# Unusual things that irritated you as a child **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 28, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137 "2016-09-28T18:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/21 "2016-10-01T19:10:22Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I had a student teacher in the 5th grade who would not believe me that AD, as in “the year AD 1977,” stood for Anno Domini, which meant “in the year of our Lord” in Latin. She told the whole class it stood for “After Death.” I said if she would let me go to the library, I’d look it up, and come back with proof, but she didn’t need any, because she was right, and I was wrong. > > I tried pointing out that her theory left an approximately 33 year gap, because the year AD 1 would be the year of the crucifixion, not the year of Jesus’ birth, which it clearly was, but she was unmoved. > > I brought a note from my parents the next day, and she blew me off. > > About ten years later, it dawned on me that part of the problem might have been that I was Jewish, and what did a Jewish kid know about anything to do with Jesus? but I have no idea. That made it bug me even more. > > If she hadn’t misinformed the entire class, I wouldn’t be so annoyed, but she said I was wrong in front of the whole class, didn’t ask me where I’d gotten my information, and then affirmed the wrong information for the whole class. > > She was a lousy teacher otherwise as well. I hope she chose something else for her vocation. _I_ had a teacher who did that, too! 5th grade, also! Mrs. Wiedekamp. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/22 "2016-10-01T23:07:36Z")
My mother dyed her hair when I was a kid (she still does, actually). Nothing that dramatic, just from medium brown to honey blond. But I HATED it. It seemed like lying to me, and was just… phony. I vowed from a young age that I would NEVER dye my hair, and I’m 48 and I never have. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/23 "2016-10-02T01:09:14Z")
The list of insults and names that my older brother called me (when he wasn’t just beating me up) would have filled a book. When I complained about it to my mom, her reply was “oh, he only does that because he knows it bothers you.” The message that conveyed didn’t really dawn on me until years later. It was more important that my brother get to do whatever the fuck he wanted than it was for me to feel like anyone gave a damn about my feelings. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/24 "2016-10-03T23:30:24Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > I was in the gifted program in elementary and middle school, which involved being bused twice a month to another building in town with students from the other schools in the school district, and being taught by teachers who taught only one subject. You got to choose your own classes every marking period, and if, say, you really liked art and music, you might be taught by the same art and music teachers for all the years you were in the gifted program, and never have anybody else. > > So, all this to say, I usually picked the art, music, and science classes – one marking period, however, the math teacher offered some kind of math class that involved tangrams and other math- or logic-based toys and games, which sounded fun, so I signed up for it. This teacher was unfamiliar to me, and I to her. > > My sole memory of the class is of sitting with the other students and the teacher around a table with a bunch of these toys scattered around. At one point, I had picked up one of the toys and was idly fiddling with it while the teacher talked to us. I was listening to everything she said, but my eyes were on the toy on the table. I heard her say to someone, “You’re not listening to me. Stop playing with that toy and listen to me.” Well, I thought, obviously she was talking to some other kid, because I _was_ listening to her and I \*wasn’t \* playing with the toy – which would have taken concentration – I was just moving it around in my hand. > > She said this a couple of times and then screamed shrilly with full voice, like she was screaming after a purse snatcher, “HEYYY!” I looked up to see who the poor kid on the other end could be, and to my surprise, it was me! I had never been screamed at by a teacher like that before, and I was beyond mortified and said nothing, and then never took another math class from her again. > > After 30 years, I still get mad when I think back to that moment because, goddammit, I WAS listening to her! You awful witch, you can listen to someone without looking at them, you know!! JEEZ. No offense, but how was she supposed to know you were listening? Maybe she shouldn’t have like, screamed at you, but it’s really not totally her fault. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/25 "2016-10-04T14:38:07Z")
I was an artist as a child. Even as a 4-5 year old I was drawing realistic proportional human and animal figures with muscles and joints in the right places, etc. Some of the other kids my age were still in the circle on top of a stick phase. Anyway, years later my mother told me that at that time she took some of my drawings to an art professor, who was impressed. She said she asked what she could do about my talents, and was told to just keep an eye on me. In other words, nothing. As I grew older as a child I always kept up with art classes, but it was never something I considered primary, just something to do for fun. I never had any sense of it as a career choice. So, I never really developed past my own efforts, and was never given any additional coaching beyond regular school art class. Art isn’t part of my adult life, beyond being an appreciation. So, my irritation is not technically “as a child”, but irritation about something I learned that was about my childhood. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/26 "2016-10-04T17:28:44Z")
I have the ability to do all sorts of math in my head. And I have an eye-hand coordination problem that makes handwriting difficult for me. My 7th grade math teacher refused to believe I did all my homework by myself. She had my two older brothers and sister in her class, and she was sure they did my homework. Even after I showed her I could do the problems without writing the sequences down, she insisted I do so. Mary Ledger (great name for a math teacher) I still hate you. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/27 "2016-10-04T18:14:58Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I keep reading the thread title as “Unusual things that irradiated you as a child” Irradiated? I was incandescent. We moved between grades when I was a kid. I was always good at English and grammar because my mom and dad insisted on it at home. I didn’t, however, know the names of the parts of speech. I knew nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. That was as far as we’d gone in old school. Plopped into new school and we’re talking prepositions, participles, intransitive verbs-- I was lost. I got a D on the first test. I had to get my mom to sign it. She was unhappy with me, but she went over the test with me. " Would you say went or gone? Is it have or has?" Questions like that. I knew the correct answer, just not what it was called. Then she saw the bonus questions written in the teacher’s hand (purple memo sheet): What does adjectives do? What does adverbs do? My mom signed the test alright and added a long note of her own about how a teacher of English should be able to speak and write it correctly, etc., etc. The crowning insult came when the teacher hauled me out in the hallway to find out if my mother drank or was abusive. She didn’t understand why mom was so angry. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/28 "2016-10-04T19:11:46Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > When I was six, my youngest aunt lived with us for a while before her marriage. She was always my favorite aunt, and promised me I’d be the ring bearer in her wedding. Turned out, there was no ring bearer at all. In spite of my love for her, I never quite forgave her for that. I also never brought up the subject. That is so hurtful. I feel bad for you and don’t blame you for not quite forgiving. A promise to a 6 year old is an unbreakable vow. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/29 "2016-10-05T15:25:16Z")
“Enrichment” in public school. I was one of the smarter kids so they’d send us for “enrichment”. Being singled out was bad enough, but there was nothing “enriching” about this extra work. One year (grade 4 I think) we did something involving flat plastic shapes - something about making new shapes with the existing shapes and giving them weird names. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. If anybody remembers this let me know. It was weird. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/30 "2016-10-05T15:47:21Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I had a student teacher in the 5th grade who would not believe me that AD, as in “the year AD 1977,” stood for Anno Domini, which meant “in the year of our Lord” in Latin. She told the whole class it stood for “After Death.” I said if she would let me go to the library, I’d look it up, and come back with proof, but she didn’t need any, because she was right, and I was wrong. > > I tried pointing out that her theory left an approximately 33 year gap, because the year AD 1 would be the year of the crucifixion, not the year of Jesus’ birth, which it clearly was, but she was unmoved. The same thing happened to me (though my fifth grade teacher claimed that there were 33 unnumbered years (!) - almost makes me think he was testing the class to see who would fall for that), though my teacher let me show him in a dictionary what A.D. actually meant. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/31 "2016-10-05T16:52:47Z")
In the early 1970s, my older sister had a fountain pen (the kind that uses an ink cartridge). It really used to irritate me that when she wrote with it, she did not put the cap on the end of the pen like a normal person. She just wrote with the cap off the pen. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/32 "2016-10-05T19:47:53Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > “Enrichment” in public school. > > I was one of the smarter kids so they’d send us for “enrichment”. Being singled out was bad enough, but there was nothing “enriching” about this extra work. One year (grade 4 I think) we did something involving flat plastic shapes - something about making new shapes with the existing shapes and giving them weird names. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. If anybody remembers this let me know. It was weird. Are you thinking of [Tangrams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram)? Seven flat pieces of triangles and squares to be rearranged? (Sometimes known as tantagrams). I didn’t use them in school, but I remember making my own from directions in a puzzle book when I was about that age. I can’t imagine spending more than a few hours playing with them. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/33 "2016-10-05T19:59:11Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > Are you thinking of [Tangrams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram)? Seven flat pieces of triangles and squares to be rearranged? Similar - these were plastic shapes and we had to make little characters with them. The characters had goofy made-up names. The characters I think got more complex the further you got on the worksheets. I still have no idea what the point was. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/34 "2016-10-05T21:25:21Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > “Enrichment” in public school. > > I was one of the smarter kids so they’d send us for “enrichment”. Being singled out was bad enough, but there was nothing “enriching” about this extra work. One year (grade 4 I think) we did something involving flat plastic shapes - something about making new shapes with the existing shapes and giving them weird names. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. If anybody remembers this let me know. It was weird. Reminds me of the exercise in first grade (1965) when we learned about “word shapes” by drawing outlines around words. My parents and my grandmother thought it sounded incredibly stupid and pointless when I described it to them, and I agreed. Decades later, I realized that learning to recognize words by their shapes (as opposed to sounding out each individual letter) is the foundation of speed reading. If that was the intent of the lesson, though, it wasn’t presented well. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/35 "2016-10-05T23:50:41Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I have the ability to do all sorts of math in my head. And I have an eye-hand coordination problem that makes handwriting difficult for me. > > My 7th grade math teacher refused to believe I did all my homework by myself. She had my two older brothers and sister in her class, and she was sure they did my homework. Even after I showed her I could do the problems without writing the sequences down, she insisted I do so. > > Mary Ledger (great name for a math teacher) I still hate you. When I went to international school in Moscow, my teacher taught me short division, a method of dividing large numbers into larger numbers-- I could divide 8-digit numbers by 5-digit numbers-- with no subscript, known as “long division.” I learned this method in the fourth grade, and I don’t remember there being any limits to it stated, like “It only works up to 7-digit numerators,” or anything. In fifth grade, we learned long division-- or, the rest of the class did. I did a page of long division problems in half the time of the rest of the class using short division. My teacher lectured me on how I had to learn long division, because eventually, the numbers would get too long for me to be able to use short division. I said “No they won’t,” so she gave me a five digit number to divide into a much longer number, and I did it very quickly. She was momentarily nonplussed, but finally asserted that eventually the numbers would get to long to use my method. I had to learn long division, and that was it. (FWIW, electronic pocket calculators existed, but people still believed that children should learn to do all math on their own and understand the process; calculators were maybe for college, but not for public school.) The upshot is, I learned long division, _ **but I now cannot remember how to do short division** _, and it bugs the heck out of me when I think about it. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/36 "2016-10-06T00:05:27Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > When I went to international school in Moscow, my teacher taught me short division, a method of dividing large numbers into larger numbers-- I could divide 8-digit numbers by 5-digit numbers-- with no subscript, known as “long division.” I learned this method in the fourth grade, and I don’t remember there being any limits to it stated, like “It only works up to 7-digit numerators,” or anything. > > In fifth grade, we learned long division-- or, the rest of the class did. I did a page of long division problems in half the time of the rest of the class using short division. My teacher lectured me on how I had to learn long division, because eventually, the numbers would get too long for me to be able to use short division. I said “No they won’t,” so she gave me a five digit number to divide into a much longer number, and I did it very quickly. She was momentarily nonplussed, but finally asserted that eventually the numbers would get to long to use my method. I had to learn long division, and that was it. (FWIW, electronic pocket calculators existed, but people still believed that children should learn to do all math on their own and understand the process; calculators were maybe for college, but not for public school.) > > The upshot is, I learned long division, _ **but I now cannot remember how to do short division** _, and it bugs the heck out of me when I think about it. I looked up short division [Short division - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_division) and it looks pretty cool. When I was in the hospital as a kid, I learned how to do long multiplication and when I got back to school, the teachers were just introducing multiplication of multiple digit numbers, and were teaching a method that used a lot more paper than long multiplication did - so I insisted on doing it the better way. Fortunately when I proved that I was competent in doing the method that the other kids were eventually going to get to, I was allowed to skip the silly, paper wasting way. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/37 "2016-10-06T00:50:12Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > When I went to international school in Moscow, my teacher taught me short division, a method of dividing large numbers into larger numbers-- I could divide 8-digit numbers by 5-digit numbers-- with no subscript, known as “long division.” I learned this method in the fourth grade, and I don’t remember there being any limits to it stated, like “It only works up to 7-digit numerators,” or anything. > > In fifth grade, we learned long division-- or, the rest of the class did. I did a page of long division problems in half the time of the rest of the class using short division. My teacher lectured me on how I had to learn long division, because eventually, the numbers would get too long for me to be able to use short division. I said “No they won’t,” so she gave me a five digit number to divide into a much longer number, and I did it very quickly. She was momentarily nonplussed, but finally asserted that eventually the numbers would get to long to use my method. I had to learn long division, and that was it. (FWIW, electronic pocket calculators existed, but people still believed that children should learn to do all math on their own and understand the process; calculators were maybe for college, but not for public school.) > > The upshot is, I learned long division, _ **but I now cannot remember how to do short division** _, and it bugs the heck out of me when I think about it. Short division? Why would you need to know that? Knowing 16 divided by 5 equals 3 remainder 1 isn’t a useful life skill. I never understood the point of it given it’s not a real answer anyway. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/38 "2016-10-06T01:58:24Z")
To Mrs. Johnson of the sixth grade: I really did say “Shoot!” when I dropped my pencil. I have never forgotten the unjust accusation of profanity. On a more serious note, I will not forget how Carolyn in the fifth grade _lied_ to Mr. C and said I called her a n\*\*\*\*\*. I had gone to my earlier grades in a small northern farming community where that word hadn’t reached my ears, and it was nothing I had ever heard at home. Mr. C ignored my protests and gave it to me with both barrels–I was punished for allegedly uttering a word that I had never heard in my child lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/39 "2016-10-06T03:09:25Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > (…)But whenever I coughed (or something like that), or grimaced, or otherwise had some odd face expression, she would then furiously suddenly snap off a flurry of shots with her camera for 1-2 seconds, focusing on my face, before falling silent and inactive again. > > It was obvious that she was trying to get bad photos of me, and even at that age it was irritating. Strangely, that incident has bothered me more, not less, as I’ve grown older. It’s very possible the photographer’s motives were benign. I take a lot of photos of corporate seminars – events that are amazingly static and boring. I’ll look through the viewfinder for two minutes waiting for a spontaneous grin or a strong hand gesture. The photos will still be blah, but will be better than a speaker just looking at an audience. A kid playing piano with a neutral expression is a lot less interesting than a kid grimacing, or biting their lip. I’ve never taken fast sequence shots of someone coughing, but it’s very possible it might produce some – seemingly – intense expressions. I can’t think of a likely reason a professional photographer would be trying to make you “look bad”, but think it’s very likely she was trying for an striking expression. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137/40 "2016-10-06T16:49:51Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > To Mrs. Johnson of the sixth grade: I really did say “Shoot!” when I dropped my pencil. I have never forgotten the unjust accusation of profanity. Which reminds me: to the bitch of a babysitter I had when I was about 4: I was scratching the inside of my nose, NOT picking it and there was no need to freak out, haul me upstairs into the bathroom to forcefully wash my hands then shame me in front of the other kids. Even if I WAS picking my nose, which I wasn’t, good lord every little kid picks their nose. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-things-that-irritated-you-as-a-child/767137.md?page=3)