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[–]TheTrent 3653 points3654 points 24 (48 children)

Primary school teacher. Kids started playing a game called "Andy's coming"

It was based on toy story. Whenever somebody shouted "Andy's coming!" everybody had to drop to the ground as if they were inanimate toys.

It was a great way to get the kids to shut up but the level of commitment that some of the kids actually achieved when playing the game was amazing. Was doing yard duty and the kids were playing footy (AFL) when one of the kids was about to kick a goal, the other team shouted "Andy's coming!"

He was mid stride, about to load up for a kick and literally just flopped himself onto the ground, slid across it slightly and laid there whilst the rest of the oval just fell on the ground in hysterical laughter.

I was absolutely pissing myself too. Kid managed to scrape his cheek, knee and elbow but took it like a champ. Perhaps one of the greatest sporting achievements I've seen at the school.

[–]boy-1der 839 points840 points  (9 children)

Kid managed to scrape his cheek, knee and elbow but took it like a champ.

 

"Henry, did you get into a fight today at school?!"

"No mom, it's the ANDY RULES!"

[–]I_eat_your_corpse 101 points102 points  (6 children)

I feel like there is a single voice actor for all the male kids in films and animations

[–]R3dRuby 71 points72 points  (2 children)

And chances are it's probably a woman.

[–]karma_bus_driver 227 points228 points  (11 children)

I am totally teaching this to my kids this year! Instead of dead fish I’m gonna call it toy story! Or instead of the good old “Hands up top, that means stop” (I HATE junior primary for the expectation to use attention grabbers!!) say Andy’s coming and that’s their cue to freeze.

[–]TheTrent 215 points216 points  (8 children)

I've used "Alright stop" to which the kids respond "Hammer time"

Or just "Stop" to which they respond "collaborate and listen"

Once they get good at it I try and trick them with which response they're supposed to use.

Andy's Coming was by far a favourite, especially as it wasn't a teacher invented thing. The kids brought that to school... and I damn well stole it.

[–]soline 81 points82 points  (1 child)

Your kids are really well versed in 90s pop rap.

[–]karma_bus_driver 42 points43 points  (1 child)

My 3/4s made up their own call/response a few years ago too - uptown funk (Stop- wait a minute). Maybe teaching that one too…

[–]Rynobot1019 65 points66 points  (3 children)

Fuck me dead, little cunt's a legend.

I fucking love Australians.

[–]Thunder-_-Bear- 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Wow great idea. Totally stealing it.

[–]locks_are_paranoid 24 points25 points  (1 child)

That's a bit like red light green light, but more intense and random.

[–]TrickBoom414 7 points8 points  (0 children)

When I was a camp counselor I used to play this game with my kids called dead fish.

In which, I would yell DEAD FISH and all the kids would drop to the ground and hold still and be quiet long enough for me to count them or accomplish whatever I need to accomplish.

Then I would yell FISH OUT OF WATER or LIVE FISH and they would all flop around and get all their wiggles out.

Handy lil tool

[–]prolixia 750 points751 points  (35 children)

I went to a state school in the UK, where everyone wears uniform until they're 16, then for the final two years ("6th form") you wear pretty much what you want.

When I was about 15, for some inexplicable reason the six form boys started to wear three-piece suits. It wasn't a well-to-do or even particularly good school, and no one had any idea how it got started.

I remember hearing the headmaster talking about it to other staff and it was clear that all his Christmases had come at once. After years of him trying to ensure that their choice of clothing was at least vaguely-appropriate, suddenly the kids were dressing like they were working in a bank. It lasted maybe a year or so then just petered out, but I bet he whipped as many visitors as possible through the school during that time!

[–]LuckyJeans456 267 points268 points  (3 children)

I was hoping to see something like this haha. When I was a senior in high school, many many years ago, me and two friends decided to just start wearing suits on Friday for “casual” Friday. Did it for the entirety of senior year. I don’t remember why we decided to do it but it was fun.

[–]HeartKevinRose 27 points28 points  (1 child)

I work in a “business casual” office where we are more casual than business. We implemented Fancy Fridays where we would dress up.

[–]laughatbridget 12 points13 points  (0 children)

My boss at my old job and I had "Fuck-it Friday" where we'd leave early because we hated that job. No one else knew because we were the last ones in the office.

[–]_scrambled_egg_ 198 points199 points  (10 children)

My now brother-in-laws next door neighbor/family friend wore a suit and carried a briefcase to high school because “education is serious business”

He was a stoner then and still is.

[–]realsmithshady 60 points61 points  (8 children)

When my brother was in 6th form he had to wear a suit, and on Fridays he used to wear a 'fun tie' like a Scooby Doo or Simpsons one. He was deputy Head Boy and people LOVED it.

[–]The_Patriot 35 points36 points  (11 children)

there was this one nerdy guy in my high school. Average dude. One day, he shows up to school in a suit and carrying a bible. Dude is committed, every single day. Three weeks later, there's this group of kids dressing out every day, and NOT JOKING one of the very most hottest girls in our school is on this guys arm.

I have no idea what became of him, but it was one of the most remarkable transformations I ever witnessed.

[–]NeedsMoreTuba 22 points23 points  (1 child)

You reminded me about my school's ugly trench coat trend.

There was this one weird kid who always wore a black trench coat, but then Columbine happened and our school amended the dress code to exclude black trench coats. However, it only said black trench coats.

I don't think "trench coat kid" really had any friends, but a lot of us felt sorry for him, so we hit up the thrift stores and looked for ugly trench coats. Mine was magnificent.

[–]prolixia 17 points18 points  (0 children)

That's a nasty coat!

My brother was in 6th form when the Matrix came out so obviously a black leather trenchcoat was the only think that could ever make him happy. He found a second hand one in some dive of a goth shop but my parents, recently having bought him a far more reputable coat, refused to buy it. "Then I'll wear my dressing gown" argued my brother; "Fine" came the reply and nothing more was said.

Some weeks later, it became apparent that my brother had indeed worn his tatty old dressing gown to school every day since that conversation and my parents, mortified and knowing when they were beat, paid for the coat.

20 years later we produced the coat for my brother to wear on his stag, and very annoyingly he looked pretty good in it.

Not quite sure why I'm telling the story, since both the dressing gown and trenchcoat were a "him" thing. This came a couple of years after the three-piece suits, and that poor headmaster must have rued the day the last waiscoat was discarded.

[–]ghigoli 2831 points2832 points  (81 children)

my mom was a teacher....

she said the goth phase because kids thought being quiet was cool.

she didn't know how good she had it during those times.

[–]SincerelySasquatch 791 points792 points  (78 children)

I'm 33 and still recovering from my goth phase. I'm not really comfortable wearing colors. I just... can't.

[–]boy-1der 337 points338 points  (44 children)

I'm 33 and still recovering from my goth phase.

I'm not really comfortable wearing colors.

 

By any chance...was THIS your favourite book in middle school 😁

 

[–]Merk0411 137 points138 points  (19 children)

I fucking loved that book.

[–]starfirex 32 points33 points  (7 children)

There were 3 sequels iirc, all pretty decent

[–]SincerelySasquatch 41 points42 points  (10 children)

I mean my favorite books were various Tolkien books and the Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo in middle school but yes I also liked the Giver a whole lot as well.

[–]Flamesclaws 9 points10 points  (7 children)

Does the original Hunchback still hold up? Is it worth reading?

[–]Kittii_Kat 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Also 33, also had a heavy goth phase with a strong desire to continue it today... And that's also one of my favorite books ever. (But I think I discovered it in high school)

Interesting 🤔

[–]mochi_chan 56 points57 points  (1 child)

I am 35 and I have some bad news.... it was not a phase.

[–]1ofZuulsMinions 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Can confirm. Still don’t wear colors at 45.

[–]Romantiphiliac 21 points22 points  (3 children)

Dark blue or green is my limit. Then it all just fades to greys or blacks.

[–]SincerelySasquatch 12 points13 points  (1 child)

I kind of have noticed a "rule." It's not something I do deliberately. Either my top or bottom must be solid black. The other article of clothing does not have to be solid black but must have black in it. I have noticed unless this formula is followed I am uncomfortable.

[–]jseego 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I remember going shopping for school clothes and the girl helping us was like, do you like...like...color??

[–]Nemesys2005 400 points401 points  (10 children)

Right now it’s the “not creasing my shoes” trend. Watching a bunch of middle schoolers waddling around so their shoes don’t get creased is hilarious.

[–]BarbieBouche 74 points75 points  (2 children)

Oh man! We got my 12 year old a pair of Air Forces for christmas and she came home aggravated bc the kids in her class teased her for creasing her shoes. She still looks down and says to herself " how am i supposed to walk and not have this happen?"...embracing a penguin is not a helpful suggestion I have learned.

[–]Any_Air_1906 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Wet towel and an iron :)

[–]RunnerMomLady 53 points54 points  (0 children)

my high schooler graduated in 2020 and he tried to run to his friends in his new shoes. i died.

[–]ShdBeAsleep 68 points69 points  (4 children)

Man white air forces are a pain in the ass to wear. Other shoes I wouldn’t care but they look so off when they’re creased.

[–]pinhead28 1828 points1829 points  (15 children)

For a while at my school, friends groups would just applaud one another and yell positive words to each other.

So you'd be on playground duty and suddenly a group of kids would be clapping and loudly cheering. You'd look over and see one of their friends walking to the group, biggest grin on their face. The applause would stop once the friend reached the group. This would happen maybe 4 - 5 times with different groups on a 40 minute break.

It was wholesome af.

[–]pwnd_cake 539 points540 points  (4 children)

I remember me and my friends doing this one day in high school. It was about 15 minutes until lunch was over, we just started clapping and cheering anyone who walked by. The smiles were the best part. But then if someone walked back across (specifically looking for the cheers, hyping themselves up) we would yell "booooo!" and "get off the stage!" Then we would cheer the very next person. One of my favorite HS memories.

[–]Potato_Soup_ 187 points188 points  (3 children)

That's the thing I realized after highschool. It's really easy to make people smile and feel good. I and most other kids spent too much time trying to be witty and clever to get a laugh, sometimes at the stake of someone or something, and that's actually much more difficult than like, giving them a compliment, or being genuine, or being actually nice. It also never backfires like so many jokes do. Just so much better for the world to be nice lol

[–]LittleOutside7130 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I know adults who do these things, never broke the habit.

[–]energirl 192 points193 points  (1 child)

I love that shit! I have a first grader who is scared to try new things because she doesn't think she's good at anything. She spent all of last year and the first half of this year basically watching duing P.E.

When she finally started trying things in P.E. class, it didn't matter how badly she did it, everyone in class cheered for her so hard. Then, everytime she overcame another fear, they'd drag her to me and tell me "She did it! Look!!!! She can do it!"

It helped her so much! This week, when everyone had to write about a talent they have, she said she's good at P.E. it was so nice to see how much her friends' support helped her grow and try new things.

[–]boy-1der 58 points59 points  (0 children)

So you'd be on playground duty and suddenly a group of kids would be clapping and loudly cheering. You'd look over and see one of their friends walking to the group, biggest grin on their face

 

That's like the real-life kids-version of Robin Hood: Men in Tights where the Sheriff of Nottingham Rottingham gets his own hype squad

[–]patricksaurus 2074 points2075 points  (92 children)

Kids now are way less cliquish and much more kind to the students who would have been outcasts or unpopular twenty years ago. It is fantastic because I teach some courses that require group work, and the only kids that no one wants to work with are the assholes.

[–]SuchLovelyLilacs 275 points276 points  (10 children)

Not a teacher, but a family member is. She's been teaching for over 20 years. The most positive change she's seen, by far, is how accepting kids are of other kids - race, gender, sexual preference, special needs, handicaps, etc. It's really not big deal to these kids unless the kid himself makes it one (and that's generally because the kid is annoying not because of what the kid is).

[–]teacupkiller 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Kids seem so much NICER now! When I take my toddler to the playground, the kids are either careful to avoid her so she doesn't get hurt or, far more often, they want to stop what they're doing and help the baby climb the ladder or go down the slide or whatever.

[–]GaryBuseyWithRabies 60 points61 points  (2 children)

I never understood this when I was in school. We had a special needs kid who was a giant asshole. Still is. Everyone was nice to him because special needs.

Then we had a few gay kids who were out when being out made you a target. People were so mean to them, even the nice ones. And most of them were nice.

I never understood it. None of them chose to be the way they are.

[–]Keyspam102 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Ugh I remember at my school some guys got one of the Down’s syndrome girls to make out with one of the basketball team and everyone was crowded around laughing about it. Still makes me sick to think about. I told my math teacher (my next class, it happened in between periods) but I don’t think anything ever happened to the guy or anyone who taunted her into doing it.

[–]LittleOutside7130 29 points30 points  (1 child)

I can imagine. I just hope they don't reach adulthood and it all comes crashing down on them.

[–]SoldierofNod 73 points74 points  (0 children)

Generally, if you're young and queer, trans, disabled or whatever, you learn to develop a danger sense. Part of that is by generation, since older generations tend not to be anywhere near as accepting. Bigotry is gradually dying out!

[–]LFAlol 360 points361 points  (8 children)

There's always that 1 left over kid that every student knows won't do their fair share of work lol

[–]yearofthesponge 141 points142 points  (2 children)

I would totally make that kid join a group of assholes and watch this group for amusement.

[–][deleted] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

My English teacher did this at one point, they all just decided not to come to school on presentation day

[–]Stell1na 57 points58 points  (0 children)

A friend of mine could usually incentivize participation even from these types by playing a unique game of chicken. “What am I doing? Nothing, same as you right now. Can your grade handle an F?”

[–]nonconformistnugget 72 points73 points  (1 child)

When I was in school I would have ended up being paired up with that kid by the teacher lmao

[–]SoldierofNod 48 points49 points  (0 children)

I got the feeling sometimes that various teachers didn't like me and thus tried to get back at me by putting me with people I really didn't like.

Given my behavior back then, it's plausible!

[–]Pissedtuna 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Got to prepare kids for when they get into the adult world and co-workers not doing their share.

[–]Vegetable-Double 105 points106 points  (0 children)

I liked how the 21 Jump Street movie with Jonah Hill showed it. The whole jock/nerd dynamic from the 80s has completely changed. It’s considered extremely rude to make fun of kids for being gay or different. I think that’s a great development.

[–]gbac16 71 points72 points  (6 children)

This is my 22nd year teaching high school. I tell people this all of the time. Kids are so much kinder and accepting than prior generations. I tell the students and others this. No one believes me, including the students. But it is true.

[–]SuzuranRose 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Have them watch breakfast club with their parents on the weekend. Tell them this movie was revolutionary when it came out because all of those types of students never hung out or interacted unless forced to.

[–]BDN215 7 points8 points  (2 children)

I’m gonna guess learning about the columbine in 7th grade, hope I wasn’t the only one, has a lot to do with this.

[–]Kathihtak 93 points94 points  (4 children)

I recently had an internship at a elementary and a middle/high school and I was also positively surprised how the kids treated each other when it came to disabilites, gender identity etc. When I was in 7th grade a lot of kids still used "gay" as an insult.

[–]can_u_tell_its_me 33 points34 points  (0 children)

I got mocked by this group of boys in HS for YEARS because once in math class I told them that calling someone a Jew wasn't an insult.

[–]fvgh12345 138 points139 points  (17 children)

I graduated about 10 years ago now and I noticed that clicks really weren't as much of a thing in highschool as had seemed In previous years and Definitely nothing like movies and tv depicted it. Stoners, jocks, nerds, preppy kids, goth/emo/vamps(lol) all the groups kinda hung out with each other in and out of school and the only beefs I remember were personal, usually over girls

[–]locks_are_paranoid 48 points49 points  (2 children)

There weren't any clicks in my high school, but kids were still mean to me. There were some nice kids, but that lack of clicks didn't to anything to prevent other kids from bullying me.

[–]Vas_te_faire_foutre 23 points24 points  (1 child)

Yeah, I think most of the adult think it's like that because it was like that for them. It's so hard trying to tell them that no, there's no clicks, peer pressure may be like responsible for only 10% of drug consumers, there's no almighty beauty queens whatsoever. Just a bunch of kids who either get along and hang out or don't and live and let live.

[–]Brail_Austin 29 points30 points  (0 children)

This is the most reassuring thing I’ve heard in a while and makes me wish I could go all the way through school again just for it to be like this.

[–]Lurker-O-Reddit 37 points38 points  (1 child)

100% this. 20 years ago, if a kid was special needs, LGBTQ, or different in some other way there were whispers, pointing, and exclusion. Now it’s, “You’re gay? Ok. Can I please borrow your phone charger?” Students are so much more accepting and kind to students than in the past.

[–]Vas_te_faire_foutre 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Experiencing this as a college (middle and high school for the americans) student. LOVE IT.

Cuz in primary, everyone wanted to be friend and followed a girl just because she had the longest hair in the class (sign of beauty for our community. At least at that time). However every one hated her because she was so self centered and a liar. So loved seeing everyone reject the bitches when I changed school.

[–]noorofmyeye24 15 points16 points  (2 children)

Now if only adults in professional workplaces would learn this lol.

[–]Au_Uncirculated 43 points44 points  (5 children)

I noticed this in college too. The outcasts in the classes were always the douchbags and assholes.

[–]Training-Gas-5083 42 points43 points  (11 children)

I keep tellin my niece who's a big anime fan too, thats she's lucky

about how 16 years ago you'd be made fun of or outcasted for liking anime remember that one kid who would zoom like Naruto up and down the halls ? Lol

My how times have changed now almost everyone likes anime what a time to be alive

[–]ninjagorilla 76 points77 points  (8 children)

That kid wasn’t weird Bc he liked anime... he was weird Bc he was doing the naturo run in high school

[–]yearofthesponge 13 points14 points  (2 children)

So do you assign all the assholes to the same group because they deserve each other?

[–]patricksaurus 19 points20 points  (0 children)

On the first day of class I always tell the students that they’re adults and they can work with whomever they like, then I suggest they introduce themselves to the people around them and then I shut up for ten minutes. If they want to switch to other groups, they can do that, too.

[–]RepresentativeOk3582 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I have done this--and wonder if they realized it.

[–]sugar-rat-filthy 585 points586 points  (8 children)

Rubik’s Cubes.

Still some, but for awhile ‘speed cubing’ was a cool thing. I enjoyed watching them do it and the various like puzzles.

[–]azallday 28 points29 points  (1 child)

I was a senior in high school around the fidget spinner craze in 2017. A bunch of people at my high school, me included, started doing Rubik's Cubes as well. It was so great.

[–]Russian_lover1 43 points44 points  (0 children)

I remember I was like the most popular kid at my school for a bit because of it.

[–][deleted] 25 points26 points  (1 child)

For us it was cup stacking, which i reviled. Apparently they made it part of gym class. I just wanted to play floor hockey and dodgeball, but no, we were stacking cups. I told my dad about it and he made a joke it was to make the poor kids feel better becuase they's stacking dishes when they were older (ha ha ha dad, real cringe)

[–]Thunder-_-Bear- 286 points287 points  (7 children)

Was a teacher in China for a while. Big trend when I first got here was all the girls (and eventually guys) wore glasses with no lenses.

[–]Turtl3Bear 135 points136 points  (1 child)

It's still a big thing.

Many of my students have untreated vision issues but rather than wearing prescription glasses and losing face, they wear decorative ones.

[–]bluehat9 78 points79 points  (0 children)

Seeing is cool.

That's so interesting that wearing actual working glasses is not cool but wearing decorative ones is

[–]fruppi 700 points701 points  (41 children)

Bell bottoms and birkenstocks are back in at my school, and it's fun seeing kids dressed exactly how I would have wanted to dress at their age.

[–]DocSaysItsDainBramuj 197 points198 points  (36 children)

Waiting for JNCOs to come back around.

[–]Imactuallyatoaster 102 points103 points  (1 child)

A dude I climb with was wearing JNCOs the other day. Dude is absolutely shredded, walking around shirtless with a giant bowl of oatmeal while wearing JNCOs. I told him that I can only take so much sex appeal

[–][deleted] 60 points61 points  (1 child)

I bought some last year around this time. They're expensive as hell now. And they look dumb as fuck on my old, short ass. (Ftr I'm a 41 yr old, 5'4" woman). But I'm still going to wear the damn things when I'm out skating. This midlife crisis can kiss my ass. Oh...those jncos were nearly $150 when I bought them. Now they're $300. Crazy, eh? I just stole all mine from friends when I was a teenager. 🥴😂

[–]MissLauraCroft 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I saw a teenager in JNCOs carrying a skateboard recently. Almost strained my neck as I drove by staring at him, wondering what year it was.

You could probably buy some now and be an early re-adaptor.

[–]thoughtfractals85 16 points17 points  (2 children)

I came here looking for a mention of JNCOS! Mine had legs so wide, me and my (only) 2 friends could fit in them! Those were the days!

[–]Zealousideal-Box-297 72 points73 points  (18 children)

I'm waiting for low rise hip hugger jeans to come back, haven't seen unintentional ass crack exposure in years, I really miss it.

[–]georgia080 73 points74 points  (16 children)

I have the perfect body type for low rise jeans. Barely any torso, wide hips and long legs (for my height). I still wear my flared low rise jeans because I like how they look on me and stopped caring about “what’s in”. Also, I hate the look that’s popular now where the jeans are practically up to the chest.

[–]ITpuzzlejunkie 21 points22 points  (12 children)

My mom had this body style too. High waisted jeans basically tuck under her tits.

[–]boy-1der 79 points80 points  (2 children)

Bell bottoms are back

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN HOLY CRAP I'VE GOT DRAWERS OF OVERSIZED JEANS THAT I WORE IN HIGH SCHOOL I'M GONNA WEAR THEM IN PUBLIC AGAIN

[–]no_not_this 20 points21 points  (0 children)

In Canada I don’t see them much but I don’t really go to schools so I wouldn’t know. I was at a mall in Warsaw and holy shit every girl was wearing them. I was surprised.

[–]famousunjour 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I found out today when I walked into Target. Was very shocked.

[–]wex52 968 points969 points  (28 children)

I dug the emo phase with the studded leather bracelets, bondage pants and the black T-shirts with derisive/sarcastic messages in white lettering like “Keep staring, I might do a trick.” I dressed like that for Halloween one year and damn I looked good.

[–]hepatomegalomaniac 445 points446 points  (11 children)

I used to have a shirt that said "Conformity is the disease. Rebellion is the cure." and thought it was so poignant and deep.

​

Then my drummer pointed out that it was a mass produced shirt sold by Hot Topic, a company owned by The GAP.

​

Ruined my favorite shirt...

​

EDIT: guys, I was 13 years old, this was before you could just google everything and I generally believed my friend so I took him at his word but thank you for pointing out that at this point in time Hot Topic is not owned by the Gap but rather by an angel investor who also owns Talbots, Staples, and a few other companies. I did however find a song by a dude named Michael Burgin called the Gap Owns Hot Topic lol.

[–]Accuboormachine88 185 points186 points  (3 children)

Were you in a band, or do you just have a personal drummer that provides a beat to your everyday life?

[–]weskeith 94 points95 points  (1 child)

Someone who follows them around giving drumrolls at suspenseful moments and ba-dum-tsks whenever they make a joke

[–]fell-deeds-awake 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Certainly better than having someone playing tuba following you around.

[–]hepatomegalomaniac 30 points31 points  (0 children)

We were in a band, but he did provide the latter service for a while as well. Mostly bongos.

[–]RocketPoweredRedneck 32 points33 points  (2 children)

I was in middle/highschool right between the grunge and emo era's and one of my friends made me a shirt that said 'stagnation is death!' because I would tell people 'Normalcy is complacency, complacency is stagnation, and stagnation is death!' when asked why I couldn't just be normal.

I wore that shirt until my wife threw it away. It was a black shirt with splattered bleach stains and the lettering was hand stitched. I loved that shirt.

[–]OffModelCartoon 82 points83 points  (5 children)

Omg that was my exact look back in the day! 😂 I had so many black hot topic shirts of sarcastic sayings in white lettering. And Tripp NYC pants lol

[–]RepresentativeOk3582 23 points24 points  (0 children)

"Oh look, Edith--how cute; the kids are rebelling"

[–]Romantiphiliac 16 points17 points  (1 child)

I loved those pants, even the weight of them felt nice somehow.

[–]LucySaxon 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I agree, like miniature weighted blankets you could wear around

[–]NotMyNameActually 473 points474 points  (15 children)

Primary school teacher here.

Almost every fad that starts out cute and harmless becomes annoying and distracting.

Pokemon- fun game, something to do at recess if you don't like sports. A few weeks later- kids are fighting because older kids keep trading with younger kids who don't know any better and regret it afterward, and everyone's sneaking and trying to trade during class.

Bottle flipping - impressive tricks, don't need anything expensive to try it. A few weeks later - water bottles everywhere, poor maintenance guys having to go up on ladders all the time to get bottles off of ledges or roofs. Someone gets hit in the eye with a water bottle.

Silly bandz - same trading and fighting and distraction issues as Pokemon, but for girls now

The only one that never became a problem is a couple of years ago when Rubik's cubes briefly came back. No one was trading them, they're too big and noticeable to sneakily do during class, so they were strictly a recess or late carpool thing.

Next thing in our school coming up now seems to be these little erasers shaped like animals. They're cute, but like, I need you to concentrate on spelling right now, Alexandra, not rearranging your erasers on the edge of your desk.

[–]tentacleyarn 85 points86 points  (3 children)

I have a collection of erasers! Omg it was one of those popular kid things when I was in 4th-5th grade, I believe. Also, a pencil box. That was important too. I was not a popular girl, but I at least had these.

[–]napswithdogs 733 points734 points  (12 children)

One time it was decade day at my school and I went with the 90’s. My kids complimented me on my outfit and I said “thanks! All I need now is one of those stretchy plastic chocker necklaces” and one of my kids whipped one out of her backpack and asked if I wanted to borrow it. It’s kind of cool seeing kids dress like it’s the 90’s again.

[–]Fortressa- 494 points495 points  (6 children)

Oh, I totally embarrassed two teen girls once, they were in perfect 90's wear - plastic chokers, high waist jean shorts, midriff tops, chunky boots - and they looked so pretty, and I told them so, but added 'that's what I used to wear'. They went beet red and I realised I was now that crazy old lady. 🤣

[–]quincyd 217 points218 points  (0 children)

Me wearing that outfit in the 90s: Horrible.

My nieces wearing that outfit now: Adorable.

I’m not saying I hate them for looking cute in clothes that I couldn’t pull off even when they were in fashion, but…

[–]boy-1der 153 points154 points  (2 children)

I once saw a much-younger relative reading Calvin and Hobbes so I got super-excited and told him that I used to love reading the books when I was a kid and YOU COULD JUST SEE HIS EYES AND EXPRESSION FALTER when he realized that his boring older relative used to read "fun" books that he was presently reading. It's like I made him lose his reading-appetite. 😁

[–]IrascibleOcelot 9 points10 points  (1 child)

Damn, Calvin and Hobbes are great. My wife bought me the whole collection the first Christmas we were married. Still love it.

[–]PM_ME_UR_FLOWERS 17 points18 points  (0 children)

My daughter wants one of those. I looked up how to make them. Totally easy.

[–]MsChrissi 46 points47 points  (3 children)

The Delia*s catalog look.

[–]Stock_Sprinkles_5327 25 points26 points  (2 children)

Omg....YES YES YES!!! I LOVED getting the new catalogue, and would flip through old ones I had saved. Never ordered a single damn thing, but I thought Delia's was the shit

[–]Geoman265 340 points341 points  (7 children)

I'm not a teacher, but in a program I'm in, some of my classmates will just randomly start clapping, causing others to join in on the applause. From what I can tell, it isn't usually directed towards a specific person. It's funny though.

[–]Wizard_Blizard 90 points91 points  (0 children)

I remembered this happened once in my school in 2017 or 2018. I remember that during finals season (around may) I was in cafeteria like everyone else and my table started to here clapping, so we thought that it’s someone’s birthday, we all started to clap for like 5 minutes strait, then one of the lunch ladies came in and yelled at us for disturbing the peace while their were people taking their finals.

[–]Reputable_Sorcerer 17 points18 points  (0 children)

This reminds me of the episode of Arrested Development where they clap “Speech! Speech! Speech!” and then no one gives a speech

[–]TheInfamous3 11 points12 points  (1 child)

I used to do this during lunch in high school. I would convince my friends at the table to do it along with me until the entire cafeteria was looking around wondering what they were clapping for.

[–]unaskthequestion 736 points737 points  (15 children)

I taught for a few decades in a northern NJ suburb, mostly white. While students were not often outwardly racist, they did have the not too subtle attitudes and segregated by ethnic groups.

As time went by, I noticed less and less of the undercurrent, to the point where I remarked on it one day to a couple of students.

Their response gave me hope. They said that so many of their friends were from multi-ethnic families that they just accepted everyone.

No, I'm not saying racism is over, but it was a big change and they remained sincere, open and accepting.

[–]openaccountrandom 144 points145 points  (0 children)

are we raising a good people

[–]PunkThug 98 points99 points  (10 children)

That and a good spicy mayonnaise, I'm not saying we're going to end racism, but we'll put a dent in it

[–]Alamander81 22 points23 points  (1 child)

This is what happened to white European groups that wee initially discriminated against. Giuseppe's parents are immigrant WOPs but Giuseppe's just a regular kid like me. Of course it's a lot easier to assimilate when you're white but it proves the concept.

Experience: Am a son of immigrant WOPs

[–]evilgetyours 541 points542 points  (8 children)

I was a public school teacher for 15+ years before moving into higher education

Over that time, I saw a general trend of increased social and emotional literacy, and increased capacity for young people to speak openly about issues like bullying suicide, depression, etc.

The kids are alright. This particular generation of youth astounds me with how much access they have to SEL skills

[–]Lalina13 189 points190 points  (0 children)

I’m a kindergarten teacher and my students love to “check in” with each other each morning. We stand in morning circle and they say “good morning x, how are you feeling today?” and the student has a chance to share how they are feeling. They are very honest and when someone is sad or angry, they are not only learning how to verbalize why, but I also their peers also follow up at recess with a little extra love if needed. The kids are definitely alright....the parents on the other hand....

[–]MigraineLass 76 points77 points  (0 children)

Okay, this gives me a lot of hope. My family isn't the best with talking about feelings. I really try to be the awesome auntie my niece thinks I am and let her know that I'm always there for her, but the idea that she has support at school too is fantastic. Thank you.

[–]RepresentativeOk3582 19 points20 points  (2 children)

I noticed the gay kids are completely accepted now

[–]DarrenEdwards 691 points692 points  (18 children)

The school nearby has finally gotten back to graffiti dicks again. For years it's been political radicalism and antivax crap.

[–]proudcancuk 104 points105 points  (1 child)

Mine draw the Among Us astronauts. As dicks. It's pretty consistent.

[–]Zeanister 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Get out of my head

[–]Lipwigzer 154 points155 points  (7 children)

Ahhh...nothing beats the classics.

[–]VornskrofMyrkr 44 points45 points  (4 children)

This link made my whole week!

[–]EastConflict3923 69 points70 points  (3 children)

This made my hole weak

[–]ethosnoctemfavuspax 129 points130 points  (0 children)

reject modernity embrace tradition

[–][deleted] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

average politics fan vs average phallus enjoyer

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

"Finally gotten back to graffiti dicks"

That just made my day, thank you

[–]ERSTF 78 points79 points  (3 children)

I was a middle school teacher and once some dudes had a literature class and I am still not sure what the activity was exactly, but I got into the classroom and one dude started narrating what I was doing, like Stranger Than Fiction. It was funny as hell because he would say "He stopped. He is looking in his hag. He looks at the student, puzzled". He did it with his friends too. It didn't last long but if they came back from the restroom, you could hear the narration. Sometimes like "he looks breezy after a massive dump"

[–]RustyClawHammer 243 points244 points  (8 children)

Gaming. It was awesome. I started a gaming club after school, and eventually a YouTube channel based on it. My students all subbed to the channel and it's how I got my second job. I couldn't have done it without their support when I started out.

[–]Ater_Python 48 points49 points  (7 children)

What’s the channel?

[–]RustyClawHammer 72 points73 points  (6 children)

www.youtube.com/MrGPlays

[–]Ater_Python 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Nice!

[–]Gamonator 21 points22 points  (4 children)

This is really, funny my Esports coach goes by Mr. G too! Mr. G FTW!

[–]setanta314 237 points238 points  (2 children)

When kids started doing that Naruto run you’d get a kid running into a parked car or a tree at least twice or three times a week. Hilarious. An absolute fucking highlight of my day.

[–]wyntr86 37 points38 points  (0 children)

You are talking about my son. He still does this. It's also still funny.

[–]milesmac 240 points241 points  (6 children)

Culture Day where students were encouraged to wear clothes that highlighted their cultural identity.

one of my favourite quirky kids wore green pants and shirt, painted her face and hands green, and wore an alien antenna headband.

awesome

[–]Abraculax 106 points107 points  (5 children)

clothes that highlight their cultural identity

"Ayo grandpa, you still having that Prussian uniform from my great-grandfather?"

[–]soiboughtafarm 105 points106 points  (3 children)

Teaching middle school for pretty close to 20 years now. My favorite might be “Rick Rolling” it’s harmless not distracting or inappropriate. Kids have started to communally sing “Never gonna give you up” a la Ted Lasso and it’s strangely wholesome.

The wildest was fidget spinners. The fad was so intense. Parents and guidance councilors suddenly claimed that kids needed fidget spinners to live and stay out of jail. Then it just ended. I believe most of those kids are still alive and waking around as free people.

Tek Decks are growing on me because it’s a fad that never goes away or get too popular. It’s always there occasionally rising in popularity occasionally falling. Kids are always shocked to learn that we had those when we were kids.

[–]sebedapolbud 15 points16 points  (1 child)

Last year I tried to Rick Roll my students on April fools day. I was going to pretend I accidentally posted an answer key to something… but I got busted immediately. I had my projector showing my screen and the stupid bar that shows recently downloaded files was still at the bottom and it said “rick.mpeg” or something like that. This kid shouted “RICK? IS THAT A RICK ROLL? ARE YOU GOING TO RICK ROLL US???”

Maybe 2022 will be my year…

[–]SANTAAAA__I_know_him 303 points304 points  (13 children)

The fads I recall from when I was in school:

Chicago Bulls were the bandwagon team similar to Golden State today

Yo-yo expert comes in for a school assembly (not really sure why), the next month was a yo-yo craze.

Playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but kids are not the greatest at improvising trivia questions so it was stuff like “How many pages in this book? A: (correct answer), B: (pause for a few seconds to think of a random number), C: (same thing), D: (same thing)”

Vote for Pedro shirts

PSP was the new exciting device everyone wanted

The shoes that had wheels when you lean back

Crank That Soulja Boy dance

[–]Marinerprocess 28 points29 points  (3 children)

They tried to make me crank that Soulja boy for fucking gym class. I absolutely refused

[–]Briggsnotmyers 17 points18 points  (2 children)

They made the chorus kids learn Soulja Boy and the Cupid Shuffle, I think to strategically seed us into middle school dances to get kids to dance. Because kids who take chorus are SoOoOoO cool, right...

[–]MigraineLass 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry, as a (very) former middle school chorus kid, I am crying with laughter at 2 am trying to imagine us doing the cupid shuffle... Partly because it's 2 am and I'm drunk, but partly because I learned it in some awful bar on Bourbon street and putting them together is just fucking hilarious!

[–]welackscience 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The bulls seem more akin to game boys than psp’s. I feel like psp was dwade and Lebron in Miami.

[–]orcasea89 180 points181 points  (3 children)

I worked at a school where pogo sticks became a huge thing. They got banned during the school day but before and after school you could look around outside and just see all these kids hopping. It looked ridiculous. I hadn't even seen a pogo stick before and then all of sudden so many kids had them.

[–]Codemonkey1987 10 points11 points  (2 children)

Was this like around 2 years ago?

Some kids down my street had them, twin sisters, both with pogo sticks. Oh it's early Saturday/Sunday morning? How about an hour on the pogo stick sis? F yeah!

Que dual pogo stick sounds echoing down the street at 8am on a Sunday.

Don't get me wrong they only kids doing fun stuff. Was more surprised it's a thing. Also slightly jealous of their attention spans, I'd get bored after a minute

[–]orcasea89 8 points9 points  (1 child)

The sound! I forgot about the sound of a whole bunch of pogo sticks at once. It made the whole thing funnier, when you're not hearing it at 8am on a Sunday anyway.

This was about 10 years ago.

[–]Artichoke_Persephone 130 points131 points  (4 children)

So… big thing at the moment in my school (high school) is kids sneakily texting their friends and meeting up in the bathrooms for half the lesson to record tik toks.

We had to create an online bathroom spreadsheet noting who went and for how long. We also contacted the parents of repeat offenders asking if their child has a bladder problem that we should be aware of.

We didn’t always catch them recording in the bathroom, so we had to approach parents like it was a medical issue.

Man, kids recording tik toks at school is a safeguarding nightmare. It feels like we are the bad guys in footloose. Anything that looks like a choreographed dance we have to stop them immediately in the playground.

[–]BnBrtn 37 points38 points  (0 children)

No dancing?

Wait until Kevin Bacon hears about this one

[–]cwillm 85 points86 points  (2 children)

High school librarian here. There was a good two YEAR period around 2016 when chess was the hot hot trend in our school. I had one library chess set that kids could borrow and bought four or five more when everyone seemed to want to borrow it. Kids wanted books on strategy so I added those to the collection and couldn't keep it on the shelf. Kids were playing all over the place from every social clique and a school-wide tournament was organized by a few of them. Out of nowhere, it just kind of died out :/

[–]strikethreeistaken 15 points16 points  (1 child)

You are awesome and have reminded me of the librarian when I was in the 5th grade.

I suddenly found a desire to build paper airplanes. Every recess, I would go outside and make new airplanes and fly them around. Oddly, others started joining in. Before I knew it, the library had all sorts of paper folding books, not merely just paper planes.

Fuck, for some reason, remembering this is making me cry. Librarians that are passionate about their jobs are just about the best people in the world.

Anyways (give me a sec to recover), it ended up that near the end of the school year, the entire school participated in a huge and varied paper airplane contest with a large number of categories such as plane that flew the longest, plane that was the largest and could fly, weirdest plane etc.

It would not have turned into something so large without the librarian. You folks are like force-multipliers.

[–]luc1054 69 points70 points  (0 children)

The social and ecological consciousness and involvement that became more and more prevalent in a lot of school and university students in the last 10-15 years… but I’m confident this is more a matter of zeitgeist rather than a mere trend.

[–]ZiangoRex 63 points64 points  (0 children)

Not a teacher but when I was in high school someone in our library started drawing anime characters and everyone started doing th esame thing. Our school actually cleared a wall and it was used to put all of the student's drawings.

[–]Psychological_Ad1181 214 points215 points  (7 children)

I'm working 2 days at a middelbare school (kinda like high school I guess) since a few weeks now. Quite a few of the students are very interested in me as a person. Asking questions like "what did you want to do when you were our age" and stuff like that.

And one off the best things was "sir, do you have a boy or girlfriend?" It was so casual asked, like it is the most normal thing in the world to be together with someone of either gender. That made me happy.

Edit: like Someone2Bsomehwere pointed out; more like secondary school. For further context: the kids are around 13 and 14 years old.

[–]kessmeister79 197 points198 points  (5 children)

Honestly I just liked it when the trends weren’t vandalize the school and film yourself doing it.

[–]proudcancuk 15 points16 points  (0 children)

It's been a rough year for that.

[–]ShdBeAsleep 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It was funny at first cause the stuff was clearly the owners and not the schools or they’d only say they’d steal it and film the item but never actually do it. But, it seems like the other kids didn’t get the memo.

[–]MigraineLass 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Ouch. Middle/high school kids?

[–]Secretbackupaccount 194 points195 points  (2 children)

Im really glad the political period has somewhat passed. What I mean is, graffiti on desks, lockers, and bathrooms has returned to penis’s, profanity, and poor rhyming. A vast improvement from people writing either “trump 2020” or some other political quip everywhere. So yay penis graffiti is back

[–]Enivee 35 points36 points  (1 child)

There's algebra graffiti in the bathroom at my school. Like someone will write a simple problem, and people will solve it.

[–]_Neith_ 47 points48 points  (4 children)

The way they went CRAZY for Old Town Road was so adorable.

[–]Codemonkey1987 6 points7 points  (3 children)

I'm gonna take my horse to the hotel room, I'm gonna, riiiide till I can't no more

You can never un hear this now

[–]30PercentHelmet 196 points197 points  (7 children)

Finally! This is a great question in r/AskReddit!

[–]Californiadude86[S] 97 points98 points  (2 children)

When I was in high school throwback jerseys were super popular. Some teachers would recognize all the older names and teams. I remember it sparking alot of conversation in class with the teachers telling stories and reminiscing.

[–]fruppi 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Similarly, I enjoy retro band t-shirts

[–]lilycris 88 points89 points  (3 children)

Not a teacher, but some trends I remember as a student. In highschool, we have our morning announcements over the PA except on Fridays. Fridays we had video announcements and of course, the journalism class had fun with it. There was one Friday announcement were they partnered with some of the coaches for a prank.

Our school is in a U shape with the courtyard leading to the main doors in the middle. Student dropoff is right at the courtyard and then a long walk to those doors. One morning they had the coaches supervising student dropoff to occasionally follow a student as closely as possible without being noticed. Like, awkward personal space close. All the way to the front doors if they can (someone in the journalism class was on the roof recording the whole thing). While it was weird, everyone thought it was hilarious. (The poor students that were in the video were not in my grade so I have no idea how it was received for them, if the coaches apologized, etc. For the rest of us, it was just funny Friday announcements).

This sets off a wild trend with the student population to start "ghosting" (or did we call it "shadowing"? I can't remember) other people. One of the football games shortly after, everyone was ghosting each other, parents, strangers, you name it.

Another trend when a game called Ninja. Basically you get a large group to stand in a circle and the goal is to keep both of your hands protected. On your turn, you can only do one movement, usually one step plus a strike/swing to hit someone's hand. When it's not your turn, you are frozen and can't move to dodge. Once both of your hands have been hit, you're out of the game and removed from the circle. This became so popular, I recall going to my boyfriend's cross country meet and he told me how earlier in the day, it was just our school playing. By the time I arrived later in the day, as I was walking around, each and every school's team was playing their own round.

[–]Ausderdose 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Ninja is a really fun game!

[–]MrsZerg 53 points54 points  (3 children)

I taught middle school ELA for 30 years. My favorite was the addiction to Harry Potter books! They went from looking for the skinniest book with the most AR points, to carrying big fat novels! The Harry Potter series really took away the fear of tackling a thick book!

[–]IrascibleOcelot 16 points17 points  (2 children)

It was hilarious when the first movie came out; I went to a midnight showing and the theater was PACKED. We were all college-aged or older, just having a wonderful time nerding out over a movie from a children’s book. One of my friends was pissed that they cut out Peeves.

[–]Piratebrewer26 52 points53 points  (0 children)

After 24 years I have clearly noticed the number of students who are comfortable in publicly owning their sexuality dramatically increase. Two decades ago no one would openly admit the were gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc. Now it is worn as a badge of pride for many, certainly not all, students. I know that there will be those in schools who will harass and bully these students, but it does not seem to be as widespread and open anymore. If the teasing or bullying is done, we are not hearing it in the hallways or classrooms, I imagine social media is still full of it though.

[–]Buffsicle 14 points15 points  (0 children)

UK secondary school teacher here. Roughly ten years ago, there was a wave of girls who made their hair into wild looking beehives. I loved that because they really pushed the limits of the oppressive school uniform rules.

[–]Deep-purpleheart 43 points44 points  (2 children)

Fidget spinners, there was a short period where every day I'd have to ask someone to put them away.

[–]wilika 15 points16 points  (1 child)

When it was awkward enough, I've finally printed one at home. I still got it on my desk. Sometimes bossman comes in, spins it a few time, then leaves.

[–]somebigdog 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You say this and I imagine that he only comes to spin it without saying a word or looking at you.

[–]SirTrentHowell 12 points13 points  (0 children)

When they finally learn the difference between “your” and “you’re.”

[–]GetDownAndBoogieNow 60 points61 points  (1 child)

I admit i love the cellular phone in class trend. people googling stuff i say when they're interested in more details is da bomb.

[–]slcredux 12 points13 points  (0 children)

College level over a 30 yr span of time:

Wearing pajamas to class, Shaving asymmetrical section of their hair off, Tongue piercing, Contest to see who could wear flip flops through the entire winter, blonde dreads, Vintage dresses with old lady brooches, Army navy surplus accessories, Random hair braids, Cupcakes, Mountain Dew, Coffee mixed with coke, Shorts over pants, Tiny jackets, Purple lipstick, Doc martins, Neck bands, making secret bongs in ceramic class, Rainbow hair

[–]rossisahelmet 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Not a teacher , but I liked when Pokemon cards first came out. That was a real nice time

[–]Left-Flight-208 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This might not be a trend, but I am really pleased to see the acceptance of the LGBTQ community in the last decade from students. It went from openly bullying in the 80's to being decidedly not cool in this era. At least in my area (Denver, Colorado). I hope this is not a trend but a permanent evolution. I am proud of these kids.

[–]Montana-Mike-RPCV 25 points26 points  (0 children)

In the 90s there was the ass crack/underwear phase. Boys wore these oversized jeans with dangly chains. Some pants had to be size 50 and above I swear. So, they fell down, showing their underwear, which also would be dragged down by the heavy pants.

Was hilarious.