I said “jesus christ” to a teacher (3rd grade’ish), why I can’t remember but probably because I was asked to do something I felt was silly. Turned out the teacher was very religious and accused me of blasphemy, and was really up in arms about it. He invited my mom to a meeting to discuss the issue but, according to my mom, quickly dropped the whole thing when my mom had said “jesus christ” 5 times in the same amount of minutes.
I guess I know who taught me to use that phrase.
I’d be fuming if someone called me away from work for some bullshit reason like blasphemy.
At age 7, I got in trouble for ‘acting out’ when they gave all the students a basic eye chart test. When it was my turn, they put me on the measured out line and asked me to read the chart.
I asked “What chart?” The teacher pointed at the door. Apparently the chart was on the door, but all I could see was a large white/greyish rectangle from that distance.
Yeah, my vision was that bad. You know that big capital E on the top of the chart? Yep, nothing, I literally couldn’t see the chart. So I didn’t know what else to do but keep asking “What chart?”
They called my dad in and between him, the teacher, and the principal, I got scolded for ‘acting out’.
The next year, age 8, they assigned seats in order based off the first letter of our last names, which happened to put me in the back of the class. I couldn’t see a damn thing on the chalkboard…
So my parents finally had to take me to a proper eye doctor. They found out my vision was like -4.5, which is extremely nearsighted.
So I finally got glasses, and about 2 weeks of apologies from my mom. Every time she apologized, I reminded her that she had absolutely nothing to apologize for, I was just thankful I could finally see!
I never got an apology from my dad, the teacher or the principal though. It’s a bit fucked up that they could have caught it earlier on when the whole reason they gave students the basic eye test was literally to catch obvious vision problems early on…
Ffs they didn’t even have you try closer? That’s like the first thing they are supposed to say if you can’t see the chart.
Nope, they sure didn’t.
I actually thought about that as I typed out my short Ted Talk, it’s really a shame isn’t it?
Thank you for understanding, things might have went differently if I wasn’t afraid of the teacher authority at the time and just walked closer myself.
Please, if anyone happens to see children acting ‘strange’ or whatever, please do have them checked out for the bare basics of vision and hearing.
Some of us weren’t trying to be weird kids, we just perceived the world differently.
To be fair, your dad was probably just as scared of your teacher. Same with the principal.
If I hadn’t had a dad who was a school counselor in my district used for all the worst problem kids I think I would have had a different experience. I wasn’t a bad kid, but I was a weird one. As a result I got to see behind the curtain a little and think office politics plays a bigger part of why kids get in trouble than anything else (well, except actual parent involvement and how you raise your kids). Now that you mention this I think I’ll take my youngest to get her eyes examined just to be safe.
Nah, if you knew my dad at the time, he insisted there was nothing wrong with my vision. I actually was already a pretty intelligent kid, mostly from book learning at the time.
Book learning worked great for me, but only because the book was close to my face, which works fine for nearsighted people. So my dad was convinced, my vision was fine.
I was disappointed at my dad for quite a few years, but ultimately had to let my anger go.
A few years later, dad asked me why I didn’t tell them I had bad vision. All I could tell him was “I didn’t know, until I finally got to see good vision.”
Yes, you only know what you’ve experienced. If everything’s blurry, that’s normal.
I know when I got my glasses, the optician said to look across the road with my glasses on. There was a brick wall the other side and I could see it clearly. I was amazed and said as much. I don’t think my sight had always been bad but it must have been bad for long enough for that to be a revelation.
For putting my signature under my drawing on the blackboard. I was six.
We were encouraged to go and draw on the board as a Friday afternoon end of day activity.
The teacher took it personally in the worst way possible. The fact that my mother was an artist may have contributed to the matter.
In the first or second month of my eighth grade, I found an x-acto knife on the ground outside the school in the morning. It was normal for kids to arrive earlier than school hours began and hang out in front, usually forming friend groups. I just held it up my sleeve as I made my way to my friend group. I also wore long, baggy sleeves so this wasn’t even really something I had to go out of my way to do.
When I got to my friends, being a dumb kid, I showed them all as a “hey look what I found” kind of deal. After they all saw it, I put it into my backpack. School was starting.
First period of school, an adult comes into the class and asks me to come with them. They take me to my locker where they open it and search it and find the x-acto knife. They asked me what I was doing with it, and I was honest, I said I found it that morning. They bring me to the office and bring my parents in, they had to leave work to do so.
They sit us all down and tell us that another student accused me of threatening them with the knife, as in, threatening to use it to do physical harm. I most certainly did not, but they weren’t really interested in any excuses and said I have two options: join this boot-camp-esque disciplinary program which involved a ton of bullshit like forced attire, forced haircut, forced schedule, and more; or I could be expelled for the entire school year.
What happened after that?
I was expelled for a year.
I asked my health teacher to describe an orgasm.
Did you only get in trouble with her? Surely a higher up would have been like “B1tch, that’s your job”
It was a long history of me antagonizing her, because she was a religious prude and deeply unsuited for the role, and I was a little asshole. I sat in the hall more than at my desk.
Nice to see somebody practicing the ancient tradition.
I was in middle school during 9-11-2001, and around that time there was an anthrax mailing attack too.
I was late to class one time and my late pass had a bunch of chalk dust on it, the teacher i handed it to asked what the powder was on it… Being a smart ass i said something along the lines of “it might be anthrax, better be careful”…they took it as a threat i guess because the next day i was suspended.
We moved and i was in a new city and state the next year. One day at my new school i made pretty much the same exact “joke” and it resulted in another suspension.
Back when I was 16 my teacher held me after class and told me that me wearing yoga pants and skinny jeans was a “distraction” his words not mine. To this day this story is an odd source of pride for me. To be fair I couldn’t blame him.
I have the unpopular opinion that dress codes are a good thing for a good reason. But the problem is that it gets enforced unfairly (like, by how sexually attracted or threatened adults get). Like your situation, the teacher basically said “Your ass is so ‘distracting’ in those tight pants I need you to stay right here alone with me after class for a while and keep on ‘distracting’ me.”
But a clearly defined dress code meant to prepare youth for a future where they have to work on professional settings (notice that has nothing to do with “distractions”) helps to keep the focus on becoming competent adults. Not on asses and boobs. Most people’s future bosses don’t give a crap about your self expression and just don’t want to deal with complaints from coworkers or customers. I think I got this mindset when I was 14 and worked at a Dairy Queen with a seventy year old crack whore who often paraded around in yoga pants (before they were a thing) meant for 12 year olds and would say things like “I can’t wait to go home and get naked.” No one there wanted to think about her naked.
I was 5 and had a butter knife on the bus. I was kicked off for a week. This is back in the early 90s so school violence was much less common.
R u British by any chance?
Shooting staples around the room with my teeth
Do you still possess this talent?
I hope so. It was super easy. You just put it between your front teeth and bite down. Fwiiiing!!! Make sure it’s bending out, not in haha
