What kind of crazy stuff did you get away with when you were in school that kids would never get away with now? 22 AskReddit folks share their stories.
Ever heard of ‘senior slaves’?
Yeah, apparently that was a thing.
But, let’s ease into that.
Let’s start off with guns, instead:
1. School on the Range
My father went to the same high school I did.
One day I was helping a teacher bring up supplies from the basement and noticed there were really long alleyways in the basement. (teacher had no idea what they were).
My father told me it was the old rifle range. They had clubs where you could bring in your rifle and practice shooting during your free period or after school with the Principal.
2. AK-47s
I grew up in soviet union, went to school between 1981 and 1991.
We had a class called early military training. Girls and boys had different teachers and different class. Girls were being taught basic first aid and some civil defense. Boys were taught basic marching techniques, firearm safety and maintenance etc. We had two real, functional AK-47s in school that we used to learn how to take them apart and put together again and how they worked.
Locked in a simple wooden cabinet.
3. Headsmack
2 kids get in a fight. Teacher breaks it up and smacks them both on the back of the head. They get lunch detention and that’s it.
Just two kids being kids.
4. “Well, I guess I had that coming.”
In high school World History class, we had a guy who was really annoying. He annoyed everyone all year, the teacher included, and wouldn’t shut up. During the last week of class, he was in rare form, and the teacher called me out into the hall with him.
He said, “I need to go down to the teacher’s lounge to make some copies. I’ll be gone about 10 minutes. Whatever happens while I’m gone, you won’t get in trouble for.” Then he walked off down the hall.
We happened to have some water balloons in our possession that day, and after the annoying guy got soaked, he toned it down for the rest of the week/year. He actually even said, “Well, I guess I had that coming.”
Teacher came back a few minutes later with copies and a fresh cup of coffee and picked up his lecture with no comment about the water on the floor or the sodden student.
5. “Look, I don’t care.”
Teacher asks for a knife to open a package. No one moves.
Teacher then states, “Look, I don’t care. I know at least half of you have a pocket knife. You won’t get in trouble.”
Almost the entire class offers a pocket knife.
6. Movies
I used to be able to make a movie in lieu of an essay all the time and would usually ace every assignment.
Back then the whole movie making process seemed so foreign and complicated to teachers that it would never fail to impress. Now everyone has a camera on their phones and I imagine making an assignment into a film is much less likely to blow teachers away like it used to.
Fun fact: I direct movies for a living now.
7. Shark Attack!
There was a P.E. Game called Shark Attack.
We had a huge colorful parachute. There were 3 teams, Sharks, Lifeguards, and then the people with their legs in the parachute (Idr what they were called.)
Anyways, the parachute was like an ocean in the game. The Sharks were under the parachute the whole time, and they had to grab the people’s legs and drag them in.
If you were being dragged in, you’d call “LIFEGUARD!!!” so that a lifeguard would come and pull you out.
It was honestly the best part of elementary school.
8. Life-Drawing
When I was 16, nearly 17, my A-level art class all went to a life drawing class at a local arts center.
8 of us went and drew a live, naked human being for a couple of hours.
It was an excellent learning experience. All of us were worried about giggling when we set out for a session but actually once the shock of being in the presence of a naked person wore off we all just got on with it and made the most of the opportunity. that was in 2000.
I cannot imagine the kids that, at that point, were toddling around their parents living rooms being given the same opportunity now. It’s such a shame – as if a naked human will somehow ‘damage innocent minds’. As if those kids aren’t in possession of bodies themselves.
9. Junk Food
Having Lay’s potato chips, Pringles and ice cream as snacks in the cafeteria. The snacks nowadays are very bland.
Having famous people visit our school. We had the cast of Nickelodeon’s UPick Live visit our school once!
Watching movies on VHS tapes, especially old shows and TV specials recorded off TV. Since I was born in 1998, this is how I knew about very old things from the past decade or so. For example, remember those PTV Park bumpers on PBS Kids? I do, since those promos would always play before our class’ weekly viewing of Reading Rainbow.
10. Skivvy Gym
I remember in Primary School, if you didn’t have a PE Kit, you had to take part in your underwear.
11. Naked Swimming
I had an older professor in college who would tell strange stories and he said one time “Do you know what I just remembered? When I was a boy we all took swimming class naked.
I bet they don’t do that anymore.”
12. Mercury
When my dad was in elementary school, as a reward for being good, students were allowed to play with mercury with their bare hands.
13. Duck!
I had a grade school teacher who would throw pretty much whatever he had in his hand.
Chalk, books, board erasers. He didn’t hold back either, it was a full on MLB pitch for 10-11 yr. olds.
The erasers were actually kind of funny, the chalk explosion would leave the kid covered in dust and he wouldn’t let them go clean up.
14. “Hand-Eye Coordination”
My high school banned dodgeball.
Our gym teacher renamed it “Hand-Eye Coordination” and the games continued.
Cool guy.
15. “…One of those colored ball players on television…”
I carried a pocket knife all through high school in the early 2000’s. It blows my mind how things have changed in such a short time.
I also remember being in kindergarten and the teacher telling another student that saying “ain’t” made them sound like “one of those colored ball players on television.”
16. ‘Senior Slaves’
My (extremely liberal, hippie granola call teachers by their first name) school had a tradition called ‘Senior Slaves’ wherein near the end of the year, there’d be an auction wherein the rest of the student body could bid on the seniors, and if you won one of them, they’d have to like do whatever you wanted for a day.
All the money went to fundraising or charity or whatever but holy moly how was that a thing.
17. Which is worse?
Kids getting their mouths washed out with old school soap for swearing.
We were all made to stand around and watch one kid half choke on a bar of soap shoved in his mouth for calling another kid ‘a penis’.
18. Student Drivers
South Carolina used to let 18 yo HS seniors drive school buses until about the early 1990’s.
19. 1989, not 1949
My homeroom teacher in the 8th grade put all the black kids in the same row.
When I asked him why, he told me it was so he could keep an eye on them.
That would not fly today, at least in my area, nor should it have in 1989.
20. Whack!
Our driver’s ed teacher had a rolled up newspaper and when you, let’s say, didn’t stop all the way at a stop sign, he’d whack you in the head with it.
21. Paddles
Spanking with paddles.
22. “Girls Physics”
When I was in high school, the school offered “Physics” and “Girls Physics”
That is the official name that appeared on report cards and everything.
The ‘girls’ class was easier because girls couldn’t understand science….
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