Being sick enough typically meant spending the day laying in bed, alternately shivering and burning, drifting in and out of sleep, occasionally puking, and that was still preferable to spending the day at school.

  • glans [it/its]
    ·
    2 months ago

    About 15 years ago I had a brief stint as a non-educational worker in a public school. They had a rule that the entire class had to line up in alphabetical order each time they entered or left any space as a group.

    To enter or leave the building, the hallway, the classroom. To go to the library, the gym. For group bathroom breaks. For recess and for lunch. Seriously they spent about 20% of the day being corralled into lining up. I don't know how the teachers tolerated it. The kids never cooperated with it easily and by the time the teacher got to the end of the line getting people in the right order the kids at the front had moved themselves around. Everyone going to giggle with their best friend or get away from someone they didn't like, whatever.

    We didn't have a rule like this when I was growing up but I did have the feeling it was stuff like this all the time. I literally felt they were trying to brain wash us into being compliant ever since I was very little.

    • Belly_Beanis [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Sometimes in elementary school we'd have to line up in alphabetical order, but it was for bureaucratic reasons. Since everything was still being done on typewriters and index cards, it was easier for stuff like picture day or health exams if we were all in alphabetical order.

      It wasn't for every line, though. That's just nuts. Getting elementary school kids to line up in the first place is a hassle.