
You never want to share your private business. It can be really embarrassing. But if you're caught disrespecting the teacher by passing notes in class, you may just have to air your dirty laundry for all to hear.
u/Just_Floatin_on_bye asked:
Teachers of Reddit, what is your best "read the note to the class" story?
Here were the best answers.
Cries For Help
I don't know if this is the best but it's pretty profound. I usually ignored note-passing. If a student didn't want to pay attention but wasn't bothering anyone else I was cool. In the age of cell phones notes were kind of outdated anyway. So I had this student who could do origami like a boss and he was always making all kinds of animal figures and cool shapes that I would put on the cork board behind my desk. This one day he is getting his fold on and is completely focused and not paying attention. Before I know it, class is over and it's on my desk. He stops on the way out of my class and says, "You're gonna wanna read that." I read it and he asking for lunch money cause his mom took off and he was hungry. It hurts being a teacher some days.
Weather Wonderings
I was in eighth grade and it was a hot, sunny day in mid May. I wrote "it's snowing" on a piece of paper and showed it to my friend sitting next to me, who immediately looked out the window. We both laughed because obviously it wasn't snowing. Then he and I laughed when I showed it to another student and they immediately looked out the window. And so on until most of the class is in on the joke, and watching as I show the piece of paper to the next unwitting fool. Almost every student knows what's going on, when my teacher sees that I'm showing this piece of paper to everyone and making them laugh. She walks over to my desk, looks down at the piece of paper that says "it's snowing" and instinctively looks out the window. The entire class bursts out in laughter.
From Lol To Yikes In Ten Seconds
When I was teaching college classes, I caught two of the girls whispering, so I told them "If you're going to tell secrets, you need to share with the rest of the class." (I taught preschool before this). She looked right at me, and said, without the slightest embarrassment, "I was just telling her that I think you have a cute butt."
I was teaching a Communications class, and we were discussing communications in the workplace, and I looked down at the textbook. After seeing what the next section was, I said "Ok, moving on to the next section, titled 'Sexual Harrassment'." Everyone roared with laughter.
A couple weeks later, at a baseball game paid for by the school, she came on to me really hard, with my fiancee right there.
Moral Compass Strong
Another non-teacher here, but my 7th grade teacher typically always wore a dress shirt to class and looked very presentable but this day he had his sleeves rolled up. Now, everyone loved this teacher but my immediate though was to write a note to my friend sitting beside me that his arms were super hairy, and that note was passed back and forth with us cracking jokes about it. Nothing malicious or overly mean, just that we didn't think he'd have such hairy arms.
We eventually got caught, and between classes he took us aside and warned us to not pass notes, and since this was the first time this happened he would toss it out without reading it and let us go. Well, a couple months go by and he decides to wear short sleeves again, and his arms were noticeably less hairy. I know 12 year olds don't have the greatest moral compass but to this day I still feel so bad that my dumb*ss little note might have made him so self-conscious about something so unimportant. I'm sorry Mr. Fifield, wherever you are now :(
When You're The Best Of Friends
I taught for a decade in a really rough area. I intercepted a lot of notes and was pretty shameless in public humiliation of my kids. I read a lot of a bad stuff out loud.
However, one really nice moment that stands out was when the super popular bubbly latina girl sat next to the stereotype depressed weird white theater band girl. I see them passing notes which is really uncharacteristic. The band girl seemed off and upset, but I let it go because it seemed like there was something going on more, and the latina girl was a really nice kid. I didn't think she was bullying or anything.
I had the girls stay after for a second, and asked them what was up. The latina girl said, "I was worried about her, she looked sadder than usual. So I wanted to make sure she's cool." I asked the other girl if that's what was happening and she said yep, and showed me the notes, which was a really heart felt convo about boys, relationships and feeling lonely. It was so damned sweet.
I asked if they needed more time, and they both said yes. I could get them excused from their next class and they asked if they could chill and talk more? I said sure, because you bet your ass wellness and mental health is a fuck-ton more important than curriculum.
They really had a moment, and it seemed to help them both. This was as 10th graders. I got to see them really develop a nice friendship over the next few years.
Go girls! Wherever you are now, I hope you're still friends and I'm glad I could help facilitate that.
Dictionary Definitions
An anonymous question to the class - In health class in freshman year of high school, we had to anonymously write questions about sexuality and the reproductive process--and the teacher would pull out a random card, read the question, and respond with a textbook answer.
Said teacher was very religious, and very open about her faith in a way that almost seemed patronizing. So I was surprised when she pulled out and read a card that said "what does the word c*nt mean?"
She look at the card, looked at us all calm, and then proceeded to pull up Wikipedia and other web media to inform us of the origin of the word, it's connotation, and how it's used differently around the world. I was kind of shocked that she just wanted us to know what it meant, as if to say 'don't look like a dumb *ss if you want to use this word in a sentence.'
Cool Dudes
One day in middle school right around when the Nintendo Wii came out, you could add other friends online for certain compatible online Wii games by sharing a serial code of like 16 numbers or something around there. Sitting in the back of our 7th period science class, 3 of my friends and I started to exchange and write down our Wii serial codes on a small piece of paper. We'd pass it down and share it as we passed it and copy them in our notebooks.
Our teacher pauses his lecture as he looks at us, he just gets up from the front of the class, walked to our row where the 4 of us sat, put his hand out to my buddy for the paper with all of our serial codes on in, takes a moment to glance at it only to see a matrix of random numbers followed by the first letter of our names. He then glances up at us and then to my buddy with the most dumbfounded stare, squints, and asked "is this some kind of joke? Cause I'm clueless on this one..."
My buddy that had to explain ourselves saved us all the embarrassment and said I'll explain after class as he blushed.
Luckily our teacher was a really cool dude and was fine with that answer and told us to just put it away. We told him after class and he understood but also said he was expecting some sort of elaborate code that we were encrypting messages in haha
Meta
Not a teacher but there was one teacher who was really cool, but still took his teacher job seriously. One lesson there is a note being passed around. Because of the giggling he sharpened his senses and honed in on the note's location and intercepted the handoff. Did that getting ready for a speech cough, opened the note and laughed. The note said, "giggle and pass it on."
There was another time he intercepted a note that said, "Happy Birthday Mr. _____"
Donut Pact
Student, not the teacher. In my college thermodynamics class the professor said that he didn't care if we got a text message in class, however he did care if we had our ringers on. So his rule was that if you got a text message and your phone went off loud enough for the whole room to hear it, you had two options. You could either read the text out loud to the whole class, or you could bring in donuts for everyone at the next class (there were about 20 of us).
Of course everyone keeps their phones on silent, so it never happens... until smack dab in the middle of one of the exams, when the Professor's phone gets a text message and rings out loud and clear in the middle of the exam. Professor freezes, takes one look at his phone as we all start giggling, and says "Guess I'm bringing you guys all donuts on Wednesday". (They were delicious).
Homonym Lesson
My Freshman year of HS, we had a student teacher for Algebra. This poor dude was terrified of public speaking. I don't think he made eye contact with any of us. Anyway...one day he catches someone passing a note. He demands that it be handed over. He unfolds it and reads it aloud:
"My dick's erect."
The whole class busted out laughing. The supervising teacher was horrified. But this guy was perplexed. He had a strange, puzzled look on his face. He read it again, with conviction.
"My dick's...ERECT!"
By now, people are crying and choking from laughing so hard, but not him. He was still confused. Our normal Algebra teacher snatched the paper out of his hand, probably fearing a lawsuit or something. She managed to crack a smile and then join the laughter when she read the note, which had 3 words scrawled on it:
My Dixie Wrecked
Mr. Kirkpatrick, where ever you are, thank you for one of my fondest high school memories.
Bless
Not a teacher. Someone in my class had a cold and wiped their snot into a scrap piece of paper, as they didn't have a tissue. They then scrunched it up and left it on the side of their desk. Teacher saw this, thought it was a note and grabbed the paper, going through the usual fanfare of 'the importance not passing notes around'. The look on her face when she opened it was priceless.
XYZ
Not a teacher, but when I was in high school, I started a note from the back row of the class, which was passed and read by nearly everyone in the class. The teacher grabbed it as it went past him, when there was only 3 people left who hasn't read it. I think he was going to read it out to the class, but he looked at it before he read it. All the note said was that the zip on his pants was down. With all respect to him, he calmly zipped up and continued teaching.
Best Wishes
My then-fiancee was a high school math teacher.
One day she thought she saw a note being passed, but she wasn't sure, so she waited. Then she thought she saw it again. Finally she saw it, walked over, and took it.
It was a wedding card, signed by half of the class before she took it.
She cried.
Edit: Yes, she's now my wife.
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It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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