Anyone else still traumatised by social dancing at school?!

[DoTheNextRightThing]

Local radio station is currently playing its Sunday ceilidh music block and I swear every time I hear that noise of an accordion starting up, it makes my blood run cold. Images of standing in the gym hall, lined up along the wall, staring across at the boys who you just know have sweaty palms and bony elbows, and wanting the ground to swallow you up.

Is anyone else still haunted by the memories of social dancing?

They were more worried about the boys' feelings being hurt

I am so jealous! It sounds like such fun! At 40 am I too old to be adopted by you lovely Scottish folk and taught how to dance? I am happy to be thrown around .

It was awful if you were one of the girls who didn’t get picked. So humiliating. All the cool kids paired up really quickly and the rest of us were left looking at each other in dread.

🙄 Bloody ridiculous, wasn't it

@unimaginativeusernamehere

They were more worried about the boys' feelings being hurt

It was boys’ choice one lesson and girls’ choice the next at my school. No one was allowed to reject anyone else.

So you had the horror of being not picked or picked by someone you really didn’t like. And the horror of picking and the fear that they were dreading you asking them it, worse, thinking you might fancy them. Not that you’d ask the boy you fancied because that would be unthinkable. 😂

Then they’d do progressive dances and you’d end up dancing with all the boys anyway.

@bathorshower

I'm not from Scotland, but we did folk dancing at school (which sounds pretty similar). But only in primary and then sixth form, which I'm pretty sure improved the experience no end! What age did the rest of you have to do it at?

Australia by any chance? Primary school only, always in the quad in the baking hot sun. Always someone who’d throw up. Trying to avoid the boys with sweaty, warty hands. Then we’d have to do it for the first half of the school social. Nightmare.

I still remember the name of the boy with eczema all over his hands. No-one would dance with him. God we were awful.

I had social dancing from P1 all the way to Sixth Year which is maybe why I've grown to hate it so much 😂 I'm glad I learned the dances too but I don’t think I needed to learn them for 13 years straight - I had them all memorised by P3!

It was the trauma of one week boys chose girl partners then vice versa the next. I was lucky as the boys took so long pur PE teacher eventually just paired people up. 2 weeks later the same boy picked me again.

I also remember it as the rare time we did PE in trousers and not shorts as we were doing PE with the boys (scandal!) I was in first year of high school and that was 2001!

We've just moved to Scotland (been here less than a month) and ds has already mentioned how glad everyone at school is that they don't have to do dancing this year.

@Tinofcurses

We've just moved to Scotland (been here less than a month) and ds has already mentioned how glad everyone at school is that they don't have to do dancing this year.

The PE teachers are going to lose their lazy December this year.

Yes, I absolutely hated it. To the extent that I banned it at my wedding. The lead singer was like...are you sure, it's really popular, we get loads of requests for Strip the Willow at weddings...

I said to tell them it was a definite no at the direction of the bride. It's so boring; who wants to dance while being shouted at? No thanks.

Now my kids hate it and I cannot sympathise enough. Just bump it from the curriculum, it's an absolute anachronism.

I'm so sad my eldest won't get to experience the joy of it, this year at least!

We learned SCD with an ancient crone in the school hall. Doing the pas de bas in your gutties...

I loved it. Alway started about 2 weeks before Christmas. My favourites are the military two step and the dashing white sergeant.

Social dance was the only time in my entire school career that I got the belt-well it was funny as the most camp male PE teacher waltzed round the gym hall on his own! 😂
We only had it in 1st and 2nd year at high school but I think it would have been less excruciating if we’d done it in older years too

I loved it. even though I was always last to be chosen. I loved the dances. Only part of PE I liked.

Yes! Are you in Scotland OP?

I also read this as social distancing

Had mixed feelings about SCD at the time at school but remember it very well! Also remember going to a ceilidh in Fresher’s week and finding myself in the minority knowing the dances. Look back on it now as actually a useful part of school education 😂

@Merename

”Do kids still do it now?”

Yes - my kids complain about it!