Weirdest Punishment You Received In School.

[Mitchell]

This is sort of another variation of the other thread about suspension, but not really.

The question for this one is: What is the weirdest punishment you ever received in school? I don't necessarially mean, detention, suspension, etc, but just.. something.. out of the ordinary.

In my senior year of college, I took Latin American history with this incredibly cool professor. His classes were easy as anything. We didn't even have a textbook. He would give us these short handouts, and all you had to do was show up, read the handouts, participate in class, write four or five short papers, of no more than five pages each paper, and you got either an A or A minus.

I used to read my handouts, and make notes in the margin of the pages of the handouts, as we always used to discuss the handout from the previous class, in the next class.

This professor encouraged class participation. One day, we came to class, and he started discussing the handout. I raised my hand, trying to get the discussion started, and he passed me over, saying "Mitch, I know you read it. I want to hear from other people".

Silence. Not one other person said anything. His reaction startled me. I thought he was going to give out extra work, or maybe give zeros to whoever he thought didn't read the assignment. He said something like: "I'm not going to stand here and waste my time for all you fuckers who don't read". Then he said: "Get the fuck out of here,, all of you, and fuck you all". He gave us the finger, and walked out.

I was stunned. I walked into the history department office, talked to the secretary, and went to see my academic advisor. The professor who threw us out, used to let us call him by his first name.. but.., we always called him Dr F to the other professors. I go into the office, and was like: "Dr D, Dr F just aired us out, and threw the whole class out, for most people not reading the assignment. Have you ever heard of him doing that?" Dr D was a very calm guy. He didn't get upset. He said very quietly: "Yes, I know Dr F does that, and even though I'm the head of the department, I'm not going to tell him how to teach his class. If he feels the class didn't do the work, he has every right to do whatever he wants, including throw the class out, if he sees fit."

Later that night, I went down to the campus Rathskeller. I was over 21 at the time, so I was allowed to drink. Sure enough, Dr F was standing at the bar, having a drink. I cautiously approached him, asking if he was still pissed. He said something like: "No, I'm calmed down, but I stand by what I did. If people aren't going to read, I'm not going to teach. I heard you went to see Dr D, and I'm glad he explained why I threw the class out . From now on, I'm less interested in the few people like you who I know do read and participate, then in those who just show up, and sit there like zombies. You all have brains. You pay a lot of money to come here, use your brains". What he said makes sense. Luckily, from that day on, in the classes I took with Dr F, he never had to throw the class out again. Either he got it through everyone's head to read the material.. or.. enough people did read, and speak in class, where he didn't feel it necessary to focus on those who didn't.

So, thats the topic: Weirdest punishment you ever received in school? Mine was having the entire class thrown out for not reading the material. That was the only time I'd ever seen a teacher or professor do that.

Mitch

[He-Man]

Wow...that was weird, but his point makes sense. No use trying to teach anyone who doesn't want to learn.

Weirdest punishment I recieved: Forgot one of my books for ONE homework assignment (which meant I wasn't able to do it), and got detention. This was in the 3rd grade, not even 4 days after I'd been at that school.

Not only was that weird, it p*ssed me off. Not at the teacher, though, since she HAD to do it (it was some private school..guess that was one of the stupid rules the school made up).

I didn't stay at THAT school much longer, luckily.

[Mitchell]

He-Man, it's almost twenty years since the incident I described, but I do understand what Dr F's point was, which you confirmed. If students didn't want to learn, he wasn't going to waste his time teaching.

Getting detention just for forgetting one textbook, for one homework assignment, when you'd only been at the school for four days ? That sounds harsh. Ack! That school sounds like it had strict, and rather stupid, rules.

Mitch

[He-Man]

He-Man, it's almost twenty years since the incident I described, but I do understand what Dr F's point was, which you confirmed. If students didn't want to learn, he wasn't going to waste his time teaching.

Getting detention just for forgetting one textbook, for one homework assignment, when you'd only been at the school for four days ? That sounds harsh. Ack! That school sounds like it had strict, and rather stupid, rules.

Mitch

Actually I probably should've made it more clear. The detention was for not doing the homework assignment--which I couldn't do because I forgot the book . (If one of my classmates had lived nearby I could've just used their book )

Yeah, it was a stupid rule, though.

Good thing what happened to your class was years ago..I bet if that teacher did that nowadays, parents of those students would make sure he'd get fired.

[miskiduk]

For explosively blowing the circuit board by connecting several plug sockets together for a laugh, I was made to stand outside on a chair all day wearing lab-goggles.
Presumably it was an attempt at a humiliation punishment. After a day of high-fives from all the other kids it only encouraged me