A Parkinson's teacher and why I hated school.
My memory isn't error proof, but what I do remember has little to do with the changes in education and more about the vicious bullies, bored incompetent teachers, and a confused and amazingly ad-hoc curriculum.
And the tawse.
Teachers seemed all powerful, free to do and behave as they wished, with no come back for poor results.
The parents were often as scared of them as the pupils.
Of course, many were dedicated, talented professionals, who inspired their pupils. My History teacher was one such. My love of history can be traced directly to this man and his ability to engage a class.
I hated school, I found it a miserable experience. But his lessons were the one part of the day I looked forward to.
However too many of my other teachers were useless.
And if they were only useless then they were some of the better ones.
Many could be vicious, bullying and border line sex abusers. Too many of the girls, got some sort of unwanted attention.
Arms around their waist. Gentle pat on the bum.
Many of the male teachers had what would be called "a reputation".
Speaking to my male friends it shocks me how many were subjected to abuse and I don't believe that all the other teachers in the school were ignorant of what was happening.
Some loved the power and the opportunity to humiliate. The weaker kids were as likely to be bullied by teachers as by other pupils.
I remember one poor boy who in addition to his life being made hell by the bullies, was regularly humiliated in the maths class by a teacher who clearly got a kick from it. It got so bad that the boy one day simply refused to go to school. The school tried to force him back, with on one occasion the headmaster dragging him in from the car, with the boys mother helping. The shouting and screaming could be heard around the whole school.
The boy won and the head gave up.
Nothing happened to the teacher who caused the problems however.
There is a lot of talk today about how out of control our school children are, with teachers ham strung by rules that hinder them from being able to exert their authority.
And being married to a teacher, I can see first hand the truth of it.
However the days when teachers were able to physically throw their pupils against a wall, or slap a pupil across the face, or verbally abuse a pupil, or touch a girls bum, all of which I personally witnessed through my schooling, are rightly behind us.
Some of my teachers were psychopaths. Brutal cowards who hated children.
Some were just stupid. The deputy head of one of my schools was called Samuel Hodge, otherwise known as Sammy, and on a famous occasion was the subject of some scribbled graffiti. Not for the first time. This time however he had had enough. Determined to find out who was to blame, he decided to go round all the classes and do a spelling test as a way of identifying the culprit through their handwriting. The first word, we were asked to spell was "wanker"!
As you can imagine this didn't help his authority much, and to say he became an even bigger figure of fun, would be an understatement.
The question as to why he thought that would be a good idea, is beyond my ken.
I still hated school.
But we did have ways of getting our own back. An English teacher who it was rumoured had had a mastectomy was known as "tin tit". Another one due to her having an odd speech defect was known as the "dung" lady. An obese and unhygienic teacher was "lardy mole".
There was one teacher I had that as soon as she appeared at the end of the corridor was subjected to a torrent of abuse.
She left to have a baby. I wonder if she ever went back?
When my son was about to leave primary and move on the secondary school, my wife and me had a chat, and agreed that we had to ensure he got through the process, with as little damage as possible.
However we got off to a bad start. We failed to get his hair cut and his first day was a misery. Then the first week and then finally the first month. We intervened and forced the school to take action. They decided to move him to a different class were he had friends.
It worked and in the main he loved school.
The form teacher of the class he left wasn't happy however and as good as called him a coward in front of the class, by way of explaining why my son was moving on.
Not everything is rosy. We considered putting in a formal complaint, but decided against it.
I didn't know it at the time, I found out years later, but one of my primary school teachers had Parkinson's. I can't claim he was a particularly talented teacher, or a teacher who had a good relationship with his pupils. But he did shake and walked oddly.
At the end of the year, he left without a goodbye and we never heard from him again.
In fairness I should add he never threw anyone across the floor, humiliated them, or patted their bum
On reflection, he was not a bad teacher. Certainly in comparison to a lot of others.
I do wonder occasionally what happened to him. Treatment wasn't as effective back then, which is probably why he just disappeared.
Doctors also weren't so aware of the benefits of serious exercise back then, so this teacher had few effective tools to fight the progression.
With Parkinson's, I have noticed how some people seem to decline much more rapidly than others.
Was he one?
I've found out that many sufferers just give up after diagnosis. They just sit in a chair and watch TV.
Apathy is a known problem for Parkinson's sufferers. Something that needs battled against.
I hope that he did.
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