What sucked most about middle school/junior high?

[Rowdyboy]

Poll question: What sucked most about middle school/junior high?

Hey, loser! Yeah, you asshole. What really made you most miserable during the absolute worst years of anyone's life (7th-9th grade)?

Was it PE? Being awkward and the last one chosen for every freaking team every freaking time? Being yelled at and embarrassed? Being clumsy and klutsy and getting hit with the fucking dodgeball? Asshole, sadistic coaches with nothing on their minds but next Fridays game?

How about lunch, where you stand in line forever for mystery meat and tater tots (on a good day) unless you have a peanut butter sandwich you made for yourself. Then you walk into the cafeteria and the only open seats are next to people who are WAY too cool for you to even think about sitting next to.

Was it the bullies, the assholes who punched you, shamed you, kneed you, kicked your books, stole from you and hated you?

How about the humiliation of being called on to do a math problem at 8:15 when you've got "morning wood"? Thats real fun, right? Or for girls, having a shit-ass male coach make you tell him why you can't go out for gym in front of everyone.

Could it be riding the school bus? Sometimes its easilr just to stand than to sit next to people who hate you for no real reason.

Or do you have another reason altogether to hate middle school.

35 years later, its still my worst nightmare. What was your nightmare......

[Robeson]

1. How about all of the above.....

...and no, thats not a question, its a statement.

[Rowdyboy]

3. Added immediately

Thanks!

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

2. I would also have to say all the above .

The worse thing that happened to me during my middle school years . It was when I was in the eighth grade - One morning on the school bus , the kids were more idiotic than usual . So they started throwing things to everyone at the front of the bus . Well , one idiot was bold enough to throw a glass Scope mouthwash bottle at my head - it hit my head making a cut on my ear and hitting the window -glass everyone . I was in shock for the most part - I did not know whether or not we had crashed or what . But the busdriver slammed on breaks , went to the back and actually cursed out the kids in the back of the bus - marched them right to the principal's office where they were all suspended for the rest of the school year . ( they had so many strikes against them anyway )

[Rowdyboy]

9. Sorry I was slow to add "All of the above"

It certainly was my experience. My personal nightmare was PE in general and softball in particular. I had a "straight out of college" PE teacher who delighted in torturing the nonathletic kids and he took special pleasure in singling me out. I actually stood up to him the last week of school in the ninth grade. We were playing softball and he humiliated me so badly, yelling, screaming and acting like a total ass that, when the inning was over and my team came in, I refused to play anymore. He called my name, and I sat there. He got in my face and I ignored him. I don't really think he gave a shit, but I was through. I suited up every day the last week and went out for PE but I didn't participate (passive resistance).

I've followed the asshole's career. He's a small town HS coach in Florida now and last season his team went 4-8. I thought about sending him a sympathy card but decided it wasn't worth 37 cents for a stamp to insult him.

[Sandpiper]

14. PE departments are the repository

Of washed up jocks whose meager athletic skills never amounted to anything in the real world.

They're a bitter lot and they take their frustation and failure out on the same sort of kids they used to stuff into lockers when they were in school.

[B0S0X87]

4. high school really wasn't that bad

I had my friends, loved writing and editing the school newspaper (I was editor in chief as a senior), took some awesome trips both school sponsored and with my friends, partied on the weekends, acted in the plays, had some really great teachers, etc.

Yeah, there were some shitty parts to, like when the guys I thought were my friends ditched me at the end of soph year or when my best friend accused me of being a rapist (long story), but overall a good time from freshman orientation through graduation last week.

Junior high sucked thoroughly, but from conversations with various people I've determined that it sucked for virtually everyone else.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

6. High school for me was great .

Junior / middle school sucked .

[Rowdyboy]

10. High school was no problem....It was 7th-9th that were sheer hell

[LibDemAlways]

5. My 7th grade English teacher was

a piece of human pond scum. He had a name that sounded similar to "Cesspool" and that's what everyone called him. He was the meanest bastard on the planet. No people skills at all and it was obvious he hated kids. At the end of the year he gave an assignment to write a report on any topic we chose. I had gone to the World's Fair in NY that Spring and wrote about it. Included lots of pictures I had taken along with plenty of details about the exhibits. I was damn proud of that project. The heartless slimebag gave me a D for no reason other than he was jealous he hadn't gone to the Fair.

I later became a Middle School teacher and made it a point to treat my students with respect and kindness. I never wanted any kid thinking of me the way my friends and I thought of "Cesspool."

[Rowdyboy]

11. My partner taught middle school for 8 years and he was a good teacher

but they wore him out completely. The stress level is incredible. He's been much happier since switching to high school.

[lady lib]

24. I had this seventh grade science teacher

who would waste huge amounts of time talking about his personal life, and then he'd look around the room in a thoughtful manner and say, "Yeah, there's dead wood in this class..."

He did this frequently. To this day I have no clue who the "dead wood" was (unless he was talking about the most obvious person - himself).

[AntiCoup2K4]

7. The fucking asshole Vice Principal!

I really don't know what the guy's problem was with me. I wasn't a major troublemaker, maybe got in two fights the entire time I was there, neither was my doing. Guy hated me so much he tried to hold me back from graduating 8th grade, just so he could keep me around another year. When that didn't work, he started taking shit out on my sister, who just happenned to start the next year. My parents (who of course never believed ME) finally went off on the asshole after that.

Several years later I worked at this Subway store in a strip mall and this 12 year old kid used to hang out all the time, as his parents owned another business in the mall. The kid was a wanna-be gangsta, so when he started whining about his problems with his teachers I just kind of laughed it off as typical pre-teen rebellion. "Yeah, and my Principal Mr Xxxxxxx,, that guy's such a fucking asshole...."

I said "What did you say his name was?"

He repeated it. It was my old VP

I said "Well OK that's different. He IS an asshole. and you can tell him I said so." :evilgrin:

[Rowdyboy]

12. LOL Cool! Some people never change.,...

[Sandpiper]

8. Everything

I wasn't one of the hopelessly unpopular people who were tormented mercilessly, but I hated Junior High School just the same.


I hated the classes

I hated the bus

I hated the goons and bullies that made everyone miserable

I hated the revolting cafeteria food



Worst of all, I had to spend an extra year in the wretched gulag. My family moved when I was about to start 8th grade. We went from a district that had a 6th-8th grade Middle School to one that had a 7th-9th grade Junior High.

[Rowdyboy]

13. I wasn't tormented mercilessly, but it was pretty bad...

We moved from a county school system to a city school system and the city "naturally" put me in a slow learners class where I stood out like a sore thumb. Want to make a class full of slow learners hate you? Try scoring 100 on an English test ans having the dumbass tacher tell everyone how proud she was of you.

Believe me, I was popular..... :sarcasm:

[lady lib]

17. I had the same problem with moving.

The exact same situation. Wow, I though I was the only person to spend part of 6th grade through 9th grade in junior high.

[lady lib]

15. Junior high was awful.

Where I lived the kids were soooo mean (Everybody: How mean were they?) They were so mean that I never once got on the school bus. I walked over a mile to and from school every day. Didn't matter if there was snow, 10 degree weather, rain, I walked. That's my sad story.

BTW, high school was great.

[khashka]

16. PE

I am so fucking unbelievably clumsy. I couldn't throw a ball to save my life. Or catch one.

So my PE teachers hated me. And I hated them. But I had a grudging respect for a couple of them. But... Grudging respect + Hard toned naked adult male body with a towel thrown over his shoulder (more than one of my coaches) + gay kid = Major Disaster. I once got lectured for an hour all alone with one of my coaches who was buck naked on the value of sportsmanship and PE. I couldn't tell you anything about PE or sportsmanship but I could describe his cock in excruciating detail.

I did have one good coach. He wasn't just a good athlete but a great teacher. He really inspired me to do my utmost - and I'll always love and respect him for that. He was actually pretty tough on us but he never expected us to be better than we were capable of being. Just the best we could be.And then to try to be a little better than that. And that meant so much to me - I swear to god I would have thrown myself in front of a train for him. I still have the report card from him : "He'll never be much of an athlete because he just doesn't have the talent for it, but he ought to because I've never seen anyone try so hard. I am very very proud of him."

Khash.

[Rowdyboy]

23. I almost choked at your words....

"I couldn't tell you anything about PE or sportsmanship but I could describe his cock in excruciating detail".

That line belongs in a short story, my friend. I don't remember our coaches showering with us, thank God and I don't recall seeing them naked. Maybe I just hated him so much I blacked it out.

Most of my most excruciating moments in middle school were in PE and quite a few in the locker room. How I'd love to go back, knowing what I know now, and fuck with them.

[khashka]

27. In that particular case....

The assistant coach kicked me out of PE and send me back to the lockerroom to be lectured on my willful ways by the real coach. Students and teachers had separate showers. When I got there I called out and he came out of the shower in a towel. I told him what I was supposed to tell him and he motioned me to follow him into the office. I followed him. After about two steps he dropped the towel. He had the most perfect ass I have ever seen to this day. At that moment I thought I was literally gonna die. But I managed to get to the office and he made me sit in a chair while he stood in front of me and lectured me. His cock was about eight inches from my face. Absolutely true story.

And yes I have used that particular memory in more than one short story.

Khash.

[AndyTiedye]

28. All the PE Teachers and Coaches I Had Were Worse Than Useless

I am so fucking unbelievably clumsy. I couldn't throw a ball to save my life. Or catch one.

I sure was when I was a kid. Only thing that seems to have improved
my coordination is lots and lots of dancing.

So my PE teachers hated me. And I hated them.

Those who can't teach, teach gym. You are very fortunate to have
met an exception (I never did):

I did have one good coach... He really inspired me to do my utmost - and I'll always love and respect him for that. He was actually pretty tough on us but he never expected us to be better than we were capable of being. Just the best we could be.And then to try to be a little better than that. And that meant so much to me - I swear to god I would have thrown myself in front of a train for him. I still have the report card from him : "He'll never be much of an athlete because he just doesn't have the talent for it, but he ought to because I've never seen anyone try so hard. I am very very proud of him."

Mine were always accusing me of not trying at all, and they would
do so in front of everybody else. All of the effort I put in was
completely invisible to them, because my reactions were so slow,
and my coordination was so bad, and did not improve with practice.

Thankfully, gym teachers in the schools I went to were not allowed
to give grades, let alone fail anyone. They were horrible enough
without that power.

There is way too much emphasis placed on sports. Parents think of it
as the perfect way to instill physical fitness, social skills,
leadership and discipline all at once in their kids. For athletic
kids, it may even work, but for those of us who have no athletic
abiity, it tends to backfire horribly, resulting in diminished self-
esteem and alienation. It can also turn the kid off of exercise
altogether. PE makes couch-potatoes out of millions of kids, by
instilling the idea that physical activity must always be competitive.
If you can't compete, it's better to watch others do it on TV.

If you want the kids to exercise, LET THEM DANCE!
Turn the lights down a bit, so the self-conscious ones can still
participate.
Lay down some nice psytrance and they'll get plenty of exercise!

[khashka]

32. Oh I agree with you

Apart from that one exception in junior high.... all mine were useless too. "Sportsmanship", "team playing" were merely codewords for "publicly mandated sadism".

In high school I got straight Ds in PE - not trying,etc. In my junior year I got an A in PE by just deciding not to even show up in class even once. So actually trying got me a D. Sitting in the boys bathroom, smoking pot and reading dirty books got me an A. Go figure.

Khash.

[AndyTiedye]

56. Your Gym Teacher Was Obviously Happy To Be Rid Of You

I never saw a gym "teacher" teach anybody anything, other than
to despise physical activity.

The natural athletes pick it all up instantly and instinctively,
so they ASSume that everybody who can't do that isn't trying.

Besides, to really teach physical education to kids with little or
no athletic ability would take a lot of work, and some creativity.

Given how badly I got along with gym teachers, I'm sure glad I
never had to deal with a drill instructor.
I woulda been Jason Tharped for sure.

[Radio_Lady]

18. Pimples (acne) that had to be treated by a dermatologist -- yuch!

But I ended up with no scars, unlike F. Murray Abraham, the actor -- and others.

[Behind the Aegis]

19. Hey, faggot!

I heard that WAY too many times in HS and JRHS (and I didn't even know what ones was). Also, because I am Jewish, the threats I had because I was a Jew. Even teachers teased me about being a "fag." So, that torture was very real for me. The physical scars (slit my wrists once) healed, some of the psychological ones are still very real.

[last_texas_dem]

20. If you're not atheletic, PE is total hell

First, you get to feel embarrassed everyday at your lack of athletic ability. You have to take shit from some of the better athletes, older kids in the class, and just the general assholes. Also, you get to change in front of everyone at the time in your life when your body is going through some of its most awkward stages.

Yeah, that's pretty damn close to hell.

(For me it sucked the most in sixth grade, which was junior high where I went to school. Luckily I didn't have to deal with it in high school because I was a bandnerd and got my PE credit by being in marching band.)

Honorable mention goes to getting bullied/harassed in general. In my case, this was the worst when I would start a new school- sixth and ninth grades 'cause the older kids always had to mess with me. The kids in my own class never bugged me much, but the older kids were always determined that I was a dork/loser and intent on proving this to me.

Also, having my dad be the principal for my three years of junior high wasn't too fun. There were, of course, a few benefits, but at the stage in your life when you're the most embarrassed you will ever be of your parents and mostly want to avoid them, having one of them be the principal of your school isn't all that it's cracked up to be!

[ghostsofgiants]

21. PE for sure

I'm not exactly athletic.

To quote Mitch Hedberg: If I had athlete's foot, my first reaction would be "that's not my fucking foot!"

[taught_me_patience]

22. not just the "morning wood"

the "24 hour wood"

[Rowdyboy]

25. LOL....You're right, but-in my particular case,-first period was always

absolute WORST! The locker room could be hell, but 1st period was hell squared!

[LeftyMom]

26. People who wanted to tease me about my looks

I was a bit flatchested partly because I was younger than most of my classmates, and partly because I'm still rather lacking in the breast department. I had pimples, but no more than most kids that age. I wasn't a bad looking kid, but for some reason I took a lot of teasing. It really got to me, and it took me a long time to realize I wasn't ugly. Actually, I'm pretty good looking, but to be honest a part of me still doesn't believe that.

I wasn't athletic, so PE wasn't great, but my other teachers all liked me because I was a smart kid. For some reason, I got stuck on the track with all the ESL kids and the poor kids (I think that's why I was assigned there) and the dumb kids. (It was a year round school, and all the tracks were supposed to be educationally equivalent, just with different vacation schedules, but there was an obvious stratification in what kids went on which track.) As a result, I got away with a lot of shit because my teachers were thrilled to have a kid who was smart and understood the lesson.

Thankfully I didn't have to ride the bus, I lived real close to school. I can only imagine the chaos of 60 jr high kids crammed in close quarters with effectively no adult supervision.

I went on my first dates with a boy I'd been friends with for years. I had no idea that our being of different races would be a *big fucking deal* but apparently it was. Sadly, I couldn't deal with the shit I was taking over it and used some bullshit excuse to break up with him, effectively ruining our friendship. I think that's the thing I'm saddest about, because he's a nice guy and I worry about him because last I heard he was in the Marines.

[Rowdyboy]

40. Young teens egos are so vunerable its incredible.....

I dated a girl early in high school who once told me "Do the women of the world a favor-stay off the dance floor". So I did-for nearly 20 years. The next time I danced it was with a man in a gay club and I was slf-assured enough to know that nobody gave a damn how I looked.

[preciousdove]

29. Kneeling in homeroom to check the lengh of skirts

:hippie:

[no_hypocrisy]

30. Having a "secret" crush on a boy, having the secret discovered by

by a gaggle of "mean girls", and having that secret revealed to the object of my admiration/adoration, and having the entire school laugh at my overreaching beyong what I "deserved", including the boy.

[scarlet_owl]

31. I have IBS, which was worse when I was young.

It can be a very embarassing problem for an adolescent girl. And it was every damn day, too.

[SarahB]

33. The game-playing crap.

I was never bullied or picked on, but I dealt with a bit of snide crap from other girls and unwanted sexual harassment (I'm a pretty relaxed person with a sense of humor, but when it came to 1/2 the football team shouting, "Hey, tits!" at me when I walked down the hall, I drew the line there.) I just didn't fit. I could have fit if I played the game better, but I chose not to. I wanted to actually think for myself.

Those initial broken heart things pretty much sucked too. :(

[dolo amber]

34. Honestly? Nothing.

I had plenty of teachers do the "you're lazy, you don't apply yourself" blah blah blah, but socially I was pretty insulated in my little not-popular-not-unpopular group. If people talked shit about us, we either didn't know or didn't care...:shrug:

[Rowdyboy]

41. You were very, very lucky

Re-reading this thread has brought back tons of memories to me-most of the unpleasant. No amount of money could tempt me to relive middle school.

[dolo amber]

47. Man, no kidding

If this thread is any indication...yikes. :scared:

I'm sorry you guys had to go through so much foolishness. :(

[Patiod]

35. Being tall, skinny and flat-chested

in the days before thin was "hot".

Having elderly parents who would allow me to wear jeans to school, wear make-up or pierce my ears (you can hide jeans and make-up in your locker, but kids can spot "clippies" from 5 rows behind you on the bus)

[Richardo]

36. I had some pretty bad acne 'til my senior year of HS

I was shy to begin with, but that made me even MORE self-conscious.

[jswordy]

37. i liked school. PE was hard for me at that time, but I liked it overall.

There really is no cataegory where I can vote there.

[Tsiyu]

38. We moved from Upstate NY to Jacksonville Fla before seventh

In New York, my middle school had a planetarium and tennis courts; in Jax, they were forced to start bussing for integration, so I began attending a school way across town that was rundown and old and I thought I'd been sent to hell.

Turns out, I made some real, true friends in that old school, but my parents freaked when a psycho busdriver held our bus hostage one afternoon so she sent me to live with my aunt where I would attend a huge new "Whitey" public school. Where I was promptly treated like shit because I didn't have cool, overpriced clothes.

I was so miserable, I smarted off one too many times to my mom, so she pulled me back out of Whitey school and I, relieved, was bussed across town again. The next few years I went to a closer Junior High and my worst problem was one History teacher who needed serious therapy.

My experience wasn't too bad in the scheme of things.

[truthbetold]

39. Middle school was hell.

I was brutally tortured by the other kids from probably 4th grade to 8th grade because I was going through an awkward phase and it definitely showed.
Chubby, big old glasses, horrible clothes...needless to say, I was a favorite target of the so-called "popular people."
I was even put into a "low self-esteem class" because by 7th grade I'd been put through so much crap by my classmates that I stopped talking altogether. And of course my self-esteem was miraculously improved by being put into a class with all the rest of the so-called freaks. :sarcasm:
It's ok though, because I grew into my face, thinned out, and I didn't need $100 jeans or a fake tan to do it.
:)

[Rowdyboy]

43. I was placed in all slow learners classes in 8th grade when we moved

and I had to change schools. The new school wrongly assumed that because my previous school been in the county, that I would need remedial help. I got stuck in with thugs, bullies and people who hated school and hated me because I got good grades. It got so bad I would deliberately do bad on tests just so as to not stand out...

I beat the bastards too. I wound up with a degree, a professional career, and, now, a partner that I adore. Now, most of them are either dead, in jail, or stuck in shitty jobs with alimony, child support and ex-wives to deal with.

If any of them bother to vote, I'll bet they're Republican.

[Trigger Hippie]

42. One of my middle school

bullies actually ended up working with me at one of my most recent jobs. When I saw her I freaked out. I guess bad school experiences never leave you.

:hi:

[Rowdyboy]

49. Which proves that it pays to treat people decently....

You just never know who will wind up signing your timesheet.

[Chovexani]

44. All of the above

And the sad thing is, it was just the warmup for the hell I went through in high school.

I can still hear those popular assholes shouting "hey dyke" at me, ten years later. :cry:

[Left Is Write]

45. I weighed 69 pounds. I had bad skin. I wore ugly glasses.

I was quiet and bookish, a "brain."

I was mercilessly tortured by a girl named Susan for two straight years (7th and 8th grade).

[Mutley]

46. Everything on that list was a problem for me

except, ahem, morning wood, since I am a female. But anyway...

The worst memory of middle school was that my dad insisted that I take pre-Algebra in 7th grade. Now, I know this sounds like he was helping me and he was, and I'm sure I ended up better off because of it. But here's the problem. I have always been horrible at math and before this class I had never so much as heard of a variable and it took me FOREVER to understand the concept of replacing numbers with letters.

Most of the kids in that class were advanced math students and I ended up being the "dumb" one. The worst part was that the teacher insisted on having me come up to the board to solve a problem nearly every day. I would just stand there dumbfounded, embarrassed, and humiliated, and this would only make my mind go completely blank so what little I knew about solving the problems was GONE!

And now I'm an English major... go figure.

[Rowdyboy]

50. I usually had my (ahem) "teenage boy problem" in 1st period Algebra

invariably when I was called to the board to do a problem. Maybe that IS why I wound up a history major.

[Taverner]

48. Attending a Fundamentalist Xian School

And going through puberty at the same time.

And I use Xian , because followers of Christ they were not.

[Rowdyboy]

55. Oh, man, that must have added insult to injury

As hellacious as my experience was, I can't imagine a church run middle school! You have my respect for surviving.

[sister_rosa_refried]

51. Trina Fitzpatrick.

She sucked. Or at least that was the rummor around campus.

[Dervill Crow]

52. PE plus lack of social life.

I skipped PE regularly and went to my best friend's Home Ec class because I had nothing else to do. How sad is that?

[annonymous]

53. So many things sucked for me in junior high.

I was below average height for my age throughout junior high school which caused me major problems in gym. Plus since I was small enough to go behind the bleachers I got stuck with getting everybody's dropped stuff some of which was dropped on purpose. My mother sewed a lot of my clothes because I was so skinny so other kids gave me hell about my less than fashionable wardrobe. My parents refused to let me buy lunch except on special ocassions so I got razzed about some of the strange stuff my mom put in my lunch bag such as peanut butter and marmalade sandwiches on homemade bread. Sometimes kids would steal my lunch so I ended up going hungry.

[sakabatou]

54. Teachers from hell

[Shrubhater]

57. Bad teachers and authority figures.

:scared: Thank god middle school's over! Too one-sided, always accusing you of something rediculus and false, having a "I'm right, you're wrong, my way or the highway" attitude. Although my math and science teachers were good. Be sure to add that!

[El Fuego]

58. I loved junior high

We were just a bunch of kids having fun, all the time. Every day was a blast. Then came high school, and suddenly there's all this pressure to be cool, smoke, have sex, do drugs etc. I wanted to go back to junior high.

[redqueen]

59. You want I should write you a book?

I'll go with just one incident...

Sitting on the sidelines in PE, had a guy come up and make a nasty remark inquiring about my genitalia. I went off on him, and the FEMALE coach scolded ME... nothing was done to the asshole, of course.

:wtf:

[tsakshaug]

60. nothing real bad

went to a small 7-12 school, was playing Varsity basketball and track in 7th grade, so had friends in the upper grades. No bully problems because I was bigger then them, socially I was more unaware and uncaring about status than anything. PE was fun, but can understand what you all are saying. Only problem was english class, having undiagnosed dsylexia made it difficult, but made it through.