Typically, I would write an intro about my own experiences with the weird kids at school, but I WAS the weird kid in school. Not in a bad way, more like a “I had a John Waters phase” when I was 16 and everyone knew it. So like, cool-weird. At least I hope so.
Schools aren’t always so lucky to have the cool kinds of weird kids though. The spectrum of weird extends even further than that, and can sometimes end up very disasterous.
U/Imaginary_East5786 asked: What was the weirdest thing the weird kid did at school?
Let’s start with the grossest of the gross. Because why not.
Was it worth it?
peeing ralph wiggum GIF
Giphy
He heard that you'd automatically get suspended if you peed your pants at school. He wanted to find out if it was true, peed his pants, got suspended.
> Observation: 'I've heard that by peeing your pants you will be suspended'
> Hypothesis: If I pee my pants I will be suspended
> Experiment: I peed my pants and I got suspended
> Conclusion: If I pee my pants I get suspended
Uhhh what was the intention here?
He got mad that he didn't understand how to play a game at lunchtime so he started hitting and punching the nearest person to him, who happened to be me. When I shoved him away and asked him what the hell was he doing, he whipped his unit.out, charged at me and when I shoved him away from me again he started crying and ran away with his member still sticking out.
Next ones up are the lowkey (or even highkey) disturbing stories. These weird kids can get a little scary.
Boom theret.
At my middle school, someone decided to get a little attention with a good old fashioned bomb threat. Except they thought that a bomb threat meant literally writing "bomb threat" somewhere. Worse yet, they misspelled the f*ck out of it, and wrote "boom theret."
So we had to go on a brief, very awkward lockdown while the police checked the perimeter for booms.
I hope there was no overlap in the columns.
Serial Killer Halloween GIF by GIPHY CAM
Giphy
She wrote a list of all the girls and boys she wanted to kiss and murder and then casually passed it out on the playground.
2 separate lists or just the 1?
Same list 2 columns lol.
Holy crap.
Had the weird kid in high school ask the teacher to use the bathroom. She said no and this dude legit stabbed his hand with a pencil. Went all the way through then asked if he could now...sh*t was wild.
This was Pearl High School in Mississippi. This was the school Luke Woodham shot and killed his girlfriend and her friend at the school. This kid stabbed himself with the pencil about 2 months after that happened. This was late 1997.
Most of the time, however, the weird kids are pretty d*mn funny.
Ok, but this takes a lot of skill.
Had a kid nicknamed "cheeseburger" in the grade ahead of me in high school. He got his nickname because when it was time for his class to go to lunch, he snuck into the roof and crawled his way into the cafeteria, dropped down and proceeded to steal all the cheeseburger put out for lunch. Unfortunately they caught him in the act and sent him to the principal's office.
A year later he was caught stealing a teacher's computer, and in the process of being arrested he bit the officers hand, getting him sent to juvi never to be heard of again.
Every school had the cat girl.
cat dragging GIF
Giphy
The weird kid at my highschool tied a string around his pencil case and pulled out around the halls pretending it was a dog. He still lives in my hometown. I think unemployed.
Oh also weird girl in middle school acted like a cat. She would meow and hiss at people, lick the water fountain and rub her body on the teacher's legs. In 8th grade. I have no idea where she ended up.
Mood.
Weird kid in elementary was a self proclaimed alien. Once, while waiting for the bus, she told me "On my planet we eat people like you" and proceeded to bite me. We later became friends in high school and she used to give me massages during lunch break in the quad. Just realized now she was likely tenderizing me.
I was exactly this kind of weird.
He didn't say much, but if asked, he would go to the front of the class and perform Tip-Toe Through the Tulips with all of the emotion and volume of Tiny Tim, holding nothing back.
The last I heard, he became an energy trader, made a ton of money and married well.
I can definitely relate to that last one. In middle school, my English teacher would let me go to the front of the class and perform monologues or songs from Broadway musicals. Weird, but that’s what happens when schools cut funding for the arts and the theatre kids have no outlet.
As long as you’re not hurting anyone, I say let your freak flag fly, man
Teachers who have been in the business for the long haul have witnessed worlds collide and societies change, at rapid pace. And how each group of students adapt will always leave an impression. And some impressions standout more than others. Case in point...
Adults Suck
amy poehler pictures GIFGiphyMy mom has been teaching for about 25 years. She says students haven't changed. Parents have.
For the Kids
My girlfriends mom is a middle school teacher and she mentioned that kids are way more compassionate today, but they drastically lack social skills.
That makes sense, I tend to think that happens because the students spend so much time listening to people talking to their phone about their fears and insecurities but are accustomed to students volunteering that information.
For the Hungry
I can't offer what my favorite science teacher told us in regards to why he chose to keep teaching for so long. He was in his 70s and had been teaching since he was in his 20s.
(I'll quote him as best as I can remember) "The kids change, the clothes change, the attitudes change. The science changes.
I lived through times when women couldn't learn science like men and when people refused to teach people because of the colour of their skin."
The one thing that doesn't change is the hunger for knowledge. I get new children every year who I truly enjoy teaching. Some kids don't want to learn but there are always the special few that find wonder in science.
I continue teaching for those kids. The ones who find the wonder and joy behind science. There are more and more of you each year and it truly fills me with joy"
So I'm guessing his favourites were the kids in his last teaching year 2008 when he died.
In the case of our food tech teacher she hated all children equally.
Kids Today
Yeet GIF by memecandyGiphyI'm still a new teacher, but what I've really enjoyed so far is using slang around students. Saying "Yeet" gets a completely different reaction from 10th graders (eye rolls) and 5th graders (glee) and I love either one.
At Last... Evil!
University Prof here - when I started teaching in the early 00's, students still got even my most obscure Simpsons and 80's film references. By the late 00's, I had nothing left to reference. By the early 2010's my kid had reached adolescence, so I had new material, but it really wasn't mine, and the culture had splintered so much that my Rick and Morty references only hit about 30% of the class. Lately I just stopped trying, and became that old, out-of-touch Prof; I lived long enough to become the villain.
Sometimes it's all about the small details, and often it's about the parents. So maybe some adults reading this chain should take some notes. Those educators are giving free advice... take it. Let's hear some more.
Great Graphics
My wife teaches Graphic Design which has become nearly completely a digital pursuit over the past 25 years. She has remarked that 10 years ago her students would instantly catch on and often be teaching her things about how the [fairly specialized/data hog] software she uses in class works [key board shortcuts/architecture understanding].
In the past couple of years she increasingly sees students who have near zero computer experience and are afraid of having to learn/use software.
She has come to realize there are many students whose "computer" experience is using their phone for social media.
In Northern Alberta...
I taught in the late 70s, early 80s in northern Alberta. The nice part about being that early in my career, plus in northern Alberta, was that you could pretty much do whatever you wanted. My kids found an injured duck on the playground and we brought it into the classroom and spent weeks nursing that duck back to health. As the duck grew stronger, he would do these practice flights in our classroom to the point where he would do a couple of laps around the room and my kids wouldn't even get excited about it.
Later in that same year we grew hydroponic tomato plants that went from floor to ceiling and were able to harvest tomatoes in the middle of winter. Man, that was a great year! Pretty sure you couldn't do most of that in a grade one classroom these days.
Oh Millennials...
GiphyDevices and helicopter parenting, which doesn't mean parents who are intensely concerned about their children's futures, but parents who never leave their damn kids alone.
I'm a millennial and have only taught Zoomers but yes, sooooo many helicopter parents. They text their kids in the middle of class, call them, everything. It drives me nuts.
Good Hearts
In my mind kids have always been good at heart, but society and their upbringing is what ultimately shapes or corrupts them. Unfortunately, I think more kids nowadays have mental health issues since they unconsciously compare themselves to their peers. The difference is 20+ years ago kids only compared themselves to the few hundred kids in their school. Nowadays, they are comparing themselves to the millions of kids they see online.
"out of date"
robin williams thank you GIFGiphyTeaching in university has been interesting. On one hand, I enjoyed the 90s because there was still not a ton of technology. Sure there was more manual work but I enjoyed it.
As for students, one of the things I've noticed is that my cultural references have absolutely tanked. I was teaching a Philosophy Ethics 100 course and literally NO ONE got my reference to the Matrix or Pulp Fiction or well... anything. It was the first time I felt that internal twinge of being "out of date" and realizing I was teaching 17-18 year olds who were being BORN when that movie came out.
I still love the job though. :)
In the Family
I'm not a teacher, but both my mother and sister are.
They stated two big differences.
- Social Media changed how kids behave. A lot. Way more bullying is done online now and less of it is physically violent.
- Certain trends don't really exist anymore. The punk/emo stuff from the 2000's isn't present today, but there is a stronger group of Gamer/Internet kids that play Fortnight and use TikTok. Also, there are way more outspokenly gay students. howmydictate
Be OK!
I worked with kids for a few years in the mid 2010s and there was a big push for gay acceptance and pride.
Well, one day, the whole group of 10 year-old boys came out as gay. All of them.
My boss was genuinely considering an "It's OK to be straight" campaign, with the best intentions.
All the Years
97 - sarcastic, grungy, smoking more cigarettes, more clique-y and edgy.
07 - petty, attention starved, overwhelmed, but much nicer.
17 - under so many layers of irony and memes they don't even know who they are anymore or care. there's no point in being creative or devolving a personality, anything you could think of has already been done.
Oh Society
the law smh GIF by PoweradeGiphyA newish teacher- think anything before the 90s was less detrimental to teachers. I teach now, and there is virtually no student or parent accountability. Many (not all, but many) expect the school system to raise their children for them these days. Not sure where society went wrong.
All the Colors
Started teaching first grade in 1999. I loved teaching till about 2006. Students were so eager to learn kept me on my toes. They were respectful and the parents were supportive. Little by little things started changing. Complaining about colors of napkins, words like angels, witches, It kept getting worse. The amount of paperwork and meetings no time to teach. The testing got in the way took time away from teaching and what was important which is the children. Little by little it took most of my energy. Stopped teaching after only 13 years.
ALL THE TIME
Started teaching at university in the 00s. Kids were really cliquey (into what sub-culture or tribe they were in and didn't mix) and intolerant of difference (of any kind). Was 10 years older than them, most had no idea how to save a file on the computer into different formats. Had to tell kids not to describe things they didn't like as 'gay' ALL THE TIME. 10s they started being better at technology, but worse at fixing it when it went wrong, getting more tolerant, more likely to mix. 20s kids are really tolerant, kinder, but much, much sadder.
Becoming a Veteran
Started teaching in 1985, retired in 2015. I enjoyed teaching in all of those years and enjoyed knowing almost all of my students. I feel that any observations I might make would be so prejudiced by my own reactions to the era and my own ageing that it's a bit of a ridiculous question. I do think that more people need to commit to better parenting, as I was appalled by how scarred many students were by sheer parental neglect and abuse, regardless of the era.
I don't think abuse has become any more prolific, but I recognized it more and more as I became a veteran teacher.
Other than that, talking about people by generations is just another way to divide us and keep us quarrelling; otherwise we might notice that we've all become the property of corporations. And they don't want that.
Kids are Rot
Kids don't change, but accountability is gone in my district. First half of my career (90s, 00's) students and parents were far more accountable. Today, if a student does not thrive, it is blame the teacher all day, every day. Teachers now compete with Tik Tok, Snap Chat, video games etc... and there is such a sense of entitlement, at least in my district.
The students are still great, but the adults have messed this up so bad. We have eliminated all deadlines in my district, and students can re-do an assignment over and over until they get the grade they want. Consequences can be great learning experiences, but we are no longer able to apply them.
The Tools
Teachers Day Education GIF by OriginalsGiphyI cant comment as a teacher, but as someone in educational IT, everything today is about how can we buy this latest pointless web-app for kids to use and shoehorn it in ASAP!
My hat is off to every educator. Especially those that have marched on through this pandemic. Thank you for your service. You are essential. You are important. You craft the future. And we see why.
"Sounds Nuts"
The rigid routine for the gifted kids is just too much for people that age. It almost feels like it's built to make you fail. So that if you succeed, even with a C/D average, at least you're alive. Like, how in the world does 4-5 hours of homework a night sound reasonable? All while engaging in extracurriculars for college and having some kind of life. And what really is the payoff?
axl rose GIFAverage People
I was "gifted" in elementary school. Looking back, I realize that I was just average in a below average school district lmao.
I think that's what it really boils down to. How are you compared to your immediate peers? Then the school can round up a few, put them in a faster class, and justify their jobs.
Meow Meow
After a long battle with depression and burnout at university, I've found repairing electronics to be quite soothing/rewarding. I think mostly, because it's very clear when a project is done (it was broken, now it's not), which really removes the pressure and anxiety of failing to live up to people's expectations.
I also have a wonderful partner and a very handsome cat.
Edit: cat tax.
Say Ahhhh
head feels GIFGiphyI'm a doctor, been aiming for this since I was 10! Finally succeeded 18 months ago.
Useless
I was praised for my intelligence, not my work ethic.
I got lazy as heeeell.
I'm trying to instill into my children that hard work and practice is more important than being able to figure it out first try. I praise the effort, not the end result. I hope this works out better for them.
You totally nailed it. I excelled in high school, then dropped out of college because I actually had to apply myself. I'm finally finishing my undergrad 20 years after I started it. What's funny is that now I'm that a**hole student who stresses about getting an A-.
See so far, it's all more stress than education. And of course they skim over the workload part of the situation when you're signing up. How much of real life does this prepare you for? And why aren't these kids seeing counselors on the regular? This group of people did a lot heavy lifting with no payoff. Let's see if anyone else had a better outcome.
Days with the Dead
I went into a profession that is less about being "gifted" and more about being personable. I studied Funeral Science and all my peers and high school students thought it would be a waste of my time and talents, yet 27 years later, here I am. I actually own my own Funeral Home where we provide affordable funerals and cremations and enjoy helping others through the rough times in their lives.
I Object!
Went to law school, which I stupidly thought would be a breeze because high school and college were. Quickly discovered that everyone there was "gifted" and the professors didn't give a crap about our prior achievements or LSAT scores, etc. Had to really work hard for the first time in my academic life and definitely did not breeze through with As.
The first year absolutely sucked since I had to develop actual study skills and couldn't procrastinate all the time. It was really good for me. Got through, I'm a partner in my (tiny) firm and I have two "gifted" kids I'm trying to raise to have a better work ethic and study skills than I had.
I wanna Care
Spongebob Squarepants Reaction GIF by NickelodeonGiphyI work my 40 in logistics to keep the lights on. Its a low-stress gig that pays enough that I can focus on the crap I actually care about.
Deep Breathes...
Panic attacks over the idea of failing. "Gifted" children more often than not weren't taught to work hard because they just 'naturally got it', so they grow up not knowing how to problem solve and tackle difficulties in healthy ways and thus are extremely paranoid over the idea of not being the best.
Slackers
Tired Back To School GIF by OriginalsGiphyProcrastinating.
The thing about those "gifted" classes is they don't provide you with any work ethic. As a kids we were just expected to meet the criteria, and we expected it too. now as crap gets harder in life, a lot of us procrastinate and slack off.
3 Degrees Down...
Failed out of 3 different degrees, went to work at an IT Help Desk from the bottom up and didn't go back to school until I hit the promotional ceiling.
That's the professional story, the personal story is a 10+ year battle with varying degrees of depression for the same reason. Honestly the most damning one is reviewing all of this crap and thinking to myself "so many other people have succeeded with much less, what kind of mess up gets handed these opportunities and still fails?"
When I Grow Up
In high school I was really focused on biology. Then I got to college and the world of humanities existed. I completely forgot about biology and after trying A LOT of other options ended up with a degree in linguistic anthropology. I went back to school and got a masters in HR (because money), but while I was in school I got a job in a legal department as a contract admin. I HATED that job, but contracts are pretty fun. So I briefly thought about going back to school to become a paralegal.
Now I'm working with my dad and sister to teach patients about pharmaceutical r&d, but we had to put the business on hold for covid. In the meantime I'm getting back into art...
I'm moving back to the area where I went to school and seriously considering a PhD in medical anthropology. I'm pretty sure I'll never figure out what I want to be when I grow up (I'm 35).
Passions
picture day comedy GIF by CBCGiphyI'm a librarian. One commonality I've noticed across gifted young people is they tend to follow their passions somewhat more than others. That means going after careers based on what they love to do, more than the pursuit of money.
Black Sheep
Being the family disappointment. High school left me with severe anxiety and depression from bullying and I dropped out because stress was killing me.
But on the bright side I'm in a very loving relationship for the first time in my life and we're about to move into an actual house together and start a new life, and I never thought I would be here.
Edit: Thank you for my first ever award by the way!
Staying Alive
I never went to college and got a factory job right out of HS. I worked as an assembler for 7 months and was promoted to team leader. I had been dealing with hip problems since I was a kid. 4 years after my promotion I had my 2nd surgery, and could no longer continue working. We had twin sons, and since I had been home for a couple years at that point, we decided I would be a stay-at-home dad.
When the boys were 3 I had a 3rd surgery that finally fixed me.Two years later I was severely burned in a brush fire and spent the next year having 4 more surgeries for the burn. A year and a week after the fire I developed headaches that led to my brain cancer diagnosis.
So now I'm still raising my kids and trying to stay alive.
Doing my Best
I started school early, went to a private school for gifted kids for two years, went back to public school and was put into an accelerated learning program, skipped a grade.
I barely graduated high school, and dropped out of college with a 1.9 GPA.
I'm currently managing a department of 10-12 people in an industry I love, in a country I didn't think I'd ever live in. I've gotten treatment for my depression/anxiety and a diagnosis for my autism. I have two kids, an amazing spouse, and a very patient therapist.
Before COVID I'd occasionally take lessons in things I loved— metalworking, glassblowing, that kind of thing— just because it was so good for my mental health to have a couple hours a week where it was perfectly okay to fail at something. It's one of the things I look forward to most once the pandemic is under control.
Weighing Options
Weighing Which One GIF by AwesomenessTVGiphyMed school, but I'd say I spend at least half of my current time wondering if the stress/mental health strain is worth it. Still happy though thanks to my wife and son who do everything to support me.
Early On...
Was considered gifted from an early age. Coasted and still did well through middle school and fine (not great) in high school. Got into a decent college, but still didn't really know how to work off of anything other than raw intelligence.
Went to a good law school and it kicked my tail, but did fine.
It was in law school that I realized that although I was considered gifted when I was young, I was not exceptional. The world had caught up to me. I'm currently a practicing attorney with a fulfilling career, but otherwise just another face in the crowd.
I have a child who is currently considered gifted and is off the charts on all things academic. I'm constantly reminding him that hard work mixed with his intelligence is an unassailable combination, while simultaneously trying to remember to let him just be a kid. I hope he gets it.
All over the place...
I have a BA in Art History, an MBA in Information Systems, I spent the better part of my 30s working at Home Depot, and I currently work as a nurse.
It's not the trajectory I might have taken, but I'm generally satisfied with the outcome.
Useless...
Yup Thats Right GIF by Katelyn TarverGiphyUnemployed after college with a useless degree and no direction. I honestly think if I left school at 16 and got an apprenticeship my life would be infinitely better.
In the end being deemed "gifted" doesn't seem to get you any further than "advanced." Heck, I know plenty of successful people who needed remedial math. I feel like we throw around that turn gifted loosely, like the word love. Define it before you use it as a label.
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Rules, rules, rules. Life is already full of rules, especially for the youth. Rules at school, rules at home. It's all inescapable. And nowadays parents love to get in on complaining about school rules too, not just just the students. See, sometimes the rules prove to be a hindrance to the entire family. Then things start to get real... real quick.
Don't Peek
schitts creek wtf GIF by CBCGiphyTook all the doors off the men's room bathroom stalls because of vandalism for 2 months.
Scanned
School added thumb print scanners at gates of school which counted as registration - needless to say I would just walk to school scan my thumb and walk back home with them none the wiser. Was a great few months until they noticed.
Age of Empires...
Conservative Christian College. A group of us played Age of Empires one weekend. They didn't like it and called a meeting. Everyone involved got misdemeanors on their records. There was nothing in the handbook about it being against the rules. The only person that didn't get any punishment was the son of the president even though he was just as involved as the rest of us.
"Genius"
In my freshman year of high school we had a terrible vandalism problem, the bathrooms would be broken in various ways almost constantly. In a stroke of pure genius, the staff decided that any bathroom that was vandalized would be closed for the week on first offense, the quarter for second, and permanently on the third offense.
They took back the rule after closing every bathroom on day one.
Was quite interesting explaining the write up on my record when I transferred. "You got a misdemeanor for what?!"
Edit: they made it a rule after the fact and did this several other times with things such as nail polish or radio control helicopters.
Is this Footloose?
kevin bacon dancing GIF by STARZGiphyProm was a mandatory lockdown for the night in order to avoid students going to parties after prom.
Prom was held at various house parties across town instead.
That is a lot of over reach. You can't control where kids will go, and what they will do once they've left the building. You should dance everywhere for prom. I get some of these situations, vandals are a problem but when does a solution go from solution, to impeding on privacy and freedom? I'm glad I'm graduated. Keep reading, you will be too.
HOLDEN FOREVER!!!
My high school mascot was Daniel Boone holding a musket. A kid wore a Guns 'n Roses shirt to school and was told he had to change shirts because of the pistols on the shirt. He pointed out the hypocrisy of the school mascot and they changed EVERYTHING. The mascot was switched to holding a flag pole instead.
Every instance of the mascot was changed from the multiple signs outside and around the school to the giant picture in the middle of our basketball stadium. Holden, you're a freaking legend for this.
No Dots
You couldn't wear ANY kind of head items that were "gang colours" (red or blue) - this No included hair bands, scrunchies, beads in your hair, ribbons - ANYTHING. I got in trouble for wearing a blue hair band with white polka dots.
Clothes Check
We had to wear belts. Someone snitched that people weren't wearing belts under their sweaters, and they actually checked and a bunch of people got detentions. Stupid.
We had belt raids at my school where the dean would burst into classes, completely interrupting any education, to check that everyone was wearing a belt.
Chase the Flat
We weren't allowed to play tag football at lunch, only frisbee. When I asked the principal what the difference was, he responded with a sarcastic tone, "A football is round and a frisbee is a flat disk."
He left the school later that year, went to another school, and a few years later was brought up on charges for failing to report the abuse of a student by a teacher.
Poke-Thief
hotline bling pokemon GIFGiphyPokemon cards got banned in middle school because someone stole the vice principal's kid's cards. Yep.
In the Face...
If you were involved in a fight, you got suspended. While it sounds reasonable, context didn't matter.
I got suspended once not for throwing a single punch, kick, whatever. I got suspended because someone knocked the books out of my hand and when I reached down to grab them they punched me in the face.
I got suspended for walking down the hallway and unprovoked getting punched in the face.
Forget Brandon Valley Middle School.
Rules are essential, I totally get it. But maybe it's time to come to the table and invite more voices to sit in when the ideas are being crafted. Education is, and should be, a collaborative effort.
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