

"A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all
A sensible girl like that"

Because that's a really bad message to be sending out to teens, isn't it? Hmm

pigletmania · 20/12/2012 11:54

Yabvvvu te teachers are human beings with thir own lives, their souls do not belong to the parents. As long as they were not harming other children and people and had their kit on what's the problem

Rollmops · 20/12/2012 12:06

Vulgar and declasse, Utterly. YANBU. Couldn't and wouldn't look the same at the numpties who try, pathetically, to be funny, perhaps, whilst looking absolutely daft. Not amusing nor clever.
Fail.

bigTillyMincePie · 20/12/2012 12:11

YABU you old crusty!

It is a bit of fun. They look ridiculous, they know they look ridiculous, the kids know they look ridiculous, that is why it's a joke Hmm

Original poster
QueenieLovesEels · 20/12/2012 12:13

Being in the minority doesn't make a person wrong. Flat earthers.

I have looked up the translated lyrics. I don't think women need mens opinions on how they dress or that what makes them 'sexy' should be an issue.

We could go on all day dissecting the lyrics and the possible underlying messages about consumerism much of which is lost in translation. That is a side issue.

My point is we seem to be afraid of having people who we respect and hold in high esteem in our society. This need to' bring people down a peg or two' so we can 'relate' to them is indicative of a fundamental distrust of authority and denial of elitism, which if won by merit, I have no issue with.

I am saddened that adult people find all this necessary. That showing-off and making an ass of yourself to appeal to youth is thought of as the norm now and that if you object you are boring and stuffy.

Why are we now a nation of monstrous exhibitionists?

OP posts:
ChristmasKnackers · 20/12/2012 12:15

Its been going on for years and years. An amusing end to a long term. Get over yourself. If they are happy to do it, why not.

Chubfuddler · 20/12/2012 12:22

Come on, you've got to be having a larf. You are too Po for words.

Jins · 20/12/2012 12:26

OP is just reacting to the virtual consensus on MN that she has strayed into Old Fart territory. Feminism didn't work so the next step is a breakdown in society.

If I'm a flat earther I'm a happy flat earther and will be forever grateful that the teachers in my DSs school go to so much effort to make the Christmas assembly a joyful and happy time.

ShatnersBassoon · 20/12/2012 12:27

Have you never seen anything of this nature before? Those involved will have done it voluntarily, for the amusement of those that know them. Have you never done something daft to make others laugh?

I'm struggling to understand why you're outraged by it and viewing it as a sorry reflection of the state of our society. Do you have a connection to the school?

Jins · 20/12/2012 12:29

This is one of those MN parallel universe threads isn't it?

showmethetoys · 20/12/2012 12:29

OP you have the prize for being the dullest poster I have ever come across on Mumsnet.

LimeLeafLizard · 20/12/2012 12:42

YABU - the video is a bit of silly fun, nothing more. Teachers have been involved in end of term silliness for years, it is not a new thing. I personally wouldn't want myself posted on YouTube, but if they do, well thats their choice.

OP, some of the replies here are quite personally rude to you, just ignore them.