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Original poster

Weird things your teachers did, which they would be fired for today.....

499 replies

muriel76 · 27/09/2011 19:15

Bit of a random question, but I was chatting with an old school friend the other day and we were remembering our teacher at primary school having a new bathroom fitted and she wanted to check how the workmen were doing.

The whole class was told to 'line up at the door' and off we marched down the road to her house, with teacher leading the way (small town BTW she lived near the school!) but no other adults in sight.

We then all sat in her back garden while she chatted to the plumber!

Ok this was back in the 80s but it made me think - you would never get away with this today.

Anyone else got a similar story from before the days of the national curriculum and parental consent forms etc?!

OP posts:
NappyShedSal · 27/09/2011 19:18

My Yr 3 teacher used to tickle a couple of us mercilessly, so that we'd be rolling around teh carpet uncontrollably.

fishandlilacs · 27/09/2011 19:19

My maths teacher used to shave in class, he'd sit there with his electric razor going while we did times tables.

CroissantNeuf · 27/09/2011 19:21

We had a primary school teacher who would hurl pieces at chalk at anyone who wasn't concentrating.

Also (not a firing offence but something that I can't imagine happening today)if you were sick at primary school and had to go home the caretaker would drive you home.

OnEdge · 27/09/2011 19:21

Our science teacher lost his temper with a boy and he said "If you are going to behave like an animal, I will treat you like one and put you in a cage !" then he got one of the big wooden stools you have in the lab and put it over him and then sat on the stool. The boy was trapped within the legs of the stool crouched on the floor, and he carried on teaching the class. It was a bit distracting Shock

mothmagnet · 27/09/2011 19:22

In the seventies, my brother's primary teacher would set them work, get his newspaper out and light up a fag.

trixymalixy · 27/09/2011 19:22

One of the English teachers at my secondary used to make misbehaving boys strip to their underpants and crawl down the aisle to the front to kiss her feet Shock.

rockinastocking · 27/09/2011 19:22

One of my old teachers used to leave us Duke of Edinburgh girls with a litre bottle of cider and a litre bottle of lager per tent when we went on camping trips, and then told us not to tell our parents Shock

He was great Grin

cleanteeth · 27/09/2011 19:23

Our german teacher threw a big heavy dictionary at someone when they weren't paying attention! this was only 5 years ago aswell!

Sargesaweyes · 27/09/2011 19:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

rockinastocking · 27/09/2011 19:24

We were 15/16, btw.

LemonMousse · 27/09/2011 19:24

In the 70's at our Primary the 'top class' (year 6) girls had a rota to wash the teacher's cups in the staff room after break. Not the boys of course, they were too busy playing football and being manly Hmm.

We also had to empty the ashtrays and I remember the Head saying to me and my friend one day "Girls, make sure all those cigarettes are stubbed out properly before you put them in the bin" Shock

I'm sure if the staff room had caught fire we'd have been held responsible!

RoseC · 27/09/2011 19:24

I once had a test booklet (KS1) thrown at me because I didn't realise it was a test and had asked the teacher (Headteacher) how to measure water. Was also called "you stupid girl!" Hmm

Same teacher threw something else at another child (pen?) and was famous for her rages. OTOH that did mean the horrible bullies who picked on my friend (she had a birth defect that was obvious) only did it once. She reduced them to tears in front of the entire school (about sixty children) whilst friend and her DSis were 'sorting out their dinner money' with the secretary.

The one I really don't think would happen any more was the TA bringing in a pheasant for another teacher and lessons being suspended for the morning whilst she plucked it on a classroom table to show us how it was done. Can you tell I went to a rural school? Grin

meaniemo · 27/09/2011 19:25

science teacher used to throw blackboard rubbers at you if you weren't paying attention. Occasionally make you stand in the bin whilst chewing gum (not allowed)

Without question the greatest teacher EVER!

PomBearAtTheGatesOfDawn · 27/09/2011 19:25

Our french teacher at secondary school would throw chalk and the board rubber viciously at people and had a pretty strong arm and good aim.
And one of our college teachers would smoke continually throughout the lesson, lighting a new one from the end of the previous one.
One of our secondary school teachers took up with a pupil, while she was still a pupil, and they did eventually get married. He worked at the school for a good twenty five years or more after that because he taught my pfb.

PorkChopSter · 27/09/2011 19:25

Where to start? Juniors.

Had a clearly alcoholic (male) teacher who was obsessed with fishing for Congo eels. If you could just steer him onto the subject, he'd rant for up to 90 minutes. We didn't get much done that year.

And the next year, an additional teacher appeared in our classroom. She had her own desk diagonally opposite our usual teacher. They would have 'disagreements' over our heads. She had orange make up trowelled on, pencilled on eyebrows, blue eye shadow, a penchant for polyester dresses and a rather unusual way of sitting and walking. We thought she was a witch. With hindsight though, she was transexual.

BaronessOrczy · 27/09/2011 19:25

One of my old teachers came up to me at the end of every term and commented on how I'd grown that term and measure herself against me. One year she said to me 'Oh look, my eyes are the same height as your nipples' Hmm

Skirt length checks with a ruler... kneeling on the floor. Chalk being thrown if you weren't paying attention.

And this was only in the 90's!

drowninginlaundry · 27/09/2011 19:25

show up drunk in the morning, pass out behind his desk during lunch break so that the janitor had to go and wake him up

it was rural Finland in the '70s, alcoholism was a way of life

Original poster
muriel76 · 27/09/2011 19:26

Oh my goodness these are great! Love the science teacher and the stool - I mean, can you imagine in this day and age?!

The shaving and the smoking ones are hilarious!

OP posts:
Sargesaweyes · 27/09/2011 19:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GlaikitFizzog · 27/09/2011 19:26

erm, threw a chair into the big radiator in primary 7, then told us we were lucky he didn't throw it at us.

At secondary one PE teacher would come out with us at the weekend and buy us drinks. We were 16/17. We also had a Physics teacher who would drink coffee and smoke in the dark room and say the smell was the developing chemicals! I personally feel he was dicing with death!

snigger · 27/09/2011 19:26

Bad Stevie in our 1st year science class was routinely locked in the chemicals cupboard by our antediluvian professorial-type teacher.

Oh, and our English teacher used to wear a cape and have chair-chucking hysterical melt-downs if we failed to appreciate Giovanni Guareschi to the required level.

ggirl · 27/09/2011 19:27

Maths teacher in secondary school got a boy and forced him to lean out the window (3rd storey) and lifted his feet off the ground Shock

Histiry teacher punched a boy in the face.

VikingBlood · 27/09/2011 19:27

One old pervy looking Maths teacher would stand in front of the class with his hands deep in his pockets (feeling around) and say in a creepy voice "it's so humid in here." It always freaked us out.

ggirl · 27/09/2011 19:29

In grade 4 (canada) , if you were caught chewing gum ,you had to take it out and put it in a big jar of previously chewed gum..and pick another one out and put it on the tip of your nose...wtf

PorkChopSter · 27/09/2011 19:29

I should add... her name was Miss Double Grin