this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
814 points (98.6% liked)

Greentext

4483 readers
1803 users here now

This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

Be warned:

If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Early_To_Risa
814
Anon likes sharpners (i.ibb.co)
submitted 9 months ago by Gullible to c/greentext
56 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

[typos preserved]

>be me
>4th grade
>bring 3 sharpners to school
>friend tells me thats a lot of sharpners
>bring 3 more sharpners the next day >friend gives me his sharpner to grow my collection
>start collecting more and more sharpners
>go to stationary every week to by more sharpners
>collect about 70 sharpners by the end of the month
>start bringing a tiny bag to carry thoes sharpner
>english teacher asks for a sharpner
>offer her the bag thinking she'd be impressed
>sees all my sharpners and writes a note to my parents
>only allowed to bring 1 sharpner
>idea.jpg
>make a huge sharpner out of cardboard
>dad helps me to color it with red and silver spray paint
>display it on my table during the english period
>get sent to the office

fun days

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 130 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Eng teacher missed the opportunity to bring a giant pencil

[–] [email protected] 74 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Besides, why do they only allow for one sharpener? Seems like a complete bullshit for the sake of forcing compliance

[–] [email protected] 100 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

School often represses creativity in favor of compliance.

Doesn't have to have a reason. The teacher finds something strange, you are punished. Think of blonde hair in Japanese schools.

In my parents' times, going to school in jeans was forbidden (in center Europe).

[–] [email protected] 58 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Yup. Because schools primarily serve to create workers. Actual education is merely permitted when it does not interfere with the main aim of creating workers

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

It's an industrial era system in the 21st century. What could possibly go ~~wrong~~ right?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I don't think teachers are thinking about creating workers. They just apply the way they were raised.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago

But applying without thinking doesn't mean that it doesn't serve a purpose, it just means they don't know what the purpose is

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Not on Lemmy, here everything bad is because of capitalism, humans would be perfect if they hadn't bitten into the capitalism apple.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Anon was probably a smartass about it and the teacher made a new rule instead of dealing with it in some other way. Him making that giant sharpener is additional evidence of that

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It probably is true. Still, that's a shitty way of dealing with matters in school

[–] merde 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

how many kids are there in her class? how much time does she have for each kid. Is this "need for attention" an exception or does our "be me" has a list of creative endeavors this teacher had to deal with already?

Are teachers well paid in this society?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

The last point is what's important, plus understaffing. When we did an educational project for kids on a non-commercial basis we had about one adult per four kids, so everyone got the attention needed. The official requirement is one adult per ten or fifteen if I remember correctly, which is outrageously not enough

Besides, I get it, the extremes look very simple, if the class has 40 kids and everyone demands lots of attention that's gonna be 40 lots of attention. But in reality if the students are sampled randomly into the class, their need for attention will be different, and only a few are going to demand lots really. And that's under the assumption that anon here was attention seeking, not just a person that didn't like meaningless rules imposed out of nowhere

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I had two teachers like that. 4th and 5th grade.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

My English teacher tried to flunk me in Jr. High

[–] [email protected] 88 points 9 months ago

Now that’s some quality father son bonding

[–] [email protected] 76 points 9 months ago (2 children)

A good prank harms no one.

A+ kid, well done.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

Good on Dad for helping out too

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

F to the teacher

[–] [email protected] 62 points 9 months ago (3 children)

The teacher missed an opportunity to encourage the anon, “Oh anon how kind of you to carry around enough sharpeners to share with those who don’t have any, thank you!” That said 70 is a lot, I just hate when teachers only see the negative side of things and punish kids for stupid reasons.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Teacher saw something they thought was stupid. They made a power play. Saw kid work around it and took it personally. Asserted limited authority.

Being a teacher is a tough job. Thing is, just like with therapy: If you've reached the point where you're going to throw around that authority willy-nilly, you are no longer a leader, you're a bully. Fuck off and work somewhere else.

Course this may not be the whole story. Could be the kid had been a nuisance for months before this point with the sharpie bag being the excuse a child's mind would focus on when other behaviors were the real cause.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Yes, you are correct on all points. But even if there were prior issues encouraging words can turn things around, no reason to discourage and frustrate children over something small.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, it feels that punishments like these are just to force conformance. How dare you do something childishly funny as a child!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

I'm pretty sure "ensuring conformance" was listed in the discipline section of the handbook at a school I went to as a kid. They viewed it explicitly as their duty.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Tar_alcaran 58 points 9 months ago (1 children)

True pettyness is its own reward

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 41 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I've always held a sliver of hope that the Principal knew which teachers were full of shit and sending kids to their office just because they're bad teachers.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

They might know, but usually they’re too busy to do much about it outside of extraordinary circumstances

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I knew a guy in high school that would use the blades from sharpeners and pen ink to give himself tattoos. They were about as good as you can imagine.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Bet he grew up to have a successful career in prison.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

I lost touch, but it seems likely.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Possibly as a laser tattoo removal specialist?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I once, fatefully, wondered what would happen if I sharpened my little finger (it fit so well) and now I can't even look at the damn things. Anyway, now you have you think about that too. Tbf the way the nail peeled was briefly very satisfying before it went too far...

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've never cringed so hard that I puckered my lips until today. This was worse than the concept of nailclippers on teeth.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

You could've stopped before that last sentence...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure I once or twice tried sharpening my nail, but I never went too far.

On the other hand (pun intended) I once got the end of my fing the pinched between the pneumatic cylinder and the thing it was actuating. There was a bit of a clearance so it didn't flatten my digit, but it left a good amount of blood under my fingernail, which hurt a lot. A friend advised me to grab a small drill bit and put a hole into the nail so the pressure is relieved, but it didn't want to go through... Until it bit in and I drove it maybe a millimeter into my flesh. That hurt even more... But after a while it got way better.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Oooooof. The skin under your nails is not meant to see the light of day and it shows. That shit is sensitive.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Thanks for ruining my day! =D

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Just buy one quality sharpener that isn't shit and will last

As someone who parents kept buying cheap sharpners every few years I hate cheap sharpners because they often break the tips of pencils and get jammed unless you apply a amount of force that starts to get uncomfortable if done for a while

[–] merde 15 points 9 months ago

i don't think that the story was about sharpeners

but i can see that your sharpeners have traumatized you deeply and that's the 1st thing you hear when you read the "be me"

[–] Gullible 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What do you look for when searching for a quality sharpener?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It must have a sharpener sharp enough to sharpen.

[–] merde 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

you can just dismount the little blade and sharpen it

[–] andrew_bidlaw 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

While normies studied lessons, I was studying the blade.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not the original commenter, but high carbon steel blades, and preferably a magnesium body.

Something like https://www.jetpens.com/KUM-No.-410-Magnesium-Pencil-Sharpener-2-Hole/pd/16525#index=0

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] merc 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You'd think that someone whose best story was about sharpeners would learn to spell sharpener.

[–] Gullible 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My impression was that they were writing it as they contemporaneously verbalized it for effect and/or whimsy. Kids eat the e.

[–] merc 5 points 9 months ago

And then they go clubbing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Anon must be a young David Rees.

http://artisanalpencilsharpening.com/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

This was me with pencils, except I never got in trouble for it and my parents weren't fans.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I was confused for a moment. For me, a "sharpener" is a "knife sharpener" first and foremost...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hot take: OP went to grade school with 70 razor blades in his backpack. That probably had something to do with the response here.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›