Reply With QuoteGreat tale. I’d love to meet some of my old teachers. I owe them an apology for my behaviour.
Earlier this evening I went to the hardware store for some bits-and-bobs. Small items, so I took my bike for that trip. On my way back, I noticed an old gentleman with white hair - but somehow familiar. I looked at him when I overtook him and he looked at me. At the same moment, we both knew who we were facing!
It was my history teacher from... the 1970/71 season! I remembered his name and he even knew my name. At the same moment. How's that for a memory! And what an unexpected encounter. We had a long talk on the pavement next to the cycling path; 51 yrs apart gives a lot to talk about. It appears that we live not too far apart as well, so I invited him over for coffee or tea.
I cannot get my head around how memory works. Incredible.
Great tale. I’d love to meet some of my old teachers. I owe them an apology for my behaviour.
Nice story Menno, unfortunately the majority of my teachers were aggressive ar**hol** who would in most cases bully children who didn’t meet their exacting standards. As an adult I often fantasised about meeting our wig wearing PE teacher however he died several years ago.
I’d love to meet some of my old teachers… to give payback ….
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Great story Menno, why the negativity people?
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Happiest day day of my life was escaping St Greg’s , Ardwick Green .. …..
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I had my fair share of bad*) teachers as well. But this man was one of the good guys. Teaching history with an 'aptitude' for story telling. Remember, the early 70s: no internet, no videos. A film projector in the classroom, the film shown on the wall above the blackboard. Remember? I remember his stories about The Romans, the British troops at El Alamein, the heroic defense of the bridges of Rotterdam (where I lived) against the Nazis in 1940! I remember those hours in his class vividly. And his innovative way of testing. Not simply a bunch of questions. No, one question and 50 mins to write an essay about the stuff he'd be telling about/you'd learned.
*) Bad teachers... I've been a teacher the largest part of my working life. And that allowed me to look back with a professional look as well. In short: kids aren't often wrong. What they (or we, when we were young) consider(ed) to be a bad teacher is/was often, from a professional view, really a bad teacher! When your kids complain about a teacher, take their story seriously!
I’d love to meet some of my old teachers. Even the ones I wasn’t fond of , were still brilliant teachers and even now remember vividly their lessons. Most were fantastic. Great memories of school.
Met a few of my old ones over the years and got on well with them.
My maths teacher (Mr J) was a typical down to earth geordie who played semi- pro football and taught PE, he also helped run the rugby team and helped to organise athletics matches. One of my youthful traits was an inability to know when to keep my gob shut; coupled with an over - exuberant sense of humour this combination often got me in trouble, especially in maths lessons. Although Mr J and I didn’t get along too well I am indebted to him for bullying me through my maths O level, in hindsight I benefited greatly from his robust inputs.
One incident sticks in my mind; following a maths lesson in the afternoon, during which Mr J and I had our typical lively exchanges, we had a rugby team practice with Mr J’s involvement. This culminated in a competitive match with a teacher on each side to even things up. My forte was speed and good footwork, give me the ball in space and I was away. That’s what happened, I get into full stride only to see Mr J steaming towards me looking v. determined. I release the ball to a man in support, Mr J has time to pull out of the tackle but decides to clatter me instead and I’m dumped to the ground in a robust fashion that wouldn’t be allowed today. Served me right for winding him up during maths, I got what I deserved.
Different era, different standards. I met up with Mr J a few years after leaving school having started a career in industry and had a really good laugh with him, a really sound guy who I had the utmost respect for......belatedly!
I bump in to a fair few old teachers in the local pub. What always strikes me is that they are now the age that I thought they were when they taught me 25 years ago.
And I’m now considerably older than they were when they taught me.
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Yes and mine was escaping Spurley Hey, Gorton, not far from St Greg’s…Originally Posted by Kitz
I went to a snooty boarding school. I would love to give my own brand of justice...erm payback to some of the teachers.
There is one teacher who I would love to meet so that I could thank him for making learning interesting, as I genuinely think it helped me to get as far as I have today.
The other teachers, less so!
It wasn't the best of schools.
But I wasn't the best of students either.
Great story Menno.
I met my English teacher some years ago and it was a lovely experience. He still looked the same although I was obviously a fair bit older.
There are many of my old teachers I would like to meet and thank but sadly I guess most have passed away now.
Cheers,
Neil.
With data protection regulations etc, has anyone managed to successfully 'track down' and old teacher?
Genuinely interested how you could go about doing that nowadays.
Mr Conner taught English , one of the good guys . I improved from 34 in the the class to 20 -16- 8
I got the 2 English O Levels , and started a 3 day career as a plumber …
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The History teacher did a bunk with the holiday money ..it was that kind of school .
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At primary school, a bully of a headteacher, now dead thank God. Mr Scholl, Deal Parochial, whacked me round the head on my second day, just for fun. I was deaf for the rest of the day. Once, I refused to eat some gristle, he made me sit there until 4pm. Countless other canings. Some lovely teachers at secondary school, history, English, sport. I later, 1979/80, taught (trying to put things right maybe) at a boarding school in Yorkshire, mostly military service kids. The French teacher was hired from the local bus stop, unfortunately she had an affair with another teacher and her husband shot, but didn't kill, the offending male teacher. The religion teacher was a lovely bloke and we used to chat late into the night....he was in the Hitler Youth. It was a rugby school, something I knew nothing about. The head asked me to ref a game, I couldn't say no. I arranged with a sixth former to nod in my direction when I needed to blow the whistle and being such a well behaved, when parents and teachers were watching, bunch of lads it worked a treat. Some really good days after a crap start.
Great story, Menno.
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