Reading all this brings back some old memories! I remember we had a really unusual Religious Education teacher that basically promoted bullying in an esoteric manner so it wasn't at all obvious outside the class what was going on. One sunny afternoon she decided to do an exercise in faith that consisted of running off a platform and being caught by three pairs of people holding crossed arms. When it was time for the school bully to jump the choice of catchers could not have been better! All the butt of his boisterous games at one point or another! I'm not sure if it was me or a general consensus that we would loosen our grip, but needless to say he jumped and feel like a dead weight. Winded him for the rest of the day and left everyone in peace from there on after! Teacher was genuinely shocked, thought he was a very popular and well liked boy!
As I've said before, I prefer to be called an Engineer. Geek is still a fairly derogatory term and I haven't spent my entire adult life to date working and studying to be called that. People give "geeks" abuse when they are young because they think they're easy targets, and maybe they are, but the way the world is these days, everyone's quite frankly screwed without so called geeks. The global economy and modern society would not exist as it does today without the influence of Engineers, Mathematicians, Physicists and Scientists. Calling someone names or making little of them for their physical appearance makes you a scumbag, but tormenting someone for aspiring to be or actually being an intelligent individual makes you plain stupid. This is what mostly happened to me - Some really, really stupid guys spent a lot of time at school trying to make a joke of me for aspiring to be a successful Engineer. What I could see and they apparently couldn't was that I was on my way to becoming what I'd always wanted to be, and they were staying stupid (in fact, getting stupider by the day) making me miserable because of it. I told off a pupil in school on Friday for calling another pupil rude names. You could have heard me 3 classrooms away. Because of what I went through when I was their age, I have zero tolerance for it and I'll always do everything I can to stamp it out.
I wouldn't say my life panned out exactly the way I wanted, but I did end up having the one thing I really craved during my youth; a family who actually loves me. I wasn't just mercilessly abused at school, I was pretty much neglected at home as well. MY dad worked 50 hours a week or more and my mum didn't give a crap. I have a female who loves me and three offspring who also love me, well, as much as young children understand instinctual love for their parents. That means more to me than having wealth or dozens of qualifications. But speaking of teachers; we had some doozies. We had one science teacher who tried to be in with the cooler kids, spoke their way, joined in with their jokes etc. Went a little too far when he tried to bully me as well. It was at the point in my GCSEs that I was getting pretty tired of it; I wasn't paying attention because well, I didn't care about school at this point. He spoke to me using my nickname and called me an idiot when I didn't answer his question because I obviously didn't care, a definite no no among teachers I think. I threw a book at his head and walked home. I told the head teacher my story and I still wound up being the bad guy; mostly because none of the other students would back up my story.
Jeeeesus, your school sounds like the ****ing Wickerman tribe, where was it? I didn't think schools like that still existed (since like, the 1960s).
Herne Bay High School, it's in the south east of Kent, England. It's technically a great school, great facilities and it's a certified sports college and creative arts college; it's just situated in a terribly rough area. Herne Bay is kind of a rough town, yobs, chavs etc. I never noticed this kind of profound bullying in the other years though; it just seemed so widespread with me. It made me feel as if i was to blame for everything, like maybe I was the one who deserved it for some reason, like I had done something bad enough to deserve to be bullied. They made me feel like I was the one who truly deserved that much hate from everyone. It wasn't even just the boys, the girls were just as bad sometimes. Maybe i'm just one of those special people who everyone hates?
I'm not saying mine is everything I wanted it to be at this point either, but I'm working on it, and well on my way. Just a little behind schedule, that's all I was only using that as a means to explain the inane stupidity of a bully wasting their time tormenting another pupil. You're supposed to go to school to learn, make friends and have some fun along the way. As well as the adverse effect it has on the victim, it is a complete waste of time to bully someone.
True. But I had so many people bullying me at one time that well, they got to do everything they needed without missing anything and I pretty much lost all the time at school. There are those bullies that have exclusivity and continuously punish one particular person; but I had several dozen laying down abuse pretty much everyday; it wasn't exclusive and it almost seemed like they were on a kind of rota. They never missed out with their friends, education or 'fun'. I didn't have friends, failed almost every exam and had very little fun.
Sorry Uni, I didn't mean to offend anyone by using the term "geek". But to the layman we are classified as "Geeks or Nerds" which tbh is about as offensive as N*gger or Homo. Yes I said the "N" word get over it people. (If you're coloured and gay, so long as you're not a tw*t I'll be your friend no worries.) Most of us hear have been in the same boat at one time or another. My school life was compounded by the pain that one of my parents worked in the same school, which for some unknown reason marked me out as prime piss taking real estate, it only got physical once or twice, but even at my small stature back then I could hold my ground. The biggest problem I faced was isolation, nobody wanted to friends with the guy who has a parent working at the school. I was youngest in the year group and yet one of the highest aptitudes, which I think pissed a few off. It wasn't until my GCSE's did the isolation really cut me deep and I totally lost focus on school work, I just closed off into my humble world of design, and oddly bit-tech which at the time felt like a whole new world of people I actually liked, and the mods kept the trolls at bay. College, hmm best not mention that too much. Summed up pretty much by me making friends and trying to make up for lost time in the two most important years of education. Should have waited until Uni for that crap, however I pretty much did all my drinking during college so Uni wasn't a total failure that it could have been. The years of isolation mean I lack people skills, I've been told I am too frank and honest; and it's back fired on me a lot at job interviews. Especially when I called an interviewer a obnoxious ***** because he kept answering his phone during my interview. Back in November I finally landed a new job after 2 years unemployment. The owner of the firm thinks and talks just like me, and after 5 minutes was asking for my details to put me on payroll. I know this has been a strange read, but once it started rolling it just didn't stop so if you've made it this far go get a f*cking life or a beer which ever is easier.
Behind every instance of bullying are a bunch of inept, spineless teachers. **** like this happens in the NHS: staff get bullied by professional adults who should know better. I knew a unit manager who shouted at trainee and assistant staff (mainly female) and reduced them to tears. Thing is, he always seemed to do it when I wasn't around, and he never did it to the assistant or trainee psychologists --because he knew I would have his ****ing balls on a stick if he tried. I am considered to be a nice, affable guy. But I also set firm boundaries and leave people in no doubt whatsoever that I will come down on them like the hand of God if they cross them.
You sound like one of the few decent teachers at my old school, first day at new school a guy walks into my very noisy classroom and "BOOM" he slammed his big booted foot onto one of the desks and points at his boot, he's wearing Doc Martins, he says "My names Martin, you will call me Mr Martin or Sir, is that clear?" "YES MR MARTIN, SIR", nobody messed with Mr Martin...
There used to be a surgeon at the local hospital who would get pissed off during procedures and throw scalpels at the nurses. They sent him for counseling instead of just firing him. For all i know he might still be working there.
It makes for quite a nice read, this thread, purely on the basis that no ones alone in adversity, at least not on the grand scheme of things. I do find it interesting how various people have viewed bullying. I got through school based on the thought that "I may be being bullied now for being a geek, but I'll have the last laugh eventually". Mid twenties, I already have the last laugh. Most, if not all, the bullies in my school still live in horrible areas, working jobs they hate, with the same tiny groups of close minded friends, basking in their own ignorance. Me, I'm about to move to a city I love, like to think I have a reasonable level of intelligence, and know more amazing intelligent and creative people than I thought existed a few years ago. I think on the whole, the majority of the people in this thread, we win. The rest, you'll be winning soon
The tables have turned in recent years, where most of us now control the infrastructure that the bullies now can't live without. "Punch me one more time, and I'll turn the entire western hemispheres internet off and publicly blame you for it , then empty your bank account so you're so far in the red that satan himself would complain at the shade of red!"
Except regular magazines have articles about geek culture, geek chic and you can buy gifts labelled with Geek from John Lewis. Geek has become far more mainstream than it once was, probably due to Brain Cox and Doctor Who. It's now bordering on the trendy.
I know that feel. My RE teacher was exactly the same, and doing so, had no real control over the kids in his class, and he couldn't really care himself. The worst part was that this was a top set class. He shouted along with the kids, takled about the same **** they did, and didn't seem bothered about teaching for half the lesson. All of this while I just sat there actually wanting to do something, even though it was RE. But hey, they could do whatever they wanted. If I was to whisper to the person next to me, everything stopped and I'd get put in it. I think I'd had enough when I spent my time in hospital, which was when the RE mock exam was taking place. I'd informed the school of why I was in hospital, but had no intention of telling any of them why. I snapped when I returned to RE to be told "Were you too lazy to show up? Did you not even put that half a brain of yours in gear to realise that you had to be here?" It went on, and at that point I just stopped caring. High school in general was like that though, I had a few very good friends and kept myself to myself because as things went on it just got worse. Other pupils were just snide and I didn't care for them, but it was a select of teachers that really did the damage. For the last 6 months I was really dragging myself in there, and making myself pretty ill in the process. Primary school was also the same, I don't remember much of it but what I do remember was pretty painful. People were just nasty, and I think the teachers ingrained that nastiness on a lot of kids. It actually hurts me to talk about these times again. I've moved on to college and it's been wonderful. I've made some brilliant friends and everything in general has just been better. I doubt I'll forget the times before college, but the less I have to, the better (detail wise that is). I suppose a lot of it happening when I was very young and then carrying on explains why I prefer to just relax alone all the time, and also things like my distrust of women. Oh well. Just don't wear a t shirt saying so.
Our RE teacher didn't teach us anything; she just stood there for an hour trying to convert us. IT was one of the only times we banded together, just so we could come to the lesson with atheist arguments. I know those feels kid. I unfortunately grew up distrusting everything. I got to the age of 20 before I could trust anything that someone said. I probably did better than some people there, but it's never easy to have that much doubt in people; I wanted to but I was just so afraid I'd get my arse kicked for it.
