When in school did you know someone like this?

[Cainkane1]

When I was in grammar school there was a 15 year old boy who sat in 5th grade. His name was Jimmy. Jimmy couldn't read. Not even slightly. Every tooth in his head was blackened with rot. He wore the same clothes everyday and he was as mean and low down as they came. He was a bully and I often wonder why he was allowed to stay in school with so many kids much younger and weaker than him. Age 16 rolled around and I never saw him again. Like I said he was mean and it was difficult to feel sorry for him.

Anyone in here ever know a person like him?

[billydkid]

Half the people I went to school with fit Jimmy's description.

[YSM]

It sounds like Jimmy had no one in his life that gave a crap about him, so he was rightfully pissed off, but wrongly took it out on other people.

[Safe-Keeper]

Disastrous. No one took him to the dentist, changed his clothes, or, in 10+ years, taught him how to read?! Makes me wonder what kind of system allows such maltreatment of children to happen.

[Blackadder]

Little house on the prairie.

teacher needed a bull whip to hold the bullies in check

[Safe-Keeper]

Like I said he was mean and it was difficult to feel sorry for him.
I know the feeling, I've known plenty of people like that myself. Complete grade A annoyances, but looking back you realized how much their lives had to suck.

[Cainkane1]

The system was sink or swim. Jimmy sank. In hindsight I feel a bit sorry for him.

[Soapy Sam]

I remember a few in primary school (aged 11) who could neither read nor write.

Can't say I ever met a 15 year old in the school system who couldn't.
That probably has to do with school selection / streaming systems.
Or maybe by 15 they were all on management fast tracks.

[I Ratant]

There was such a kid in Virginia when I was in high school.
14 years old, in the 4th grade.
The law said he had to stay in school until 15, when he planned to quit.
I would expect after all this time he left school, did something stupid (sure never learned how to do anything smart) and spent the rest of his life in and out of jail.

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

Yes, there was someone similar in my high school. He was eight years older than me and still in school. I didn't know him personally, but I recognised him when I saw him one night kicking a woman down the street. I was fifteen, and half his size, but I went outside and told him to stop. When the woman told me to mind my own business, I was disgusted with her and left her to her fate. I don't know what ever became of her, but I do wish now that I would have called the police. I think of it now, and I could have shot him. I knew where the rifle was, and I'm a good shot. I'd have been out of prison in three years.

Well, he's not only still alive, but he's quite well-to-do, and lives in a big house, with all the toys, and from what I hear always has two women on his arm, even though he's old and fat and ugly. I hear now when he gets into bar fights he gets whipped though, so that's a small victory, I suppose.

[Travis]

Nope. I don't recall anyone like that in my schools growing up. We didn't really have any bullies, illiterate or not, that I can recall.

[Beerina]

While not quite that bad, there was one kid in my kindergarten class who just couldn't learn the danged days of the week. He was the last one to learn them, by a whole week yet, and our class lost to the next door one because of it.

Then, I was mad. Now I'm just sad at what was his probable home state.

[Geezer]

Nope...but then I didn't go to school in the south.










Just kidding please don't kill me! :D

[ToddH]

I remember in middle school there was a guy like that. He was the only student I never knew that was old enough to actually drive to middle school. I think he ended up in prison if I'm not mistaken.

[cbish]

What year was this? Forget that, what century was this?

A 15 year old in the 5th grade? I've been in education for over 20 years. I've never heard of such a thing.

I know there are students that have bad home lives, bad health/hygiene, and low academics but they would be placed somewhere near their peer group in Special Ed. classes. You can go to High School until your 21 here.

Your experiences are incredible to me.

[I Ratant]

In 1954, in Virginia, there were no "Special Ed" classes for the willing underachievers. (Or anyone else.)
The guy I mentioned was content to be the biggest boy in the 4th grade.

[Cainkane1]

What year was this? Forget that, what century was this?

A 15 year old in the 5th grade? I've been in education for over 20 years. I've never heard of such a thing.

I know there are students that have bad home lives, bad health/hygiene, and low academics but they would be placed somewhere near their peer group in Special Ed. classes. You can go to High School until your 21 here.

Your experiences are incredible to me.
This was Clayton county Georgia circa 1958.

[Cainkane1]

What year was this? Forget that, what century was this?

A 15 year old in the 5th grade? I've been in education for over 20 years. I've never heard of such a thing.

I know there are students that have bad home lives, bad health/hygiene, and low academics but they would be placed somewhere near their peer group in Special Ed. classes. You can go to High School until your 21 here.

Your experiences are incredible to me.
Also he wasn't actually in the fifth grade. He was just sitting in the classroom and doing nothing.

[sackett]

Well, we had Bob. He exhibited most of the stigmata of Downs Syndrome, although I don't think he was ever diagnosed. I last saw Bob when he was a sophomore in high school. He was 23.

Rural school districts in the 50s didn't have many options for dealing with sad cases. Some districts still don't, I suspect. Then too, in small communities where everybody knows everybody else, indivdual principals and teachers can make exceptions out of compassion. I emphasize individuals, because, as we all know, institutions are incapable of compassion.

[cbish]

Rural school districts in the 50s didn't have many options for dealing with sad cases. Some districts still don't, I suspect. Then too, in small communities where everybody knows everybody else, indivdual principals and teachers can make exceptions out of compassion. I emphasize individuals, because, as we all know, institutions are incapable of compassion.This makes much more sense. I failed to ask if this was a rural school.

[Darth Rotor]

When I was in grammar school there was a 15 year old boy who sat in 5th grade. His name was Jimmy. Jimmy couldn't read. Not even slightly. Every tooth in his head was blackened with rot. He wore the same clothes everyday and he was as mean and low down as they came. He was a bully and I often wonder why he was allowed to stay in school with so many kids much younger and weaker than him. Age 16 rolled around and I never saw him again. Like I said he was mean and it was difficult to feel sorry for him.

Anyone in here ever know a person like him?
If you want to reconnect with him, he's now a moderator on the JREF forums. Head over to FM sub forum. :jaw-dropp




*Gawd, did I really do that?*

[Seismosaurus]

Anyone in here ever know a person like him?

I'm a teacher. I see kids like that *frequently*.

[Morrigan]

No. And in our elementary school system there was a maximum age of 13 or 14, I think. Students who repeated grades so often would get sent to classes for "special" kids.

I was about to say, "wow, I knew the American public school system was terrible but this is too much" but then you added it was in the fifties, so I can't really use that in consideration.

[Cainkane1]

Nope. I don't recall anyone like that in my schools growing up. We didn't really have any bullies, illiterate or not, that I can recall.
How lucky can you get.

[Alt+F4]

I'm a teacher. I see kids like that *frequently*.

As do I, now. In large school districts such as New York or Los Angeles kids enter high school everyday being 100% totally illiterate. Most of these kids come from either Guyana (where it seems there is no functioning public school system) or remote villages in the Dominician Republic.

[shemp]

There were dozens of people like that in my school. But they were teachers.

[Monketey Ghost]

I knew a Jimmy in grade school, when I got picked on by him. Went crying to my ma, and she told me straight: Don't come crying to me, expecting me to solve this for you. Hit him in the nose next time he hits you, and make sure he knows it'll happen again, every time.

I pulled a full-on Ralphie on the guy, and he stayed away from me after that. He moved on to other kids who never fought back. (ETA this was in a Catholic school. Man, they didn't give a **** what went on during recess out in the yard.)

He was from a troubled home, that much was clear. One day we heard that he was moving, and that he was really upset, as he didn't want to move away from his friends (whoever they were)... he walked out of class one day, *snap!* into the lot in front of all the classrooms, and everyone watched as he began punching a lamp-post.

A teacher went out to try to stop him, and he swung her around like she was made of paper. He was ganged up by a bunch of teachers then, and I don't believe we ever saw him again.

[Monketey Ghost]

There were dozens of people like that in my school. But they were teachers.

If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

Stand still, Laddie!