I once taught drama to children... never again. As much as that was a ton of stress, there was a kid who left me laughing. He was high drama, at 6. I was like, he's gonna be a handful but funny.
Sparks
Oh My Wow GIF by TV LandGiphy"I have several but the one that set another kid on fire stands out a bit. He smuggled a lighter to school and was lighting paper on fire in his desk and accidentally dropped it on his neighbor. The other kid wasn't hurt, though it did burn a good sized hole in his shirt."
- talibob
Mr. Noah
"I used to teach ESL to pre-K through 3rd grade. I had one student who was only 4 when he first joined my class, named Noah. He was very serious. The other kids always goofed around and lost focus, like little kids do, but not this guy. I started shaking his hand every day and greeting him with a very formal "thank you for joining us, Mr. Noah," and for whatever reason it was the ONE thing that would crack that kid up. He was so adorable. Serious little guy. I'll always remember Mr. Noah."
Electric Shock
"I taught classes long ago, but can I speak for one of my high school teachers? I took electrical specialty in the last years. We had classes with special desks fitted with plugs and switches of all sorts... and power. My pal and desk mate thought it funny to short a copper cable and turn power on... imagine a thunder striking a room full of teenagers. My friend was blind for hours... I don't think the teacher ever recovered."
- portuga1
"look the other way"
"Told this before: was a student teacher. Their parents were swingers, who had a hot wife fetish. Propositioned me, since their kid was failing and i could "look the other way." Absolutely the heck not. I tried telling supervisors, other teachers as a warning. I was ignored. Them not believing me lead to me seeing other red flags to where I decided teaching was not going to be for me. Crazy part is I liked them, and they asked why I was leaving, and I didn't have the heart to tell them."
She Excelled
Tv Show America GIF by Reconnecting RootsGiphy"This 12 yo girl who took my advice on taking the British Council test to advance her English level after an intense class year. She did it and she excelled. When I heard the news It made my year happy."
- Toygr
See there, what did I say earlier? Don't be a fire starter. Be the girl who becomes a higher up in government. Who sets a fire in the middle of the day?
The Spill
who framed roger rabbit toons GIFGiphy"My old science teacher had a student in a different class who spilled high concentration hydrochloric acid all over the floor when everyone was standing in one corner of the room. Needless to say, there were a high amount of injuries that day."
"I WANNA BE A MANAGER AT HOOTERS!"
"I'm not a teacher (yet), but while I was student teaching at a middle school I had to give this 7th grade class an assignment about what they wanted to be when they grew up, how they were gonna achieve it, etc. They had to draw themselves working in this career as well. Lots of kids said they wanted to be Doctors, Lawyers, Veterinarians, and other usual stuff."
"But I'll never forget this one kid who proudly held up his drawing of himself surrounded by well endowed women in orange shorts saying very loudly "I WANNA BE A MANAGER AT HOOTERS!" I tried so hard not to burst out laughing when I had tell him it wasn't appropriate, their regular teacher didn't think it was very funny."
People Break Down The Best Purchases They've Ever Made | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Thank you Em...
"Emily. She gave me a small stuffed bear on her last day in my classroom. She didn't speak English well and tried really hard in my class. It was very sweet. My wife was pregnant at the time.It's now one of my 2 year old daughter's favorites and makes me happy every time she's carrying it."
That Voice
"One girl. I had taught her sisters and she was the last. We both loved reading and I sent her home with bags of books weekly from my own collection to borrow (had mom's permission). Encouraged her to write as she was amazing. She also had an amazing voice. I convinced her to try out for theatre. She got the lead. She wrote her college essay about me. I was shocked. It came down to her learning not to be afraid and that I gave her back her voice."
"I still cry a bit thinking about it. All I did was talk to her and get to know her. She taught me about how important it was to form those bonds with all kids, not just the out going ones or the troubled, but the quiet, good kids need that bond as well. Just because they are doing good doesn't mean that they don't need you."
Poop Head
Awkward Lucille Ball GIFGiphy"The poop bandit. He used to goto the bathroom and have a friend stand watch. Then he would draw on the walls with a turd like a big gross crayon."
Fly Baby Fly...
"In my 7th grade "Career Orientation" class (basically, a full year of "what I want to be when I grow up"), one boy said he wanted to become a "bar fly". None of us 12 year-olds knew what a "bar fly" was, so he explained that he'd go to one bar, get people to buy him drinks until he's too drunk, get kicked out by the bartender, and then "fly off" to another bar, lather, rinse, repeat."
"Teacher asked, "So, how would you make a living this way?" Kid said, "I wouldn't need to make a living because those other people would pay for my drinks." He'd put more thought into his aspirations than the kids who wanted to be doctors and lawyers so they could be rich."
MG
"A girl I had this past year whom I'll refer to as MG. Extremely smart little girl. Always asking high-level questions. Read at a 3rd grade level at five years old. I'm not exaggerating. While the other kids liked to play with blocks or dolls or in the pretend play center, she would be in the class library working through a stack of books, or sitting at a table practicing writing. I was in constant fear that I was wasting her time. That I wasn't challenging her enough."
"I found more advanced books for her to read. I found a kinder-level math book for her to work through. But really she was content to make her own fun, which she was very good at. She never complained about being bored. She never acted like her classmates were "beneath" her. She was a joy to have in my class. I hope I end up voting for her someday."
"They're moles"
"I worked as a substitute teacher, an After-School Teacher, and a Group Leader for the YMCA, so I'll give three stories: At a pre-school, I was holding hand with a kid to help them keep their balance. They looked at my hand as asked what are the black dots on my arms. "They're moles." I said. The kid nods, then ask, "why are you black?" My favorite question a kid as ever asked me."
"I was substitute for a 4th grade class. One girl introduced herself as being black and white so she's a panda. I believe she will be going to 7th grade this year. I don't think she is still calling herself a panda. Last one, I was about to quit my job and move across the country. I already told the kids and they were sad. I also was only able to be with the kids a couple a times a week instead of every weekday so that upset them more."
"One of the time I was able to make it was during their Valentines Day party. I jokingly told one of my kids I didn't get a valentines. She immediately (and very seriously) went to a table with some paper and markers. A good 20 minutes later, she came back with a valentines card for me. I wish I could explain how much I care for that card."
"No Fighting"
happy season 8 GIF by Mr. DGiphy"The kid I found finger painting with another kid's nosebleed blood. Also the kid who picked the English name "No Fighting."
Demons
"Not a teacher, but my wife is. Unfortunately, it's probably gonna be the 2-3rd graders who threatened to kill our unborn baby. I only remember the "reasoning" behind one of the threats, which was that since he was misbehaving, he wasn't going to be going on the field trip, to which he responded: "If I don't get a permission slip, I'll have my step dad beat you up, and kill your baby." The other was likely for an equally stupid reason, but was a direct threat from a girl in her class, and not a plan to have someone else do it. The school did absolutely nothing about either incident, as well."
Mommy Dearest
"I'm not a teacher, but I'm speaking for my mother. She teaches adults that didn't get basic education (public school teacher) and, in her class, is the first person, in our state, to get a full education over 100 years. The guy is simply amazing and is inspiring how hard he works. She was so proud when talking about him that it was almost enough to make me forgot she is a nasty to me all the time."
"Wham, bam, thank you Ma'am."
"The kid who thought a good way to thank me for handing him is test was "Wham, bam, thank you Ma'am." 🤣 The first kid who "just didn't know who else to talk to" about her depression. The quirky kid who found his niche in my drama class. (Also the first student to successfully Rick-roll me.) The kid (at summer camp, not school) who bit me when I tried to stop her from running into traffic. She ran because I asked her to sit with the 8 year olds and she was 9. 😬"
- Zula13
I hate that woman!
Emma Stone Fashion GIF by Walt Disney StudiosGiphy"My wife was a teacher for 6 years. She had 3/5 kids from one family. Single mom, drove luxury vehicle, everything she wore/had was designer… except her kids had maybe 3 outfits and no coats. Each year fall/winter would come around and the Allen kids needed coats. We always bought them coats. I hate that woman."
General McAllister
"I'm actually a student. 7th period. Beginning clarinet. 6th Grade. We named our teacher "General McAllister." Because someone (forget you Luis) said it when answering "what's the first thing you do putting a clarinet together?" Wetting our reed was "sucky sucky". <3 you, McAllister. I know you couldn't stand us a bit."
Even into adulthood...
"Is it okay to reverse the topic into, "Students of Reddit, who is a teacher that you will never forget?" There were quite a few that made an impact throughout all of my years... Even into adulthood. Thank you to every teacher that had the patience, the charisma and the heart to stand by all of us. You are all rockstars! You are all loved greatly. Thank you for the knowledge. Everything you do is remembered."
- Philrawk
Yeah, that's why I'll never teach. Kids are crazy. And I'm not cleaning poop. Also, nowadays, you have to worry about the impressions left by parents. Now there is an article.
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So anyone going through anything like that remember to value yourself because a day will come when you're older that you are the cool one and your life will turn out pretty darn sweet.
Redditor El-Sordo420 wanted to hear what others were labeled as and asked:
"In school, what were you famous for?"
The responses were hilarious and sometimes sad much like our real school years.
“my teacher fell out if his chair laughing…”
“Let me premise this with no one was hurt, and my teacher fell out if his chair laughing. I was a Techie in high school. During a specifically awful rehearsal of a show the school was putting on, I was working lights up in the balcony as our Tech teacher (who couldn't take the musical disaster anymore) sat below at the director's booth. At some point he sarcastically said into our headphones, ‘Someone please just throw a wrench at me.’ So, I did.” GinaTRex
“Farting. Alot. It got so bad that my nickname became 'The Bean Machine', and the slightly less popular 'Super Pooper Trooper'. Got so bad that when the teacher sat the whole class down to speak about name calling because of my nickname, I farted and the teacher has to tell me to go outside because of the stench.”
“My most vivid memory was when one of the ringleaders called me it during a lunchtime and I just broke down. My twin sister found me crying behind the school dumpsters. ):” GoryBark
“That was when she started to learn about her dad's past."
“Being the school hackerdude. My daughter found out twenty years later when a retired teacher turned substitute took attendance in her class. Got to her name, said ‘I remember that last name, he took over all the computers in the school!’ The rest of the class turned to look at her wide eyed. That was when she started to learn about her dad's past.” Sabz5150
The school “Coke” dealer…
“My school removed soda machines, so I became known for selling coca cola relatively quickly. Made decent money too! Some teachers were in on it and supported me because all vending machines had coke products removed, not just student machines.” BackgroundDrider
A young time traveler…
back to the future great scott GIFGiphy“In grade school one day I pretended I was from the future. For sh*ts and giggles. But then over time it kinda turned into a thing. Eventually it got to the point where it would do more harm than good to admit I was not from the future. I don't recall how it happened, I just remember wishing people would stop asking me if I was from the future because I didn't want to talk about that anymore. Not much different from potato guy in retrospect.” orderfour
Sounds like a romantic comedy plot…
“In high school I was called 'The city girl' cause I was in a small town & grew up in the city.” Peanut2ur_Tostito
“…I was the seizure kid."
“Getting knocked on my head before school one day and having a seizure. It was before they opened the doors so everyone outside saw what happened and then the ambulance came and I was awake but I was blacked out and my friends told me I tried to fight the paramedics off."
“I don't remember anything from hitting my head to coming to in the ambulance with some type of amnesia, I didn't know who I was or where I was and I was strapped down so this made me panic even more and I think I tried to spit on the paramedics so they covered my face with the oxygen mask and I'm pretty sure it wasn't turned on. I couldn't breathe."
“It was one of the scariest moments of my life and it still kind of haunts me to this day.
Their parents must have been unimpressed…
“My nickname. My name is 'Adam'. My parents were happy because they named my brothers and I with impossible names to shorten (into nicknames) but in my case they were wrong. I grew up in the 1980's and you will no doubt understand why that's relevant when you hear what the other kids decided to call me. They shortened my name 'Adam' into 'AID's.' My nickname for 40 years has been Aids." Found_the
One of these things doesn’t add up…
canadian what GIF by CBCGiphy“Quiet, religious, but suspended for an alleged bomb plot…I'm a girl; I was a sophomore; I printed the directions for what amounted to a firework off the Anarchist's Cookbook. School admin went relatively bananas." nursebeast
“I was known for being the most bullied person in our year group! I found out about this when I left and somehow matched with a guy from school on tinder a few years later. It went around a few year groups, so even people I'd never met recognised me. Very odd!” BloodlustPrincess
For good or bad nearly everyone in school was labeled and known for something, even if it was just fading into the background. We’d love to hear what you were school-famous for in the comments.
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I wish I had had the capability to run around the computer systems of yore. I would've sent Madonna music videos to everyone's screens. That would've been more productive than PE. At least I think so.
Let's Play
Knight Ageofempires GIF by Age Of Empires CommunityGiphy"Installed Age of Empires Two on each PC."
Gaming the System!
"So many gaming memories from school computers lol. Shared resource drives were the bane of our high school's existence, because I'm pretty sure we didn't have any IT staff, or if we did, the students were just smarter than them honestly."
"Among other things I remember stashing: Halo PC LAN, a SNES emulator with a handful of ROMs, computer tech typing assignments everyone would just copy and slightly modify. One kid had the Paris Hilton tape on there and watched it very openly in art class."
Control+ Alt+ Down... Voila...
"Screen shot desktop make as background... hide icons."
"I did this, but went one step further. Back in the day of Windows XP (and maybe earlier), control+alt+arrow key would flip the screen orientation. I.e. ctrl+alt+down would flip the screen upside down. So... Take screenshot, rotate image 180 degrees, control+alt+down... Voila."
"Suddenly their desktop is right side up but all their mouse movements are all reversed and their "icons" no longer work. Once came back to find my roommates monitor in uni upside down. Forgot I did it to them over the weekend. Teehee/oops?"
The Backdoor...
"There was no internet when I was in school and MSDOS was the rule of the day, so no fancy hacking, downloading, or whacked out wallpaper. Instead, two of us were commissioned to write attendance software for the school. We put in a backdoor wherein any time either of us showed up as tardy or absent, the record was immediately deleted. We used but didn't abuse this privilege so as not to attract too much attention. It worked perfectly."
Nirvana
nirvana GIFGiphy"Late nineties, high school. I synced 5 computers to play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in a round. Teacher wasn't happy."
Nirvana. Now that sounds like an idea. You kids already play too many games online. And don't they teach hacking classes in high school these days?
15 Minutes
Cbs Love GIF by LoveIslandUSAGiphy"Created a shortcut saying to not click it. When someone did, given like 15 minutes later, the computer restarted. Any unsaved work was deleted. They can't complain because they clicked the icon."
F5
"It's not really messing with the computer but I used inspect element to change the text in my school's website in detention and the kid next to me thought I was hacking and told the teacher, I pressed F5 to refresh and the teacher told the kid off for trying to get me in trouble, he looked so confused when everything was back to normal, also my friend once rearranged the keys to spell swear words, no one noticed for weeks tbh."
The Tortoise
"By giving LOGO's turtle random high numbers before leaving the computer class, so the little fella would go bananas and scribble at speed of light until it covered all the screen. Probably that could be stopped by just pressing a key but it used to drive the teacher insane, and hearing him yelling and cursing was the best."
- V02D
Shut it Down!
"I shutdown all the computers in the lab from my computer, including the teachers. Most in the class knew that I had done it but they didn't mention it."
- Charn22
"In the early days of computing, when they became small enough for one to be shared by multiple users on a college campus, it became sport to crash the whole system. The admins opened the machine and physically altered the machine (which was the way back then) to include a new "crash" command, which took all the sport out of it."
Death
robot computer GIFGiphy"I hid the taskbar, the icons and disabled a lot of basic settings. Then I put the blue screen of death as the wallpaper."
All it takes is a couple of innocent clicks and the next the you know... chaos. What a way to get through the day. Kids can be so devious. LOL.
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Although most of the answers are a bit more light-hearted, it is important to remember that not everything taught is true.
No_Personality_2723 asked the community:
“What is something they taught you in elementary school that is not true anymore?"
The thread had so many relatable answers—80's/90's babies I'm looking at you!
*Scowls at smart phone*
“You won't always have a calculator on you to work things out!” avamissle
“I was told this in 6th grade in like 2014 by teacher holding her phone in her hand.” krezzaa
In the Wonder years…
High Five White Bread GIFGiphy"’Wonder Bread builds strong bodies in 12 ways.’ The cafeteria only served Wonder Bread and kept this slogan hanging on the wall to remind us ‘why.’ The FTC demanded an ad slogan be withdrawn after Wonder Bread added calcium (the 13th way) and claimed it improved children's brain function and memory.” Back2Bach
Wait…there wasn’t one?
“Any time we got in trouble it would be on our permanent record. And a permanent record.” the_loz3r
*Not* lifesaving advice…
“Running zig zag from an alligator will cause a gator to roll over. Of course, this was taught in Florida. Let me elaborate since I've had some people call BS on this and I'm just answering the topic honestly…"
“ 1. It was 1998. 2. 4th grade in Orlando. 3. The teacher was 65+ years old (I can't remember if she was born and raised in Florida; she had an Irish last name). 4. I am an army brat. We lived in another country prior to moving to Florida when I was in third grade."
“So I took it at face value at the time cause how was I supposed to know they were lying to us. 5. During a conversation with my younger cousins, this "fact" came up and not a single one of them ever heard it (they are 10 years younger than us) so I looked it up and found out we were duped." JukieJukes
“You will have to write everything in cursive one day. Outside of my signature I'm still waiting for the day I have to write anything in cursive!" VenatorDomitor
“For 12+ years I signed Tinker Bell on every single delivery invoice that came into my job. Thousands of them. No one said anything even once." Fun_Recording_4935
Can we agree to just throw the whole rule out?
“I before E except after C. In the UK schools aren't allowed to teach it anymore because there are more exceptions than words that follow it.” LR-II
“Because I agree that we shouldn't leave out words, I took a word list with 370101 words that I use for English language related scripting, and wrote a script to identify words that fit the ‘i before e’ rule and words that do not fit the rule.”
“There are 12816 ‘I before e except after c’ compliant words. There are 4841 non-compliant words. There are 114 words which follow the rule and break the rule.” Asteriad
That’s not how tongues work…
“We were taught that there are different 'zones' on the tongue for different tastes (sweet, salty, bitter etc.). Apparently this is bullsh*t.” smolspooderfriend
So many lies…
“The food pyramid.” Higbee9093
“The whole thing was ridiculous. The bottom of the pyramid recommended 11 servings of bread/cereal/rice/pasta.” blindsniperx
Yeahhhh, don’t do that…
“Look up when your nose is bleeding.” LIFESUCKS145
“Oh I hated being told this. I used to get nosebleeds all the time so it happened often. Like, sure, I'll look up but you should be warned that the blood will trickle down my throat and make me cough blood.” tetrapus—7243
“That animals like bears that go through hibernation are sleeping for weeks and months. They just slow down their metabolism." Heitus
“Bears are just sleepy during the winter to conserve energy, they're not true hibernators. You can wake them up pretty easily. Their heart rate and body temperature drops slightly while they sleep, but that's it."
“Woodchucks, for example, are true hibernators. Their body temperature goes from around 98°F to under 40°F, their heartbeat goes from around 80bpm to 5bpm or lower, and their continually-growing teeth pause their growth."
“They might get up every few weeks to snack and poop, but other than that you can't wake them up at all. Construction crews will sometimes find them, move them aside, and then put them back and re-bury them once they're done working, all without the woodchuck ever waking up." SpySauceSyringe
Ever wonder if half of what you learned in grade school was wrong? We are wondering now. Makes the important point to question everything, then question the answer too.
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