General Chat

Oh yay I forgot all about the gunnery, the thrill of an ancient .303 Enfield and the joys of marching in the rain with a heavy pack and hob nailed boots. I really hated it.

Imagine handing out live rounds to schoolkids today !!! Not that they would be impressed, apparently the community police in Luton need a Heckler & Koch to stop the hoodies waving St George flags around and bumping off people who haven't paid for their skunk.

By some lucky chance I was spared English Lit. thanks to the vagaries of GCE. Subjects were divvied up into "Arts" or "Science". I chose science and thus still enjoy a good read. I also understand that arithmetic and math are not synonyms.

The massive advantage of science exams (and Latin) is that you have an answer, right or wrong. Arts subjects are a matter of fashion and opinion. I doubt if ee cummings would have passed English Lit. lol.

Could they have passed a traditional GCE a la Michael Gove ?

English Lit - Joe Orton
Art - Beryl Cook
Music - Chris Rea
Cookery - David Myers and Simon King (Hairy Bikers)
Geography - George Bush
Woodwork - Ingvar Kamprad
D.S. - Margaret Thatcher, Frau Merkel joint nomination
Metalwork - Ozzie Osbourne
French - William Hague
Bookkeeping - George Osbourne
History - Andrew Marr

"When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education
Hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall "
(Paul Simon)

To this day, the only books I have read were those on the school curriculum. So limit of my knowledge is Macbeth, King Henry VIII, Clayhanger, Milton, Wuthering Heights, Conrad, and bits of DH Lawrence. Still get more literature questions right than Chris on Eggheads :-D

Loved Latin and Combined Cadet Force :-D :-D

I never thought about it at the time but our PE teacher always stayed in the changing room while we changed. Five years after leaving school I found out he was a convicted paedophile. Lucky escape I think.

GP

Being a middle of the pack person, there was nothing that I really hated at school.

Chemistry was a bit of a mystery, not helped by the accent of our Asian immigrant teacher.
The Physics teacher was apparently brilliant at teaching A level, but not so good at O level. We wanted a right or wrong answer, not a ‘may be’!
Biology was good. Wonderful teacher who was following the Nuffield curriculum.
Pity I failed the science O levels, but at least I still remember bits and pieces and don’t consider the courses a waste of time.

Physical geography and Geometry are subjects that stick in the mind for ‘like’ along with Religious Knowledge and English Lit.

Struggled with maths,especially when it got harder in secondary school,with algebra and geometry.Luckily I had a good grounding in the 4 processes,(+-x division) and number facts which helps in everyday maths in my life.

Art-not a creative bone in my body..if we had to draw or paint something I would feel absolutely terrified,waiting for inspiration which never came.I loved Art Appreciation though,still love going to art galleries and appreciating other people's efforts.

Needlework..hopeless..managed to sew shut the neck of my shortie pajamas in Form 1,and had to unpick it.Everyone else had long finished,and was several garments ahead.

Cookery...no idea..I vividly remember being forced to eat my burnt stew and lumpy custard. Luckily I have improved since leaving school,and having to survive my culinary efforts.

Science..was always a bit of a mystery to me,with all the chemical reactions etc. Dissecting the white mice in biology was quite interesting though,as was genetics.

PE wasn't too bad,but didn't like the annual cross country run very much,always tried to get out of that.

Music-liked that.,learning all the musical terms, creating rhythms etc

Loved anything to do with English or history or languages..really shone.Excelled in spelling-even now I rarely make a spelling mistake,
never need spell checker.Luckily I was good at something!

As someone on here said,if you liked the teacher,you usually liked the subject. :-) :-)

Margot

I loved PE , most of the hockey team used to practise even if it was snowing.

Wasn't to keen on the indoor stuff ..took me ages to climb a rope but I finally sussed it !
History was boring cos of the teacher but I passed my O level , he was one of the only teachers tho to congratulate me on the day I picked up my results.

Art and Pottery I suppose were my passion

Loved Biology , Welsh ,French.

Hated English Lit the teacher used sit with her feet up on a chair when we read passages one by one around the the class , many took the mick and recited jokes she was so into herself she didn't even notice ,until everyone burst into laughter.

I also failed my cycling proficiency test. They told me to turn left. I gave the correct signal for turning left. I turned right.

I loved all academic subjects, particularly languages and maths, as well as cricket, but I loathed rugger and crosscountry although I actually love rugger these days.

I once got lost on crosscountry and they had to send out a search party.

1. Rugby. Bit of a bummer really when you had to go without your specs which were -6.5 dioptres.
2. Swimming. For similar reasons
3. History. Badly taught, could not understand it.
4. English Lit. No interest whatsoever.

Favourites were:-

1. Physics - got an A in O level, and a B in A level. I'm told that the same standard would be an A****** these days.
2. Maths
3. English Language
3. Chemistry - but not organic chem.
4. Geography

Loved English (but hated the teacher). Liked Maths, French and Economics, Geography and Latin were OK.

Hated Chemistry, but only because I was useless, find it really interesting now! Also hated History, again a subject I love now.

Detested PE of any kind, except tennis. I was USELESS at athletics, hated this most of all :-D

History all the way.....loved it......and the scrummy young male teacher.

Hated maths with a passion and still do.....thank heavens for calculators :-D

I loved history, PE and maths......I detested religious education and physics.......

I was another PE hater - I was always in trouble with the teacher as I was so useless, and eventually took an extra O level, Art History, in the fourth form to get out of it. I also hated maths, having decided in the enfant school that it wasn't for me - unfortunately, couldn't get out of that one!
I loved all other subjects, but Art and English were favourites.

I loved needlework which only lasted for the first year, in order to make an apron and a petticoat.
Hated domestic science because I had to walk a mile and a half home from school carrying the lastest concoction and it usually spilled over at some point.
I also hated P E and still wonder who goes around in bare feet, collecting verruca's or stubbing a toe.
I enjoyed most lessons including athletics/tennis/netball but hated being cold when playing hockey. We were allowed a track suit except only one girl, who was a swimmer, owned one......and of course the ********* teacher was quite cosy in hers. The rest of lessons must have be ok as they don't stand out in my memory. -jl

Did not like any much.probably would have been had I not had so much to contend with at home.

Hated needlework and the teacher was an old harpy.Was absolutely abysmal at cookery which was odd because I am passable at it now.

Didn't like maths much until we started on trig which I was really getting to grips with.So much so that they moved me up to the next set where they were doing modern maths and that was the end of that.

Didn't mind hockey,I was goalie and got colours for playing and I was a pretty handy shotputter too.

I enjoyed most things at school but I wasn't very good at science subjects. OKish with biology, struggled a bit with chemistry and was a complete dead loss at physics. Loved maths, English, languages, history etc.

I couldn't get on with art or needlework. In fact I was still making the bag to keep the needlework in when everyone else had made a skirt, a blouse and a pair of pyjamas. After a couple of terms both the art and needlework teacher gave up on me and I was put in a Latin class which suited me much better.

Can't say I was very keen on PE either. Running around a muddy field in the freezing cold, wearing baggy navy blue knickers, and being clouted by other girls' hockey sticks wasn't my idea of a fun afternoon.

I found that if you liked the teacher then you did well in the subject if the teacher was a bit of a despot - and many were back when I was in school, you did badly

I went to a Roman Catholic Grammer School run by nuns so my lack of interest in religion did not go down to well :-0 :-D

When we had a sick note excusing us weekly games at if I remember rightly Raynes Park (and I could have got an A level in avoiding PE!) we were put in the class of a music teacher who would play all his favourite records in an attempt to widen our musical taste.

Listening to Jazz or even Madame Butterfly was infinitely preferable to running around in the rain!

He referred to us as the "Sick Lame and Lazy" quite an apt description I felt even at the time. No doubt these days there would be an article in the Mail from some parent calling for him to be suspended and complaining about the phrase being used to describe the precious fruit of their loins.

I can't see that it matters what the teachers personality was like. I was just interested in how much they could teach me whether I liked them or not.

ab ove maiori discit arare minor