Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Male Teachers?

Lunatic Biker mentioned something about male teachers on his blog recently. I thought of the male elementary school teachers I had. One guy, Mr. Peavey spanked kids on their birthdays with a paddle. We feared him.

Another guy, Mr. Fero, was a real sicko. I moved to a new neighborhood the summer between 3rd and 4th grade. All summer, I heard from my buddies that you don't want to get Mean Gene Fero for a teacher in 4th grade.

A week before school, they posted the class rosters on the teacher's doors. I walked to school with my friends to look at who I got. I read the roster in front of Mr. Fero's door. My name was on it! I yelled at my buddy down the sidewalk, "I got Mean Gene!" I turned around and saw the janitor scowling at me. My buddy told me later that he wasn't the janitor, he was Mr. Fero. He dressed in gray pants, a gray shirt, and wore a matching gray hat. He looked like the janitor to me.

That was a really crappy way to start a really crappy semester with Mean Gene. I have lots of stories about this guy, but I won't bore you. He and I just didn't ever get along. My dad went to a special teacher conference and met Mean Gene. My dad came back and told me he understood why I was having trouble with my teacher.

The Air Force moved our family at semester and I was saved.

My point: I don't remember any decent male, elementary school teachers. I'm sure they exist, but I didn't have them. I remember plenty of great male teachers in Junior High and High School, though.

4 comments:

Jackrabbit Slim said...

It's all becoming clear to me now... so when is your birthday?

I had a couple of good male teachers in grade school. I remember being very embarrassed when I called one of them dad.

Jeff Moser said...

Going to Jr. High was traumatic. Went from being a big 6th grader at the elementary school to having to line up naked with your peers in P.E. It was like going to prison camp! The P.E. instructor would sit in his upstairs window and yell down at us, "Line Up!". So there were all us boys lined up naked waiting to shower. Then he'd yell, "Hit the showers!". We'd all run and take a 1 second shower, and then run back to the lockers for our clothes. Hated that class... Mr. Hooks. Freak.

Matt_J said...

I had a great male teacher in 6th grade, Mr. Soboy. He gave us batteries, light bulbs and wires to play with, and balloons filled with liquid freon. When you held them in your hand the freon boiled, filling the balloon. Then you could hold them out the window in the subzero cold to make them shrink again. The other male teachers at the school did seem musty, touched, but I never had any of them, just Mr. Soboy. He made kids do push-ups if they were bad and that earned my respect. Grade school is ruled by women.

Lunatic Biker said...

Yeah, I guess it was pretty even between cool guys and assholes.

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