Childhood Humiliation

[tickledkitty]

Our daughter is in the Nutcracker and has to dance with a boy this year. She hasn't actually met said boy yet, but she's very concerned, of course.

My hubby and I were discussing it earlier and ended up talking about doing square dancing in grade school gym class, which we both hated, of course. Honestly, I don't believe it served any purpose but to humiliate the entire class. The popular kids only wanted to dance with other popular kids, and there were always a couple kids nobody wanted to touch because they had cooties or whatever.

So, did y'all have to do it too, or was it a special treat reserved for this area? What other public humiliation did you face as a child?

 

[TheeGoatPig]

We had square dancing in grade school. And I was one of the cootie kids that no one wanted to touch. I still don't know how to dance.

 

[tickledkitty]

We had square dancing in grade school. And I was one of the cootie kids that no one wanted to touch. I still don't know how to dance.

Were you one of the boys who would spin the girls too hard and make them fall? That's what generally happened to me. Oh, and I don't think anybody learned to dance from that.

 

[Safe_Bet]

Our daughter is in the Nutcracker and has to dance with a boy this year. She hasn't actually met said boy yet, but she's very concerned, of course.

My hubby and I were discussing it earlier and ended up talking about doing square dancing in grade school gym class, which we both hated it, of course. Honestly, I don't believe it served any purpose but to humiliate the entire class. The popular kids only wanted to dance with other popular kids, and there were always a couple kids nobody wanted to touch because they had cooties or whatever.

So, did y'all have to do it too, or was it a special treat reserved for this area? What other public humiliation did you face as a child?

Muahahaha! I though I was the only unfortunate soul to bear the shame of having to learn square dancing is grade school! Doesy Doe my ass! God I hated that shit! Swing THIS you old closet dyke! No kid should be forced to learn that crap!
(God it felt good to let that out after all these years!)

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I loved it! There was one girl, Karla, and I who would always dance together because we swung harder than everyone else. Two sixth graders playing merry-go-round to hoedown music. A complete hoot!

Pity that she moved away the next year. In a couple of more years we could have been playing other things . . .

 

[fieryjen]

We had something of the sort in music class, in sixth or seventh grade or so.

I never had anyone who wanted to dance with me either. Everyone had to sign up as a "couple" to perform for grades, and then me and another girl who had been left had to pick two boys who had already danced. Since none of the boys were that keen on dancing again, we got even more hatred from the two we picked.

At least I got the satisfaction of getting the only A in the bunch, since I have excellent rhythm. That was a two-edged sword too though, because at least having poor rhythm and being a crappy dancer would have been a reason for not getting picked that I could have lived with much more easily.

I do love dancing, and I think it should have some part in PE class though.

 

[tickledkitty]

Muahahaha! I though I was the only unfortunate soul to bear the shame of having to learn square dancing is grade school! Doesy Doe my ass! God I hated that shit! Swing THIS you old closet dyke! No kid should be forced to learn that crap!
(God it felt good to let that out after all these years!)

I wonder if it's still part of the curriculum?

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Were you one of the boys who would spin the girls too hard and make them fall? That's what generally happened to me. Oh, and I don't think anybody learned to dance from that.

No, I ws the one that didn't alway have a partner because no one wanted to go near me in the first place

 

[tickledkitty]

No, I ws the one that didn't alway have a partner because no one wanted to go near me in the first place

I'm sorry.

You weren't the only one. Trust me.

 

[tickledkitty]

I do love dancing, and I think it should have some part in PE class though.

Yeah, I agree. Maybe not dancing with a partner though?

 

[rgraham666]

No, I ws the one that didn't alway have a partner because no one wanted to go near me in the first place

Moi aussi.

I hated school, every aspect of it from the minute I crossed the school boundary to the moment I left it, bleeding and bruised more often than not.

 

[fieryjen]

Yeah, I agree. Maybe not dancing with a partner though?

Yes, definitely. There is plenty of dancing you don't need a partner for. That should be included.

Or, they can do it like at my old dancing school do the kind of partner switching that doesn't make anyone feel left out, and everybody gets to sit out once in a while - "everyone walk three people to your left and dance with that person", and all that. It was also utterly forbidden to refuse to dance with someone unless you were physically unable to dance at all.

 

[glynndah]

I was perpetually the new kid and since the cliques were firmly established, I never got picked. And since I literally can't tell my right from my left, even if I was picked, I never got picked again.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Yes, definitely. There is plenty of dancing you don't need a partner for. That should be included.

Or, they can do it like at my old dancing school do the kind of partner switching that doesn't make anyone feel left out, and everybody gets to sit out once in a while - "everyone walk three people to your left and dance with that person", and all that. It was also utterly forbidden to refuse to dance with someone unless you were physically unable to dance at all.

A good rule, that. Karla and I managed to circumvent it somehow. The details are lost in the mists of time.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm not sure whether I should admit this...

At my infants school I wore blackface with an Afro wig, a sequinned waistcoat and bow tie to sing:

"Coon" songs.

At my preparatory school (junior) school the teachers had a problem. I was much larger than my contemporaries and there was no part for a "giant" in their production of Peter Pan. Their solution?

I stood off-stage in the wings and acted as an invisible Tinkerbell, ringing a bell on cue.

At my boys-only boarding school I still had a reasonable treble voice but again I was larger than my contemporaries and although only in the first form I was playing in the House Rugby team. I was given the part of understudy to all of the Three Little Maids in the Mikado and the music department hoped and prayed that I wouldn't be needed. I was much taller and heftier than any of the male leads. Their prayers were rewarded. I stayed in the wings adding volume to the "female" choruses.

I hated all three productions.

Og

 

[Xelebes]

I junior high, we learned the polka, polonaise, cotton-eyed joe, cadillac ranch, waltz, electric slide, jive, allemande, two-step and maybe one or two other ones. I like the polka.

 

[Boxlicker101]

In high school, I was big and clumsy and painfully shy, and I had to steel myself to ask some girl to dance. Since I was so dorky, none of them wanted to, and they always avoided me, which made it even worse.

 

[JagFarlane]

I do love dancing, and I think it should have some part in PE class though.

Hmmmm during elementary school we actually would do dances for PE class. The one I remember mostly though was the electric slide. The songs were generally over a decade old but hey, we had fun.

 

[starrkers]

We did ballroom dancing.

In my final year of primary school there was a farewell dance for those going on to high school. We had to dance the Pride of Erin. There were more girls than boys in sixth class, so some year 5 boys were roped in. I had to dance with one of them.

In high school the tradition continued. On the call of "choose your partners", there was always a rush of boys sprinting across the gym for the popular girls and then the race losers moving down the list of popularity.

After the first couple of times, when even my male mates ignored me, I didn't even bother standing in the group. I knew I'd end up with one of three partners - the obnoxious smelly guy, the unco-ordinated guy who always trod on your feet, or the guy with warts on his hands.

And it was either "You'll do" or the teacher calling "Who's left?".

I fucking hated it.

 

[Munachi]

we didn't dance in gym class, but gym class in itself was a 13-year-long public humiliation. i was never good at sports, and the whole class was geared at being good, getting good grades, and the athletic kids showing off. in math or other classes at least when you are bad at it, mainly the teacher notices, and the others only notice the few times you get called to the front of the class - in gym class everyone sees how bad you are, all the time. and then the teacher wanted to do us a favour and let us play volleyball - which i was always bad at, so i got picked last for a team, and shouted at when my team lost...

interestingly, a few years after graduation from school i found out that i don't actually dislike sports - i go rock climbing several times per week now, and while i am still not good at it, because i am not good at sports, i do enjoy it a lot, and slowly progress... somehow gym class at least at my school very much failed at giving those not so athletic kids like me a chance to find out that sport can be fun, even if you aren't the best at it...

anyway, if we had had to dance in gym class too, that would have been even worse for me, i suppose...

 

[Boxlicker101]

We did ballroom dancing.

In my final year of primary school there was a farewell dance for those going on to high school. We had to dance the Pride of Erin. There were more girls than boys in sixth class, so some year 5 boys were roped in. I had to dance with one of them.

In high school the tradition continued. On the call of "choose your partners", there was always a rush of boys sprinting across the gym for the popular girls and then the race losers moving down the list of popularity.

After the first couple of times, when even my male mates ignored me, I didn't even bother standing in the group. I knew I'd end up with one of three partners - the obnoxious smelly guy, the unco-ordinated guy who always trod on your feet, or the guy with warts on his hands.

And it was either "You'll do" or the teacher calling "Who's left?".

I fucking hated it.

If we had been in school together, we'd have probably ended up stuck with each other.

 

[starrkers]

If we had been in school together, we'd have probably ended up stuck with each other.

Probably - we would've made the right type of pair for that group - you say you were big, I was tiny and geeky and uncoordinated.

The last picked group formed a kind of "Losers Alliance" - we had something in common, we all hated this shit and really hated having our unpopularity paraded so prominently.

 

[jomar]

Ha! I remember square dancing in sixth grade. I always tried to be in the group with a certain girl. I could tell she liked me because she would kick me in the shins.

 

[fieryjen]

we didn't dance in gym class, but gym class in itself was a 13-year-long public humiliation. i was never good at sports, and the whole class was geared at being good, getting good grades, and the athletic kids showing off. in math or other classes at least when you are bad at it, mainly the teacher notices, and the others only notice the few times you get called to the front of the class - in gym class everyone sees how bad you are, all the time. and then the teacher wanted to do us a favour and let us play volleyball - which i was always bad at, so i got picked last for a team, and shouted at when my team lost...

interestingly, a few years after graduation from school i found out that i don't actually dislike sports - i go rock climbing several times per week now, and while i am still not good at it, because i am not good at sports, i do enjoy it a lot, and slowly progress... somehow gym class at least at my school very much failed at giving those not so athletic kids like me a chance to find out that sport can be fun, even if you aren't the best at it...

anyway, if we had had to dance in gym class too, that would have been even worse for me, i suppose...

PE at my school was so focused on Track and Field type sports. Was it this way for you too? It was all about running fast, and jumping, and occasionally throwing, but mostly about running. And occasionally playing indoor volleyball.

I was a slow runner, and I was always majorly pissed off that our teacher (who was a major asshole, and I had him for years and in four different subjects, too) assigned grades by the times we ran. It was so blatantly unfair, and if I was the person then that I am now, I would have made major complaints. But I was just quiet and resigned to always being the last to finish and scraping by with a D in PE despite all my efforts.

I was amazed when I found out the high school I attended for a year in the US had all sorts of sports as a part of PE - including dancing. I, as well, found out which sports I liked after high school - I'm pretty decent at Rugby, and I've always been a really good dancer. I even managed to have some fun with volleyball after the fact that everyone could play it better than me stopped being shoved down my throat.

Swimming was another drama altogether. Don't get me started. *shudders*

I think it would be nice if they did more along the lines of "Try this sport out", maybe also gave theory grades for learning the rules of different sports, and otherwise graded more on the basis of enthusiasm, willingness to try new things, and improving.

Sorry, that's degraded into something utterly off-topic, but I felt like ranting. I'm so glad I don't have to do high school PE anymore.

 

[Saucy_Sage]

We did square dancing too, of course. After we lined up alphabetically, by height D), we had to dance with the partner opposite us. We complained, of course, and the gym teachers had their fun by telling us they would play any music we like if the boys asked the girls opposite them to dance.

Back to square dancing! That was junior high, I think.