Schooldays are the happiest days of your life.

[knuckles]

F..king hated school. I was bullied remorselessly and wagged as much as I could in the final year. If I ever met up with those cûnts again I would do serious damage to them. I joined up later and I learnt to handle myself. I got all my qualifications whilst in the army and it was no thanks to those barstewards.

I also learnt a massive amount more after joining the army, miles more than I ever learnt at school!

 

[AliBobbyJ]

And don't get me started on 60mph flying blackboard rubbers

Ahhh, happy days.

Ha! I remember Mr. Howard who taught maths. He could draw a perfect circle on the board freehand and was a dead-eye shot with a piece of chalk, able to land it perfectly on a kid's head if they weren't paying attention. Once my mate Jimmy W. nodded off in class and Howard sent the chalk in a slow graceful arc headed right for Jimmy's nose, except that Jimmy yawned big & wide and the chalk went down his throat. And stuck there. Jimmy was gagging & turning different colours while Mr. H. went back to explaining Pythagoras's theorem. When someone eventually said "I think Jimmy's choking, sir!" he made it to Jimmy's desk in three giant strides, turned him over and brought his huge paw down on Jimmy's back, whereupon the chalk flew out along with lunch. As Jimmy regained his senses Mr. H. declared "clean that mess up, lad" and Jimmy dutifully went off to get a mop. None of us thought this was out of order at the time.

In general school gave me tons of "'interesting useless knowledge" but also a life-long curiosity for learning for its own sake. School sports got me fitter and instilled teamwork. Wouldn't want my teenage years over again but I'm grateful for the time spent in the classroom and sports field. Wouldn't have done my nearly 50 years teaching If I didn't think it was an honourable profession.
Jimmy eventually went into theatre and toured the world.

 

[N1985]

Not for a Blue in the fucking 90s it wasn't.

 

[Stockton Heath Blue]

A long tradition which is sadly being lost.

Being? Are these still a thing?

 

[BlueMoonday]

My main negative about school, looking back, was that if you weren't naturally good at sport there was very little encouragement or coaching used to try to get you more involved or confident enough to want to be more involved.

On the whole it was ok, most teachers were in it for the right reasons and some were quite inspiring. Lots of arts and drama stuff going on. Head was what you might have called a progressive and the cane was hardly ever used. Valued staff stayed on for years so it was fairly stable.

Our teachers picked lads not on merit but on the basis they were drinking buddies or pals with their dad's etc. The amount of favouritism and praise these lads received compared to none sporting folk was ridiculous. This is probably why many didn't cope in the real world or at uni once they stopped receiving attention. I joined a footy team outside of school which was a great laugh and enjoyed it. Lads were a lot more down to earth, witty and good fun.

 

[hammocity]

Happiest day of my life when I left school (Hartshead in Ashton) in 1975. Absolutely detested it, the Teachers were generally a set of twats apart from Mr Stanley, Mr Cousil and Mr Parker. I was accused of trying to burn the school down (long story) and my best mate was compared to a member of the IRA.

One of our teachers was a paedophile, Alan Turner, Google him as “Ten Bob Turner” but we all knew him as “Bummer Turner” as did all the Teachers who never reported him, he finally got prosecuted 20 years ago.

Another teacher called Milner was also shagging one of my female classmates whilst she was in the fifth year, came out officially when she was 16 but we all knew it had been going on well before her birthday.

Set of absolute fucking wankers, i rebelled and was “invited” to see a Psychologist, I told him to fuck off in no uncertain terms.

After School I went to Tameside College then Manchester College on Aytoun Street doing Business Studies on day release, those 4 years were a complete joy, the Tutors were the antithesis of the wankers I encountered at School.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Ha! I remember Mr. Howard who taught maths. He could draw a perfect circle on the board freehand and was a dead-eye shot with a piece of chalk, able to land it perfectly on a kid's head if they weren't paying attention. Once my mate Jimmy W. nodded off in class and Howard sent the chalk in a slow graceful arc headed right for Jimmy's nose, except that Jimmy yawned big & wide and the chalk went down his throat. And stuck there. Jimmy was gagging & turning different colours while Mr. H. went back to explaining Pythagoras's theorem. When someone eventually said "I think Jimmy's choking, sir!" he made it to Jimmy's desk in three giant strides, turned him over and brought his huge paw down on Jimmy's back, whereupon the chalk flew out along with lunch. As Jimmy regained his senses Mr. H. declared "clean that mess up, lad" and Jimmy dutifully went off to get a mop. None of us thought this was out of order at the time.

In general school gave me tons of "'interesting useless knowledge" but also a life-long curiosity for learning for its own sake. School sports got me fitter and instilled teamwork. Wouldn't want my teenage years over again but I'm grateful for the time spent in the classroom and sports field. Wouldn't have done my nearly 50 years teaching If I didn't think it was an honourable profession.
Jimmy eventually went into theatre and toured the world.

casual violence was fairly commonplace. I vividly remember my favourite teacher in primary (who also took football) twatting a lad on the side of his face so hard he knocked him over a desk. I thought at the time 'he deserved that for being stupid'. Changed days.

 

[Saddleworth2]

School was a mix for me - I went to about seven different ones (and not for my behaviour, my dad was a serial job hopper) and all of them presented different challenges with teachers and pupils. Favourite was Uppermill Primary School which was almost idylic. Least favourite was Richmond Grammar School in North Yorks which despite having a couple of brilliant teachers was very much like Tom Browns Schooldays including the bullying and fagging. The difference when it was merged with other schools to create a massive comprehensive was astonishing. What the constant changing of school gave me was an insular self confidence. A handful of teachers left their mark in a good way. Very different days today, my teenage granddaughters would freak out at the suggestion of moving schools (and friend base). It doesn't stop them stressing about absolutely everything on a daily basis though. I tell them not to worry about things they can't influence and I just get the look....They would certainly not claim that schooldays were best.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I also learnt a massive amount more after joining the army, miles more than I ever learnt at school!

Ah but yer can't play truant from the army!

 

[MichaelBBack]

Primary - Yes.
Secondary - Nope.

I was lucky in primary. Got an amazing class. Everyone felt like your mate, you could sit next to anyone and chat with them and there were very few fights or disagreements. Was brilliant. Loved those innocent, happy days.

For secondary, while all my primary mates went off to the same comprehensive, I was sent to an all-boys grammar school. I know my parents thought they were doing the right thing, and maybe it all turned out fine in the end, but man I hated that place. Vast majority of the lads there were stuck-up arses who all thought they were the cleverest in the class, constantly in competition with one another, snide and cruel, and most of the teachers were smug and nasty as fuck.

It wasn't even posh, it was in a shitty area, but they wanted to make it feel posh since it was a "grammar school" so we weren't allowed to play football, only rugby or cricket. Had daft rules about hair length and uniforms as well, and they'd dish out detentions for almost anything. Horrible place.

Plus, spending my entire adolescence around nothing but boys was very detrimental. Left that place with ridiculous levels of social anxiety around girls which took me years to get over. A lot of the lads also left with very horrible attitudes towards girls and women and I know of at least two from my class alone who were done for rape once they got to uni. In short, same-sex high schools can get to fuck.