Can you pinpoint the moment when you ceased to be a naive child who blindly believed everything he was told, and grew into an astute young person who weighed things up in his own sizable mind? I can.It's 1988. Year 5. Apparently as part of the curriculum, the class must do some kind of strange hybrid of dance, singing and exercise. We move the desks out of the way, my teacher puts an old battered tape into an old crap tape recorder, and we dance, sing, and do star jumps to the classics.
Actually, I can only remember doing two songs. Over and over and over. The first is Bungalow Bill by The Beatles. A nice little left of centre choice. The second, that little beauty by Abba, Waterloo.
But as we all sung along to Waterloo, sweating and puffing, I slowly came to realise that my teacher was actually singing 'Wallerloo, Wallerloo!'
At first I thought I must be mistaken, but there was no mistaking it. Wallerloo. He must have thought the song was not about The Battle of Waterloo, as most would assume, but rather about some fantastical Australian marsupial that only existed in his crazy school teacher mind.
Anyway, to the Coming of Age bit. One day I confronted my teacher after class. 'Isn't that song called Waterloo, sir?' I didn't ask with attitude, but remained respectful of his authority. It was an honest question.
'No', he said crossly. 'It's Wallerloo. The song's called Wallerloo.'
'But what is a wallerloo, sir?' I implored.
'IT'S WALLERLOO!', he said firmly, and turned his back on me.
And so in this moment, my friends, crumbled the thin veil between boy and man, the loud penny drop of the fact that people are often far more clueless than any human has any right to be.
Anyway, to the Coming of Age bit. One day I confronted my teacher after class. 'Isn't that song called Waterloo, sir?' I didn't ask with attitude, but remained respectful of his authority. It was an honest question.
'No', he said crossly. 'It's Wallerloo. The song's called Wallerloo.'
'But what is a wallerloo, sir?' I implored.
'IT'S WALLERLOO!', he said firmly, and turned his back on me.
And so in this moment, my friends, crumbled the thin veil between boy and man, the loud penny drop of the fact that people are often far more clueless than any human has any right to be.
4 comments:
I had a similar experience - year 6 Ms Lodwick's class. I corrected her setence structure in a dictation and when she marked it, boy was she MAD. She yelled at me in front of the class (she was pregnant at the time, so possibly hormonal) and said, "so do you think you know better than adults when it comes to grammar, hmmm?"
But the thing is, I was right.
how annoying! Do you remember what the error was?
no, sadly. Keep smiling at the thought of enthusiastic male teacher singing "WALL-ERLOO!"
Yes, it's a nice mental image. Picture a gangly man with big black curley hair and a big black beard, star-jumping while singing it.
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