The Gooner Forum

My oldest will be starting secondary school next week and from what I can gather the kids at the school love it. It got me thinking as to how much I fucking hated secondary school.
I went to St Columbs College which was basically a catholic run school which boasts famous old boys such as John Hume and Martin O Neill.
The teachers at the school ranged from brilliant to awful and from priests with a liking for young boys to priests with a hatred of young boys. So if you weren't avoiding thier advances you were dodging their punches.
We had one in particular Fr Flaherty a 6' 3" ex-boxer with hands like shovels that were thick with nicotine. I had him for Irish and he used to beat the shit out of me every lesson, from the traditional sidelock pulling to banging my forehead off the table or simply clashing me across the face, he really was an evil bastard.
So I can say without hesitation School days weren't the happiest of my life, what about you?

Hated school from the start to the finish. I had a brilliant childhood and my mum and dad gave me everything (not money wise as they weren't flush with cash) but school was the bane of my life from 4-16 years old and i can honestly say when i left school at 16 everything was a lot better

Was not keen on school.
Lots of homework.
Cross country runs in the cold.
Boring assemblies and bored rigid by Chemistry lessons.

Much preferred my late 20's, best years of my life. Finally had a little bit of cash, a car, and freedom.

flash gunner wrote:Hated school from the start to the finish. I had a brilliant childhood and my mum and dad gave me everything (not money wise as they weren't flush with cash) but school was the bane of my life from 4-16 years old and i can honestly say when i left school at 16 everything was a lot better

Yes... when you left then, you could legally lay fallow!!!!

franksav63 wrote:

flash gunner wrote:Hated school from the start to the finish. I had a brilliant childhood and my mum and dad gave me everything (not money wise as they weren't flush with cash) but school was the bane of my life from 4-16 years old and i can honestly say when i left school at 16 everything was a lot better

Yes... when you left then, you could legally lay other fellows!!!!

School was great for practical jokes and general banter. The teachers are shithouses wherever you go.
Particular favourites...

- Clingfilming the toilets.
- Spit-balls.
- Deepheat in underpants.
- As a Prefect sending first years off to get tartan paint, skirting board ladders and dehydrated water.

I'm still carrying out most of these pranks these days.

I love school so much I am now on the other side of the desk.....love it

I know what you mean Sid.

I also have mostly bad memories of school/s - up till I was 15/16yrs. My dad was in the military - so we moved around a great deal. Sometimes I was with my parents - other times with my aunt & uncle in London to and fro between 7 and 13 - which is how I became a Gooner - my uncle used to take me to Highbury - used to get beat up at school because I was always the 'new kid'. Then was sent away to a school for 2 years - which I hated (it was run like the military) no football only rugby, boxing and cross country - being a football fan & Gooner I got a regular kicking from the toffs - it was more survival than school...just lots of drill (square bashing) beatings, bullying and that was just the teachers (Officers) - I got into trouble for refusing to shoot a gun . - feck em

Then eventually was able to join my family abroad - Dad was a Military Advisor by then living in Cyprus... which was 1000% Brilliant, sun and swimming.

Grew up in Australia and went to a fantastic school in Brisbane. Very forward thinking, no corporal punishment, lots and lots of sports, teachers were also your football or cricket or aussie rules coaches. Just a fantastic school.

Moved back to Dublin at 15 and was sent to a school in the inner city that used to have a great national reputation but had gotten a bit run down (unknown to my folks) when it started letting the "locals" in. Was a fucking eye opening experience! But made some great friends there and it was mostly ok. Teachers were pretty sound too. And we had a fantastic school spirit and pride which often expressed itself in a fierce and at times violent rivalry with another local school. On one infamous occasion it ended up in a mass brawl in the stands at an inter-school football match. We all got lots of detention for that one!

Mostly good experiences there though. You just had to watch your back walking from the train station to the school through the local flats... well dodgy.

My time at school was okay, but later at the University I had a lot much more fun

School for me was ok, nothing special but I much prefered the years 17 to 20 odd,once I got a car and the freedom that came with it.
Also happened to co-incide with Arsenal's return to power and me getting a season ticket at 17 when I got my first job
(the very first cheque I ever wrote was for a standing season ticket - North Bank or Clock End, you could change game by game for £60.00 - yep £60 for a whole season !!)