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Pussies. When I was in elementary school in Germany Mrs Johnson would regularly bounce a blackboard eraser off of kid's heads. I never said anything about it because then my dad would ask what I did to deserve it, then he'd beat my ass for it too.
And there's no need to comment that the article used the term 'they' when referring to a single person. I noticed it too. It came from a Nashville news station, what can I say.
My German teacher (coincidentally German) clocked me upside the head with his shoe more than once. Of course, I always deserved it.
ReplyDeleteThey...or IT?
DeleteMy 1st grade teacher Ms Angela could have pitched in the women's semi-pro league with those damn erasers
ReplyDeleteJD
Fasciano used to fire pieces of chalk at us in 6th grade, and we all became very good at ducking or opening the lid of our desks to dodge the bullet.
ReplyDeleteIn 7th grade Goodman would walk down the aisle and knock us in the head, open palmed but with his college ring turned around. It was like getting hit with a ball peen hammer.
Bean bags, seriously? How hard could it be to see that coming and duck?
Over the years, teachers slapped my head or hands with rulers, threw erasers, pencils, pencil cases, chalk, yardsticks, rolls of tape, glue bottles, softballs, football, kickball, and a clock. But never a book.
ReplyDeleteThey stood over me to ridicule and browbeat me. Jerked me around by my ear, pulled me, pushed me, tore my brand new windbreaker. Of course, in grade school there were the end of the week paddlings in front of the class. It was like a major award if a week went by that I wasn't in the line up.
Somejow we all knew that the response to a complaint made to the principal or parents would be, What did you do to deserve it?
"They" can have singular usage when the sex is unknown. No name for the teacher is listed in the story. Singular "they" goes back to the 1300's in usage. "Someone left a box of .45 ACP in a shooting bay, THEY can pick it up at the range office." In the '70s and '80s, they taught us to use the masculine for an unknown sex, but in the early 90's they started changing that.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Common usage today has my mind focused on the "My pronouns are..." bullshit.
DeleteThanks for clarifying. I've been noticing 'they' as a singular a lot more often lately. I wish I'd paid more attention in HS English class. Subjunctive clauses, dangling participles, why ain't ain't a word . . .
DeleteMy pronouns are Nor/Mal. Mileage may vary.
Delete"I am, you are, they are." Nobody says "they is." Except for that one group.
Delete"It" is a perfectly good way to describe somebody who doesn't know what sex they be.
" A Rutherford County teacher was suspended after they were accused of throwing a bean bag at students."
ReplyDeleteIt appears as though the author requires remedial English lessons for choosing proper pronouns. Is this a guess the race entry?
AS I SAID: And there's no need to comment that the article used the term 'they' when referring to a single person.
Delete"A single person"
DeleteDid you just assume zxher multiplicity?
I would suspend any teacher who used pronouns in their ID. It's mental illness,
DeleteMaybe the editor used 'they' to make it harder for the teacher to be identified?
ReplyDeleteThey students are complaining about a bean bag? What a bunch of wimps. My first school years were at a Catholic school where all the teachers were nuns who were all armed with a wooden ruler and weren't afraid to use it. Later I went to public school where my grade 8 teacher had deadly aim with a piece of chalk and there was a paddle hanging from a hook on the principal's desk.
Al_in_Ottawa
Happy 65 year old thoughts of my NJ High School algebra teacher Mr. Anthony Colantoni. Built like a bull, Italian tempered, WW-II vet. Erasers to the head. 3 ft pointer to the chest and abdomen. Fall asleep bought a large glass of water over the head. And in all the years he taught there was never a parent complaining. He was hard, but we all loved the guy.
ReplyDeleteAt they student? Black teacher.
ReplyDeleteAt my school in the 1960s and 1970s, the teacher's weapon of choice was a piece of chalk.
ReplyDeleteI had a professor in college that would routinely launch an eraser at anyone that suggested an inappropriate cancel within an equation. He was a pretty good shot too.
ReplyDeleteOh how things have changed. As a student of the 80s and early 90s, I had teachers throw pieces of chalk and erasers, pens, a book, and even a roll of toilet paper at me.
ReplyDeleteGeez, our rainy day activities included Warball, which is simply two groups standing on either side of the basketball key & pelting each other with volleyballs.
ReplyDeleteA few head shots sent people to the nurses office, but that should teach you to dodge better next time
Last man standing...
CC
We did the same, I don't believe we actually had a name for it but damn we would get frustrations out on each other, good times
DeleteJD
In 6th grade, we had an English teacher who was really big with red hair. He always told us that he tried out with the Redskins. Obviously, he didn't get that job but we were stuck with him. One class, he got so pissed off at a friend of mine, he threw a big fat padlock towards his head. It didn't hit him, but it left a big chip in the tile wall.
ReplyDeleteI'd still rather have him than 98% of the current teachers.
HS math teacher kept two chalk filled wool erasers always at the ready and frequently - and accurately - launched at any offender's chest; the cloud of chalk dust was immense and usually stayed embedded in the offender's shirt for the rest of the school day - allowing everyone on campus to know what happened.
ReplyDeleteAwesome arm, Mr. H.
D
Went to Catholic school 1953 through 1967 and never saw a nun raise her hand or voice to anyone. They would just pray with the miscreant. Kinetic prayer: rulers, yardsticks, pointers. They definitely had a strategic advantage, they had us believing that if we raised a hand back we would go straight to hell, we wouldn't even have to die first. Back then nuns wore the full floor length habits and huge roseries with beads almost as big as marbles and about 5 times as long, properly swung they made a decent CQB weapon. During that time I went to an all boys high school for 9th grade the teachers were all priests and brothers, those guys would use their fists on us
ReplyDelete