What school subjects did you find a humiliating experience?

[BeRubyReader]

Apart from PE
I would say Spanish , couldn't learn the language so humiliating when having to do the bit where you had to have a conversation with the teach inn the language

Fucking art. Absolute waste of time. Hated it, was crap at it and would far rather have spent the time reading a book or something than pointlessly making a felt eagle.

Maths.

Art. I was the only person in the whole year to fail Yr7. I got one mark below the pass mark! Seriously, they could have used a bit of empathy.

I learnt to draw at University

Literally came in to say this.

Bloody hated it. I am neither precise or neat enough for needlework.
I broke the sewing machine most weeks and unpick the tangled mess.

At middle school PE and French because I had the same teacher for both and she had the favourites in French - the ones good at sport. those kids were really nice and weren’t happy with what she was doing either. I almost gave up but my parents got me a tutor and I went on to get A and Alevel.

PE continued to be humiliating as no adjustments were really made for my cerebral palsy so I just didn’t take my kit for three yeas and no one was bothered. At high school when the school actually took action on my statement of special needs things got better.

I mean, PE obviously, but also music.

It’s interesting that apart from MFL haha (my subject) the subjects mentioned here are IME very often among students’ favourites now (MFL teachers always know bc we ask this!)

i know many many students who would say either art or PE as a fave. Very rarely does anyone say geography or biology. Maybe things have improved (some of these teachers sound grim).

I remember getting upset trying to use the sewing machine in Textiles class because I couldn’t sew a straight line. Oh and I very nearly failed cycling proficiency. Often, I couldn’t even tell what I was doing wrong in the lessons.

Apart from that, it was really only PE. At primary school sports day, we all had to run races in front of the whole school and parents. Year after year, I came last in all the sprint races. We don’t make the kids who struggle with spelling take part in a spelling bee in front of the whole school, so why do we do it to the kids who struggle with sports?

Oh, how could I forget Drama? The class often used to piss themselves laughing at my efforts, so I must have been embarrassingly bad at acting.

Maths. Made me feel like the stupid person on the planet - which was frustrating because I was always at the top of my class for English language, English literature, music, humanities etc…but put numbers in front of me? Crickets.
I always struggled with it. Once high school rolled around, it was even worse.
I could do basic arithmetic but start coming at me with algebra, geometry - basically anything on the GCSE curriculum in the early 2000’s? My brain simply cannot comprehend.
My teacher pretty much accepted that I wasn’t going to get it, entered me for the lower-grade gcse paper and that was the end of it. I stopped showing up to classes mid-way through Year 10 because I got sick of just feeling like a dumbass with a teacher who didn’t want to help me get my head around any of it.
To this day, I repel it.
If my DCs need help with maths homework, that’s strictly a DH job 🫣🫣

That's awful. So sorry!

Maths. On the spot questions literally made me want to disappear into a hole. I used to sit so far down in my chair. Funny story though - me and my mate were sat next to each other and the horrible maths teacher (mr Chafey) was bending over in front of us helping another student, my friend had sharpened her pencil really sharp and was holding it millimetres away from his arse, he suddenly stood up and it stabbed him in the bum Pahaha 🤣🤣🤣 still makes me laugh whenever I think about it !!

Maths,I hated it especially when we had a double lesson.I did not have a clue, I felt so embarrased.Still very poor at maths,have to cheat & use a Calculator.Struggled with most subjects,apart from Swimming which I was ok with & History lessons.

PE -humiliation every bloody lesson, I am rubbish at ball sports,. Why oh why has PE still not progressed to allow children to pick what sports they are actually good at or enjoy?? I would have happily done aerobics/palates or gym work.. But no I learnt to hate sport instead!.

Also French wasn't great im just not great at languages.

Hate to break your rules, but the only one I truly hated for sheer humiliation was PE. I mean, I was pretty crap at art and music, but it wasn't the sadistic bullying of PE. The geography teacher was totally ineffectual, so I was bullied by some of the arseholes he couldn't control, but it wasn't the sadistic bullying by an authority figure of PE. PE was the only one that regularly made me feel suicidal.

I liked PE itself but absolutely hated having to shower with everyone else as a self conscious teen.

Most humiliating were drama, gym, trampolining and ballroom dancing.

Drama. Absolutely awful teachers who would allow the boys to sexually harass, bully and humiliate the girls when in character, and it was totally fine because it was “performance”. And if any of the girls complained at all, they were patronised by the teacher and told to grow up as it’s “only acting”. It was utterly humiliating and I hated every second of it.

Weirdly, as soon as I left school I spent many years doing amateur dramatics, performed in loads of plays and absolutely loved it. I’ll never forgive those teachers for poisoning my view of drama for so many years and taking all of the joy out of it.

"Irene is very slow and needs a lot of help". My needlework report, c.1972.

PE was the worst, but Art and Music were also awful. I would have been much happier to do academic subjects all day.

PE should be an elective. I was a good student and not easy to humiliate but PE managed to do it. We played something called dodgeball and I was forever getting hit and running around with knocked knees. Awful.

Around the age of 12 we had to participate in a whole school swimming gala. I still remember the humiliation of having to walk the length of the pool in my swim suit when my turn came. I was developed for my age and painfully shy and awkward about it so this was like my nightmares come true.

PE - it’s was the 80s after the introduction of mixed PE but before the introduction of the sports bra.

That and the utterly sadistic bullying of the PE staff

This! I genuinely get flustered and hot and even slightly tearful when I have to do basic maths. I was at school in the 90s - I hope things have changed since then!

Maths. So so bad. The torture. The lack of understanding. Was clueless. Not my forte for sure. Good job I have no need of theorems etc😂. Algebra designed to TORTURE people. No other reason😂😂.