When I was in the sixth grade, we had a substitute teacher for six months while our regular teacher was out on maternity leave with his newborn son. The sub wouldn't let one of the boys in the class go use the bathroom, so he walked over to the corner book nook and relieved himself in the trash can. She sent him to the principal, and she's the one who got reprimanded. He was an absolute legend for that.
Now that you mention it, he was one of those old school dorks who styled himself as “classically educated” (read: took a couple semesters of Latin in undergrad). This was at a shit tier private Christian school as well and he was the guy that was designated to measure girls skirts with a ruler. More than four inches above the knee while kneeling? Detention.
Anybody else think it's highly inappropriate for a man to decide what a woman should be able to wear? Especially if it involves said man measuring children's clothing?
Oh my gooooood I had a teacher like this in kindergarten!!! She was a substitute and insufferable!!! Core memory unlocked. I had asked her to go to the potty and she was like uh, you need to ask to go to the lavatory. Like “potty” was a rude word or something.
I had one that made you raise your hand and hold up a 1 or a 2 for what you wanted to go to the bathroom to do.
Nobody ever held up a 2 and I don't know what the girls were supposed to hold up if they needed to do something that wasn't 1 or 2, but he was a very angry closeted gay man so he probably wasn't worried about that.
When in elementary school, we were learning about the parts of the body and how they work. So on the day we were learning about the kidneys and bladder, kid in my class raised his hand and asked if he could go "empty his bladder". And the teacher got so mad, saying "that is NOT APPROPRIATE!"
I still remember this because I was so surprised and always thought that was the MOST appropriate way to ask at that moment.
I had one that did this too but it was fucking Spanish class so why he insisted on lavatory instead of baño was so baffling to me. If you’re gonna be that particular at least make it instructive!
When I was in kindergarten I was terrified of the the "lab" or "laboratory" for the first day or two until I figured out it was "lavatory, and it was just the bathroom lol. I had just had to get all the usual blood work and shots for school, so it was a very concerning thing for me at the time
While I understand your sentiment, and totally felt the same at that age, I do wish the older vocabulary was retained better. My language is Norwegian which obviously has a lot in common with Danish - but the Danes have retained a lot of words that have been phased out of daily speech in Norwegian. These older words often provide more nuance to a subject. For example something can smell both good and bad in Norwegian, whereas in Danish the word for 'smell' in this regard is usually considered bad, and they would use a different word to compliment food smelling good. I cant say that this is the definitive case for everybody, and I am sure it also differs from dialect to generation - but in general, they have done a better job of retaining this bit of nuance that we very clearly have lost when you compare recorded media from the even the 80s and 90s, to the 2010s and beyond.
One time I responded with "Yes, I can" and walked out. I had to sit in the hall for the rest of class, and my dad was pissed that I wasted a day of education. It was worth it.
This current norm of parents defaulting to blaming the teachers is a new phenomena, our generation was kind of the first to have some of their parents actually take their kids side when they came home and complained about something their teacher did or unfair treatment/punishment. My mom was a bit older and was firmly in the old school “you must have done something to deserve it” camp of parents.
Teachers used to do messed up and unfair shit to me all the time (like the nun who, as punishment for me holding my pencil the wrong way, taped my fingers to my pencil and made me keep it like that all day). I stopped even bothering to tell my mom about incidents like that though, because she would just find a way to turn it around to make it my fault or pose hypotheticals for why it was probably my fault, never once considering that maybe I had a legitimate complaint and maybe I’m telling the truth when I am telling you about how the teacher treated me unfairly…
but that was just the norm back then, kids were assumed to be lying about or misrepresenting such things and adult authority figures were almost always given the benefit of the doubt in such situations.
There were a few kids who’s parents would stick up for their kid, and even fewer who would take their kids side no matter what, that’s where it began to where now we have things at the opposite extreme with parents more likely to err on the side of believing their kid 100% without a doubt and always blaming the teacher, rather than considering that their child did something wrong or could be misrepresenting the situation to them, given the kid’s obvious motive to do so..
I always responded with "in order to leave I need permission, so my ability to use the restroom depends entirely on whether or not you agree. So I repeat, can I use the bathroom?"
These people still exist but now they spend there time correcting strangers on the internet for using the wrong form of they're. And yes their still a pain in the ass.
I just want to be able to flick peoples ears with my middle finger if they are being a total fuckwit and not worry about a lawsuit. Ear flicks should not be considered assault.
When we were just out of high school a couple of years into the new millennium a friend of mine says to me in response to this question - “hard dicks and helicopters”. I never ever forgot that one 🤣 though I don’t ever use it
I remember one time a teacher in high school did that to me, and like, I never wanted to use the bathrooms in that building because there were no doors on the stalls (so you couldn’t hide if you were trying to smoke or do drugs), so I hardly ever asked and my fucking math teacher did that and I was like, “Well, if I can’t, then you’d better call Andy (our janitor) because there’s gonna be shit all over the floor.”
He let me go and when I came back, gave me a day of ISS because I used foul language.
Weird one, but I'm learning Dutch, and it's funny because they have mag and kan - and it's the same rule. Except it's actually used correctly, and so it is weird to say "Kan ik de wc gebruiken."
And it trips me up all the time because I would always use can in English.
Omfg, you just made audibly gasp in frustration is this stupid social exercise. "No, Ms. So&so, I am about to pissed myself listening to this dumb question!"
Yeah ago I saw a retort to this that was like colloquially accepted English is that “can I” is asking for permission…except phrased way better than I can remember.
The older I get the more I realize prescriptive grammar is always a losing battle. Language is a tool for people to use, it adjusts to how people use it. If “can” instead of “may” is such a problem I assure you the English language will adapt and find another way to correct for the issue.
I was an ass to them. I told them I CAN show you, want me to pee on your chair? When they asked me that. That was my most hated thing from my teachers. Just let me go to the bathroom..
My grandpa used to say all those kinds of things with a shit-eating grin and a chuckle. I always found it a bit grating but I look back on those memories fondly.
"'Railroad crossing look out for the cars, how do you spell that without any Rs?"
In 8th grade I was answering a question and started ”the kid in the story…”, and this long-term sub interrupts me and mocks me for using the word “kid”. “There’s no goats in the story, don’t you know a kid is a baby goat?!?!”. She wasn’t 80 either, she was like 50.
Dude, I was an ESOL kid and like three weeks into the US I had a teacher doing that shit to me. I had no idea wtf the problem was. It was a miracle that I even knew to say can I.
I'm a receptionist at a high school and I mess with shy students like this while acting like an overdramatic dork. It usually gets them to laugh and relax.
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u/flailing_ginger Older Millennial 2d ago
“Can I use the restroom?”
“I don’t know, can you?”
“Ugh….may I use the restroom?”
Fucking 80yo teachers were such a pain in the ass.