inspired by Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) of 25 November 2020, impertinent.
The teacher accuses of slack,
The boy who’d been wrong answers back,
You’re not a grown up,
You’re nought but a pup,
But the teacher is taken aback.
Actually, not so much the prompt word, but certainly while composing my response, I was taken straight back to my own schooldays. The school I attended, they really didn’t like you to answer back. Whereas in later life we might ultimately respond with a curt “fuck you”, if a teacher accused a pupil of something, regardless of whether innocent or guilty of the offence, then the pupil was in the wrong, even for disputing the accusation.
My daughter passed through school five-or-so years ago, and I am pleased that this is one area where teaching had improved enormously. A lot of thought has obviously been given to the pastoral side of teaching, with teachers recognising that their role is more to impart knowledge than to enforce regimentation.
I got caned at school for running round the playground with a dustbin lid shouting, “I am a dalek. Exterminate. Exterminate.” Happy days!
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I got slippered once, and got detention for singing “Shaddupa Ya face”. The detention… fair enough but the slippering was unacceptable, even then. I suppose we accepted it because we knew no better. I wouldn’t have allowed anything like that to happen to daughter.
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You probably were slippered because…..
..you gotta no respect!
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Another wonderful limerick! I loved school but it hated me. I was relentlessly bullied Even the teachers bullied me when I struggled to learn or do something. and that’s where my feeling of worthlessness began.
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The thing I got most from school was you were taught how to “fit in”. If you didn’t fit, tough.
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Yeah that’s spot on. I never fitted in, I always felt like I didn’t belong.
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I would hope it is better now. My daughter went through the system a few years ago and there seemed to be a lot more on offer for her than there ever was for me. But she went to a comp and I went to grammar.
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I hope its improved. I haven’t any recent experience to draw on for my old school to know though.
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Talking with someone today about this very thing — so little respect for teachers now. This acquaintance told me her father taught for forty years and towards the end he was being hit by students and one tripped him so he fell and hurt himself. But the worse is when a student gets mad at a teacher and accuses them of “sexual impropriety.” It may be a complete lie, but that’s pretty much the end of their teaching career.
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I think a clear boundary benefits both parties (teacher/student). All parties actually, because there are boundaries between one student and another.
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