Fun Stuff > CHATTER
Teachers Be Crazy
Kugai:
From the opposite perspective
Considering some of the students teachers have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, is it any wonder they go crazy??
pwhodges:
At 11 I was at a cathedral prep school (private boarding school for the choir boys and others). The headmaster was a priest, and taught me Latin. One day, he asked me to translate milites, so I said "soldiers". "No, boy, try again." "Er, soldiers?" "No, boy, solDiers." He was actually objecting to my pronunciation of soldiers as "soldjers"...
There was also a Scottish woman (Miss M) of "a certain age" who taught French; we used to joke that she demonstrated the five French vowels as "ü", "ü", "ü", "ü", and "ÜÜÜ".
Anyway, one sad day, the headmaster's wife died. A year later, he remarried, to the assistant matron - who I know made him an excellent wife, and was a loving carer to him in his unfortunately decrepit old age. Miss M had a strict view of propriety, and decided that the headmaster had offended this; she decided to express this by telling the boys at every opportunity that the headmaster was "a wicked man." When she continued after repeated instructions to stop, it was decided to dispense with her services. A governor of the school, Canon H (a canon of the cathedral) came over, and a boy was sent to Miss M's room to summon her to the head's office. She sent back a message saying that she was teaching an extra French class; but then dismissed the boys, with extra sweets, and waited for the response. After a while Canon H went to her room, and told her that she was sacked, and that she was required to leave the building the next day, and to speak to no one meanwhile. At this point, accounts diverge: Canon H said that she was so overcome by emotion that she started to shake, and he took her by the shoulder to steady her and prevent her falling; Miss M said that he took her by the shoulder and shook her. So she sued - not for her job, but for assault. The case took a couple of years to reach its end, by which time it was being heard in the Old Bailey and made the Law Reports in The Times newspaper (she lost).
At the same school, while I was there, there was an occasion when the head cook was promoted to matron... This led to the time when I had to write home to get my mother to call the school to get me taken to the doctor (I was found to have an appendix abscess, and was in hospital for six weeks).
When, at my next school, my (married) housemaster ran off with another housemaster's wife, this seemed comparatively tame.
SirJuggles:
(@ Kugai) Agreed. My mom is currently working at my old high school since she's used to working in education and she wanted to be there to make sure my little sister doesn't get in trouble in the big scary world of Public School (it's not going to stop her). However, the only job they had open was an Aide position for the Special Needs teachers. My mom got assigned in the mildly disabled class, which is 30% students with learning disabilities and 70% students who think school is "gay" and enjoy shouting obscenities at the teacher in the middle of class. She's had to learn what paperwork to fill out when students get arrested. Coming from her previous job at my old Christian school, it's a bit of a drastic change.
Inlander:
Paul, that sounds like the plot of a Muriel Spark novel.
pwhodges:
Life imitating art, eh?
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