My pet dislike are those primary school teeches or teech
"assistants"(whatever they are?)-female-mainly in Inner Cities
who sem to be control freaks.
You often see them marching hideous crocodiles of intimidated looking kids
around paying almost paranoic attention to crossing the road,holding hands,
(I saw a whole class gripping a ROPE the other day!)
Ive seen them make one entire class sit down on a filthy public pavement as a punishment for talking.(2006)
The worst thing about these female teeches is their tone of voice.It is often utterly repulsive.
Overbearing,domineering,patronising,insulting and humiliating.
And it is often very very loud.They seem to revel in shouting "orders"by the minute.As if they are the only person allowed to speak.
I just think how horrible and stupid.How rude.No wonder the kids grow up to be so curt and rude-they get it from these teeches!
Its all "shut up""be quiet""if you dont do this then were this...""I said"...
"No talking at the back".
Cant these morons see that all this attempted restriction on kids merely sparks resentment and the urge to get back actualy aggravating the kids
mis behaviour and fooling about?
It gets wrose behind the walls of the playground.
At some prep schools the slipper may be gone but youve still got physical
punishments like standing at attention in the rain in the break,lined up against a wall,being shouted at and threatened by teeches,
balancing books on the head made to feel ashamed etc.
Sometimes I quite fear for kids welfare,in fact one school has been the subject of concern in a local paper due to a few parents.
Many of these modern female teeches are little better tha the old dinner ladies.
Their educational level is very low,few have proper A levels and only the headmaster or headmistress of a large state school would possess a Univeristy Degree (You see it on the board Mrs.Dalton BA...whatever)
Whereas as a lareg public school its not unusual to find every single teech having a BA or BSc from places like Oxford or Cambridge
Says it all really

Yes they existed then, they do now.
Back then teachers didn’t have to be qualified, I think compulsory degree qualification came in the 70’s. Class room assistances require none, yes popular now, we never had them.

I took my granddaughter to school this morning, pouring rain, pupils were made to remain in the playground whilst the teachers huddled in the dry staff room until the magic hour of 9.00am, Then miss, whoever came out looking like she’d been dragged out of bed, shouting an bawling, “hurry in don’t you know it’s raining?” eh!!

The perimeter school pathway resembling first WW trenches, the school being extended. Little Jonny who has just slipped and covered in mud, not assisted or helped, instead shouted and dragged along, by another just out of bed specimen of education, and in passing me, nose in air head shacking, raising the eyebrows, and tutting. Supercilious women I thought.

Then you get the stupid note your child need XYZ by NEXT DAY, tears because mum doesn’t have a suitable outfit or what ever it is at short notice, child takes in the next best thing, shouted at and made to miss out.

Reminiscent of my primary school days, the parents evening, found ‘Miss’ I’m in charge type, where not only the child spoken down to, but mum and dad as well.

Ketta

You're a hard woman, Ketta! Who would want to look after 25 mummys' darlings for 5 hours every day?

Danny

Hard ME!! - I have to look after several mummy's darlings 7 hrs or more most days, they're called MEN

Ketta

Bozo, I was in Melbourne a few weeks ago on the corner of Swanston and Flinders St-probably the most busiest intersection in the city and controlled by a traffic Policeman.

I saw a teacher walking a Crocodile (which we have penty of here-mostly up north) on a leash across the intersection. The policeman saw this and yelled "what do you think you are doing with that?" To which the teacher replied by yelling back, "I'm taking him for a walk."

The Policeman then shouted, "well, take him to the zoo."

A week went by and the same Policeman was on traffic duty again when he spotted the teacher again with the crocodile.

The Policeman shouted "I thought I told you to take that thing to the zoo."

The teacher shouted back at the top of her voice, "I did. And he liked it som much I'm taking him to the Movies now!"

So much for Saturday morning humour.

I think it would be safe to say that every country is full of teachers you describe Bozo. I'm sure they suffer from some sort of personality disorder or inferiority complex and yell to draw attention to them selves. It's rather like short man syndrome-the need to make up for being short by drawing attention to one's self.

It is interesting to have a look at how many short teachers there are about.

MIKE

Apart from which, Napoleon, Hitler, Charles I and Rumplestiltskin all suffered from lack of inches, and definitely liked drawing attention to themselves.

None of them came to a good end, either!


Steve

Ha!Yeah like the crok jest!
But seriously I feel really quite intimidated by these power mad teeches.
When I see them and their 40 charges approaching me on the sidewalk or pavement
as we call it hear I can feel them zeroing in on me all,
like "Uh here comes one of the enemy-a white middle aged well educated male"
I can feel the hairtriggers getting zoomed and them getting all "Watchy"just in case "I make a wrong move"like I dont brace with back up against the wall
whilst they all brush past.The ordered instruction shouting always seems to intensify just at the point that they pass within earshot.
Like they are putting on a special control show just for me Joe Public Citizen.
I am embarrased not impressed.
Sometimes I feel like verbally taking on the teech but am intimidated as the cops
always go bananas on teechs side you know upholding pillars of the community stuff...
They think they rule the streets now.(Teeches).
I just think poor kids,poor sad teeches not a clue.
Actually being educated during the anything goes 1960s our teeches were extremely enlightened.Mini skirts boots all luvvy duvvy and hip.
Didnt experience cruelty at their hands.
All trips to swigning Italy Belgium etc we must all hold hands etc.
Let a childs inner creativity out etc etc.The memoery of the recent War was probably responsible.
After 2 devastating wars with millions dead the old discipline just couldnt show its face anymore I guess.

You been drinking, Bozo?

Bozo

Is this the 60's second time round, cos I don't remember hip teachers or them be o soooo nice

Ketta

Bozo, I always tell people that the 60's wasn't a decade, it was a party that ran for 19 years!

We all have the opportunity of an education and it is up to us how we use it.
Not everyone can be a brain surgeon. Just because a person is in a profession doesn't mean he is smarter than the guy who became a plumber. If he was, then he'd be fixing his own toilet.

By reading your previous posts I would say we are around the same age but I experienced things a little differently. Yes, we had leather clad mini skirted young teachers and males who wore their long and wore flaired ants and floral printed shirts but they were by no means hippies when it came to teaching a class.

I got belted just as much by them as I did anyone else. Reading your comments I can identify with one because the hair on the back of my neck stands on end whenever I see a nun. Some refer to this as a specific type of trauma and I go along with that.


I'm used to shouting because I spent a total of 9 years in two services, the Army in the late sisties and early seventies and the Airforce in the late seventies to eighties. Attitudes in the workplace have changed significantly in the last twenty years. Women can feel safe because of discrimination and harrassement laws which I feel is a good thing.

I think I might put my Devil's advocate hat on for a minute in the lead up to what I want to say, without prejudice to anyone of course.

I think there are times we need to think about the impact others when it comes to jobs like teaching. I have been an adult student and as a Workplace Trainer and Assessor, I have trained apprentices and unskilled staff in a multitude of positions.

As a student I felt my concentration slipping a number of times in class because the subject was boring or the lecturer had a drone in their voice which would put you to sleep.

As a Trainer, and having some experience as an adult student, I would break up my lessons to avoid such problems. If I had a slide presentation which was lengthy, I would put in a totally different slide to break the monotony. I also had things like smarties and mints on the students tables to help keep their sugar levels up, thus keeping their concentration high.

However, when I was a student I found some of the class would get distracted and the teacher would raise their voice to get the students back into focus. I have also seen classes of school children on the street and the teacher raising her voice at them because she is worried about their safety.

Of course we both know there are correct and incorrect ways of speaking to people and sometimes teachers do lack tact but this could be put down to frustration. It is difficult to control a large group at the best of times and especially if they happen to be young children.

These kids should count themselves lucky that CP is no longer in force when they manage to wander off the track.

I couldn't agree with you more, Mike, keeping control of a group of kids is easier said than done. Having 15 grandchildren there have been times when I've taken 5 or 6 of them out somewhere together. They are too busy chatting among themselves to listen to a mere 'boring old adult'! I can't imagine how hard it must be to have 20 of them walking along a street in file!
As for teaching and keeping the students' attention for any length of time - I taught Electronics for a number of years at evening classes and that was hard enough, even though they wanted to learn. Now think of kids of 13, who are only there because they have to be. A few trying to be the centre of attention to the others; a couple falling asleep; a few chatting about last night's TV or their latest Gameboy victory - and you are trying to teach them something! Don't knock the teaching profession too much, Bozo, without any meaningful deterrent to misbehaviour, which we had years ago, their job must be very very difficult.

Cant understand all this hippies belted me biz.Suppose it depends on where you wuz raised and the philosophy of your parents.
I just went to school in a quiet small town plain ol' respectable
community when life was simple and there was apple pie and right and wrong.
To be trueful theres was none of this tannin yer hide wiv a barbers strop
stuff at all!
I think that was more relegated to deprived City kids in slums!
On a huge family estate I never personally saw a kid "tanned"or even "smacked"throughout the whole of my "middle class"Sixties Childhood!
The only place CP was found was in the large Boys Public/Grammar school
and even then it seemed totally alien to the community and the ethos of the times.
Im constantly amazed at these tales of severe beltings etc.
I think it became generally realised in educational and family circles
that bottom beating was really out of fashion and not on sometime around 1960 onwards for most progressive thinking folks.....until where we are now with a total ban.The 1960s was incredibly on the side of youth which meant everyone from 10 to 25.For example our primary school teech woudld organise
wonderful after school evenings with music,dance orange squash and as many biscuits as you could eat.They couldnt wait to send us all on the next jamboree to Belgium or to see Romans remains.We were taught to swim by teech herself in the school pool.All the kids got on.There was no bullying at all.No fights.No smacking.No Caning.No tanning yer hide!OK got it?

Bozo

I take it you didn't grow up or school in South London?

K

Bozo, my comment referred to your earlier post. Please refer to the below to refresh your mind.


Actually being educated during the anything goes 1960s our teeches were extremely enlightened.Mini skirts boots all luvvy duvvy and hip.
Didnt experience cruelty at their hands.

Most of the female teachers who were at my school wore the above-being the fashion at the time.

My post was in regard to the above. I hope this helps clear things up.

Mike

Yeah sorry with that last post I got a bit rattled.
Youve all been very good and the atmosphere on this board is admirable.

Hello Bozo, just referring back to you previous post about children in slum areas, I feel you have hit on something here. I was having a conversation with a long time school friend of mine and he brought up a similar point.

He was describing the difference in attitudes of teachers, primary vs. secondary. He felt, as I did, that the teachers who worked at Reservoir West Primary where we both attended had no interest in teaching at that school. He recited the words of his grade six teacher-a 64 year old man bordering on retirement.

He said his teacher was talking about behaviour and said that it made no difference to him if someone was in detention that day because he would be at home like he was every night having a cup of tea with his wife.

The primary state school I attended in my fifth and sixth grades was about 10 years old and was located in a blue collar area. Some kids lived in housing commission houses while others came from varied backgrounds. One of the teachers there was Pam Kilbourne, a runner of some fame here. I'm not too sure if she made the Olympic team or not in the early sixties.

We had swimming classes at the local swimming pool which were taught by pool staff. Learning to swim as you would be aware of is a very important issue in Australia. I don't remember any teacher teaching swimming or even getting near the water. They probably couldn't swim anyway. Maybe they just didn't like the idea of being seen in a swim suit.

The teachers were very average and a complete contrast to what I had been used to at the Catholic school. My fifth grade teacher for example used to fall asleep during the lesson. He suffered Asthma and we were told it was his medication that caused him to nod off. I just think he bored himself to sleep.

There are two middle working class schools in my area, one a primary school at the end of my street, and the other a High school. I have a niece at the primary school-her older brother at High school. Both schools have an excellent reputation and they are state controlled so I feel it has a lot to do with the teaching staff at schools and not so much the the area they are in which makes the difference.

1964 was a year of great optimism.People looked forward to a new age.It seemed anything was possible.Strange and bizarre things were happening,
Sppace,New fabrics,Beatles breakthrough.This was reflected in the schools and communicated to pupils.It was felt the nasty old war days had gone been left behind for good.Youth was to the fore.Most of our teeches were male.They were usually very well motivated.They had one aim to get exam passes.Thats all they cared about.Their paymasters the middle class parents.A few were willing to go the extra mile.Add a dash of culture,teach swimming etc.Their rapport with the kids was very good.Think thats what you were missing.The rapport between teeches and parents was good too they shared common aims but wanted the best for the kids not some sort of ring up the parents after a caning so Johnny gets a double dose.
The kids had a whale of a time right up until they reached 13-14.Thats when sinful sex reared it ugly head and bullying appeared.The it was often downhill into the wasteland of teen criminality and abandon till they saw sense around 25 if they didnt get killed in a drunken auto smash or OD on drugs.

Bozo, what I remember about 1964 was the British Invasion. The Beatles, their memorabilia and black plastic Beatle wigs every kid and his dog had.

Carnaby Street had not quite reached our shores yet but the news of South East Asia was on the news every night. Holden, Australia's own car bought out a new design car, the EH Special and Premier which were the talk of the motor heads around town.

I was in grade six that year and I had a male teacher who did not believe in the use of CP. What a refreshing change that was. Unfortunately that was short lived. I met him again in 2005 at a school reunion, the first and only re-union I ever attended as my secondary schools had closed down years ago. Sad really because I have no contact with any of my old school friends.

There were a lot of female teachers at my schools during the sixties and I would think that even then it was considered to a larger degree to be a profession women slightly dominated in.

For me, the mid to late sixties stick outin my mind the most. I bought my first electric guitar in 66, traded it 2 years later for a British made guitar which I still have.

I got more involved with music but unfortunately in those days there were no music programs at my school. We did have a music subject but it was very basic. In the mid sixties I joined a youth club where I learned Judo and Gymnastics. I tried out for the school Gymnastics team and broke my right arm in the process. I got off oding homework for weeks until my English teacher realised I was left handed and she wasn't amused with my antics.

Our School year differs to most of the world as our year starts in late January and finishes in mid - late December. Most pool activities were during February and March and again in late November. These activities were part of the PE lessons. The local pool was right beside the school and we swam there after school quite a lot.

There was the odd excursion. One year we went to the Yu Yang Mountain range and there was no water anywhere to be found. I remember the lines at the taps when we arrived back.

Another time were taken to see a series of short plays which was an education in itself. We also had a cutural trip to Como House, one of the earliest mansions built in Victoria. It had a ballroom in it and the floor was suspended on chains to help prevent people getting sore feet and legs when dancing, or so the story went.

Inter school sports was another activity the school participated in. Football, Cricket, Gymnastics, Soccer (not a big sport at the time) Basketball, Netball (for the girls) and Softball were the main sports.

the girls did have a Soccer team and a Cricket team and also the reputation for being less than ladylike against opponents. I think their Hockey team had the worst reputation. I remember someone referring to them as St Trinnians Hockey team.

There was a story about the vice captain of the team calling the referee a F, ing idiot but I can't say if this was true or not. Knowing some of the girls it probably had some validity to it.