Who doesn’t remember drinking milk with their pizza or burgers in the cafeteria? When you’re in high school, you don’t question a lot of the things that happen around you. It’s only when you leave that you start to realize what a weird place it really was! Some of the things are a bit peculiar, while others are positively bizarre.
Bored Panda has collected some of the best examples of weird school things, so scroll down to see exactly what we mean. For those of you still in high school, maybe this list will open up your eyes to all the weirdness. Remember to upvote your faves and leave a comment about other weird high school things you’ve noticed, dear Pandas!
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I had to do square dancing in 4th grade with a boy and the teachers wouldn't let us bring wipes or gloves. This was the time when cooties was a thing. It was gross.
It’s not just former students who think that high school is incredibly strange—some teachers are flabbergasted, too. For example, Michael De Main has been teaching in secondary schools for 16 years and he thinks that a lot of teachers accept things that are downright weird.
In Michael’s opinion, it’s bizarre that different high schools can choose to start and end classes at different times. So while one school might open at 8 AM, another might decide to start classes 15 minutes later. The same weirdness extends to periods that can last for 40, 50, or even 75 minutes, depending on school policy. Don’t even get us started on how breaks are not the same length, either.
If we started packing up before the teacher asked us to we would have to stay back after the bell went for about 2 mins or so.
Teacher Michael also questions whether we still need roll call—isn’t that time better spent, you know, actually learning things? Not to mention playground duty where a teacher has to stand around, watch the students play, and make sure that they don’t get into any trouble. And who can forget about toilet duty? Sure, teachers need to make sure that students aren’t getting into any trouble, but all of this seems a bit over the top, don’t you think?
So far this is the only one I can relate too. I only discovered about 5 years ago that this wasn't true.
My chemistry teachers solution to people stealing her calculators.
However, according to Michael, the weirdest thing about high school might just be the students themselves who are hard to figure out even with all the experience in the world. Finally, let’s not forget about the basics: furniture. Some students still have to sit on uncomfortable chairs and use tiny desks, so it’s no wonder that some of them can’t pay attention!
When you look at everything, high school sure is a weird place. But I sure could go for some chocolate milk and a slice of pizza right about now.
Nah, that's a stereotype. My Math teacher was one of the best - just last year I went to her 50th birthday party and we got wonderfully drunk together and my gym teacher was the only one who noticed when thing got bad at home when I was fourteen.
Some teachers deserve medals for saving us from bad family situations... For me it was a summer school English teacher. Chis Shulte saves me!
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My sophomore math teacher was less of a cop and more of someone you could be real with
This is so true, my HS english teacher was in her 70's and liked to talk about how in the late 1930's she put herself through college working as an escort. While my gym teacher was also the attendance officer, not because he had to be, but because he was ALLOWED to be.
Completely true in secondary school, and only half true in high school since my math teacher was a cool old lady (the gym teacher was a bully and a tyrant, so that fits). Definitely not true for my brother, because his history teacher was both a bad teacher and a harpy and he got on well with the others.
NONO no nO no, math teachers are usually the more chill ones, along with science and theater. The history teachers are pretty ok, but every English teacher I've ever met has been a nut.
my english teacher was my pe teacher and lemme be honest right here, dude was my favorite teacher (favorite subject?: english! most hated subject?: pe!)
Holy mother this is so true. I never realized this till now.
My math teacher was also our basketball ref. And he had a really mean table tennis game and that was with one glass eye!
This is scarily true. My History and English teachers are my favourites
Back in ‘68, 2nd last period was a spare, smoked a joint and went to English.. teacher loved my interpretation of the Classics 🤪 Had a math teacher, who could take your eyeball out from 30’ with a piece of chalk, if you gave the wrong answer.... Dodging Bullets 😉😳😳
My elementary school gym watched me punch someone in face and not say anything. All I was trying to do was throw away a candy wrapper. My high school gym teacher told us she got struck by lightning two times and lived. She was also alongside with the girls basketball team coach battling cancer.
My middle school history teacher was the biggest a*****e ever. He'd pick on a student to be mean to for the day.
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My PE teacher was pretty chill. My English teacher hated my guts - the whole class acknowledged that - and outright told me I needed to change my opinion on something political. And then I had a maths teacher who always made up these cringey songs about rules in maths and would sing them to us. The windows opened electronically which hummed as it did, and she always sung along. It was quite awkward...
thas kind of true except for the math teacher. My gym teacher hated me because um.. I wasn't athletic besides doing Ballroom Dancing as well as fencing and Horseback riding because i hated traditional sports. (I still tried hard and aced her class because i did well on fitness days etc.)
That’s so true though! My favorite teachers have been history and English teachers
My precalculus teacher Mr Chandler was the best. Every year he arranged for all of his students to see the midnight release of a movie together. He would buy like a hundred tickets at once and we would reimburse him instead of us buying our own so that we would all be in the same auditorium, but since he did this every year the theater let him pay the student price so we still got our student discount. My year the movie was Pirates of the Caribbean 3. He was also the biggest Star Wars fan I've ever met before or since, and when he found out I loved it too he loaned me all nineteen of his New Jedi Order novels, one after the other, over the course of the year.
Assuming the art teacher is sober, they're usually pretty cool too.
My 8th grade math teacher was someone you could be real with- he was like, the nicest person ever- and my health teacher was as well- she was like, a second mom to me :’))
I had one of those hair thingy's, had it in for ages. I didn't get mine on a cruise or holiday though.
We just got to smell the home ec class burn another batch of cookies every day, the teacher was too stupid to know to adjust cooking times etc for higher altitudes and couldn't figure it out, we literally begged our English teacher to let us go show them what they were doing wrong, she laughed and told us to go ahead because that teacher had been driving her nuts for years
I got made fun of for having a "fat a*s". Who knew that in todays world people would pay thousands to have a butt like mine!!! I struggled for YEARS feeling like my butt was something to be ashamed of. In my 30s now & OWNING IT!!
I never understood why the Sophomores would bash the Freshman, you're only a year older get over yourself
What kind of school is this? The worst I saw in the toilets when I was at school was wet toilet paper thrown on the ceiling or mirrors.
I'm really starting to wonder what kind of fast food c**p they serve in U.S. schools. Chicken nuggets, hamburgers and pizza?!
Is this an American thread? Public schools really aren't that bad in Australia. Really, the only difference is they put education first, whereas private schools put money and status first.......and their buildings have a fresher coat of paint on them.
I guess I'm very American because almost every one of these was extremely relatable.
Finnish schools had a game for kids called kuka pelkää mustaa miestä, which translates to Who's afraid of the black man. One of the kids was selected as the black man, then we shouted "who's afraid of the black man?!" and started running in the gym class while the black man tried to catch us. This was considered a normal activity at the time. Naturally not played anymore.
The concept sounds kind of fun, but the name tho haha
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Is it surprising that children sometimes behave in infantile ways? Especially during puberty?
I went to a catholic school in Ireland. You don't know what weird is until you have a 70 year old nun trying to give a sex education class. This happened when I was 15 years old. And yes, we did already know where babies came from. So did a certain girl in the class who at the time was already 4 months pregnant.
Every now and then I think about Americans as actually the unwitting participants of something akin to The Truman Show. What if there is another reality outside the borders? Distraction with a horrible thing to keep them from knowing about a hellish thing. An experiment by the rest of the world to see how people retain their humanity under certain conditions, recorded now and available in live streaming, engendering scorn and pity by turns in its viewers.
Eh my current high school isn’t so bad, but a lot of these are relatable from my old district
The stupidest thing that I remember people doing when I was at school was "Smileys" using a lighter.
The author of this post is Lithuanian. Just saying.
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Is this an American thread? Public schools really aren't that bad in Australia. Really, the only difference is they put education first, whereas private schools put money and status first.......and their buildings have a fresher coat of paint on them.
I guess I'm very American because almost every one of these was extremely relatable.
Finnish schools had a game for kids called kuka pelkää mustaa miestä, which translates to Who's afraid of the black man. One of the kids was selected as the black man, then we shouted "who's afraid of the black man?!" and started running in the gym class while the black man tried to catch us. This was considered a normal activity at the time. Naturally not played anymore.
The concept sounds kind of fun, but the name tho haha
Load More Replies... Is it surprising that children sometimes behave in infantile ways? Especially during puberty?
I went to a catholic school in Ireland. You don't know what weird is until you have a 70 year old nun trying to give a sex education class. This happened when I was 15 years old. And yes, we did already know where babies came from. So did a certain girl in the class who at the time was already 4 months pregnant.
Every now and then I think about Americans as actually the unwitting participants of something akin to The Truman Show. What if there is another reality outside the borders? Distraction with a horrible thing to keep them from knowing about a hellish thing. An experiment by the rest of the world to see how people retain their humanity under certain conditions, recorded now and available in live streaming, engendering scorn and pity by turns in its viewers.
Eh my current high school isn’t so bad, but a lot of these are relatable from my old district
The stupidest thing that I remember people doing when I was at school was "Smileys" using a lighter.
The author of this post is Lithuanian. Just saying.
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