O/T School Subjects

[Albionic68]

Who used to wallpaper their exercise books?

Not fkn me Phil'. Watching dad trying to hang it on the walls told me it was a bad idea to use wallpaper.

My one sister was a bit OCD about wallpapering books though and used to paper mine just to annoy me. I ripped it off my books in front of her to annoy her; horrible cow.

My exercise books were covered in penned graffiti and spare football stickers I refused to swap with anyone I didn't like at the time just to wind them up. Horrible me.

Getting back to maths I always thought I was rubbish at it when I was at school. It was only when I entered adult education that I understood I was just better at different subjects.

I also realised my lack of appreciation for the subject at school correlated directly with many a teachers' poor understanding of teaching.

[WBA1955]

I enjoyed PE , but got out of cricket and was allowed to run instead, Maths, Technical Drawing, Science , metalwork, but wished I had chose woodwork loved all of these subjects because I found them easy.
Hated English, this was down to a poor teacher , so to wind her up I turned every essay into football related or Black Country.
She used to say you don't spell or say like that, I used to reply Black country is my ist language English is my 2nd.
I can see her now corrected my bad spelling after my strokes, with that red pen.
Didn't like History with regards the Royal Family, if I had a disc clean up on my brain I would wipe a lot of this crap.
I mean Battle of Hasting can't remember anything about it apart from 1066.
Why wasn't we taught about the World Wars, our Dads wouldn't talk about it if the was there and seen any action.
May be then I could of understood my Dads nightmares or going into his shell.
Nowadays we know it has Post Dramatic Stress.

Agree about history Lloyd. This country has some of the best history as any country in the world, so much to cover. You are could spend a lifetime learning it and still not get through it all.
Unlike you I loved history, I still do. But what did we learn about in history lessons?
Jethro Tull and his sodding seed drill.

[WBA1955]

Here's something that should be taught to the young snowflake generation.

If...

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

[mickd1961]

Our maths teacher was Mr Day, he had a large head which was shaped like an egg with just a bit of whispy hair around the sides so everyone knew him as “Peanut”😆

He disliked my clownery in class and my lack of mathematical ability.

I went to work in Hepworth Menswear in Stourbridge a few months after leaving school and Peanut came in and had a couple of suits made.

When the time came to pay I was at the till and he turned to my manager and said,

“Jesus......I’m not letting HIM add up my bill” 🤣🤣

I had to remind him that I had actually got a CSE Grade 1 which was classed as an O Level C pass in those days😎

I actually only got that due to a faux pas on Peanut’s part.

Back in the 70’s up to 10% of your CSE Mark was awarded by your teacher based on application and effort during the course.

Peanut explained that he could award the top three students in those categories 10% towards their exam and 9% to the next three and so on until the worst three got zero %.

He then asked each of us what we thought we were worth and of course, everyone was awarding themselves 8,9 or 10.

He got to me and asked what I thought I was worth and I replied,

“Sir, I hate maths, I’ve a r s e d around in class and I’ve rarely done my homework so it’s not fair that I steal marks off others who have tried so at best I’m a 2%”.


He looked at me and smiled and said,

“I like your honesty my lad, I was going to give you anything between zero and 2% but for your honesty I’m awarding you 4%”.

That extra couple of % probably got me the grade 1.

I took that as a great life lesson and that’s why I think I never needed more than one interview to get any of my jobs, I was always brutally honest about my strengths and weaknesses.

I told the Sales Director and Sales Manager of Dunlop Sports that I had no interest in aspiring into management and that I wouldn’t move one inch geographically for the company, I was an out and out salesman and didn’t like the political games that had to be played.

A three interview process of over 200 applications became a one interview procedure followed by the job offer.

If you can’t be yourself there is just no f u c k I n g point which is why I get on with a lot of people but there’s a significant number who can’t stand me.

I’ve never cared, I’m not someone who’s needed friends as an adult, if my family are fine with me then that’s enough.

It’s actually one of the reasons I’ve stuck with this forum for about 14 years and nearly 18,000 posts......I find a lot of posters with very similar characteristics to myself, Des, Kets, BaggieAl, 68 and others who are really honest about themselves and their views.

Maybe our individual schools did a good job in preparing us for the real world, even that bum chum school in Halesowen that Kets went to 😏🤣