Grey High: prepping our youth for the big bad world
Posted by Rich...! under Uncategorized on March 7 2007 at 11:02 AMOkay, so I don’t usually re-post stuff that I read on other blogs, but in this case, on the off-chance that you missed it on Splattermail, you really need to see this.
Dude!
How crazy is this? Fuck me, I wish I had a phone cam when I was at school, mad props to the kid that got this.
Here’s the question though, should the guy be fired? Hell no. I was chatting to D’ave about this and I agree with his take. Unless we want to breed undisciplined dumb-asses like half the kids in UK and USA, we need education, and discipline – as such teachers need to earn and get respect.
Should kids try it on? Hell yeah?
Should a teacher be allowed to fight fire with fire? Hell yeah!
Here’s the thing, assuming school is about preparing kids for real life then why pull punches?
“Bloody bastards”…!
Update: Picked this comment by jv up on the splattermail post:
The man in question is Mr Bayliss; Grey High School’s eccentric – and incidentally, brilliant – art teacher, and what has happened here is deeply sad. Art teachers typically have limited social skills, but truly brilliant art teachers, well they need to be protected in my opinion. There are some amazing stories to be told about this guy, but the fact is, he’s the best there is in PE. Kids these days have no idea where to draw the line, and in the end, the people who will be most harmed are themselves. -Matric of 2000.
March 7th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Thats the problem we face in this country – no respect for authority, for privacy, for the law, for the right of others…and it all stems from kids not getting it bliksemd into them at school.
Maybe if some of these kids parents took the time to discipline their kids versus just paying for it to go away, this wouldn’t be a problem.
Don’t fire the guy, give him a raise. He’s meant to be an educator and let this be an education to these kids.
March 7th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
He shouldn’t be sacked, but he himself should be severely censured for the way he yelled at those kids. There’s no degree of classroom misbehaviour that justifies such a tirade of obscenities. It’s just unprofessional and crude – these are school pupils, not army recruits. Although, given that this is Hansie Cronje’s old school, maybe that sort of language is the only language that works…not that it worked for Hansie, of course.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Big fucking kudos to the teacher! I don’t blame him for a second. Did you see how the little pikkies shut it when he first lost it.
If I were in that teacher’s shoes there would be blood in the hallways that day. I think caning should come back, or even something worse. There’s nothing wrong with disciplining little pricks that deserve it… like these guys.
I don’t think the teacher’s storming out was that necessary, but imagine the frustration at not being legally allowed to discipline these schoolboys properly.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I’m very sorry, but that teacher was in the right. I’ve always felt very sorry for teachers having to take guff from these spoilt little brats every day. I agree that it perhaps wasn’t the best way to react, but he was clearly too angry to care.
I went to a private school myself and the kids there have the worst attitudes of all. Big-up to the teacher for letting them know what he thinks of them(not that it’ll make a stitch of difference).
March 7th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Did you hear them baiting him at the beginning? It was clearly a setup. A kid just *happens* to be recording the video as all the other kids cause shit and the teacher loses it? And then at the end of the video, the boy in the next seat says “can you bluetooth that to me?”. They knew what they were doing.
Little bastards.
The saddest part is the way the teacher knows he’s overstepped the line, but feels too strongly to stop. “Go and report me to your parents”, he says, but tells them what he thinks anyway. Poor guy.
March 8th, 2007 at 8:02 am
The teacher deserves a fat increase & a hefty pat on the back……………the bloody kids nowadays push teachers way too far, mainly because they know they can’t be disciplined for it. I feel for the teacher, I really do. The kids who insisted on disrupting the class should be named & shamed. If I had a kid in that class & saw this, I’d give him/her a bloody good hiding!
March 8th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Can someone please tell me what happens in a nutshell, as i cant watch the vid and i dont have sound! If possible please
March 8th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Dude, it goes along the lines of…
Shut up, shut the fuck up, you shouldn’t be at Grey, fuck you. You have no fucking manners. Bloody bastards etc.
March 8th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Seriously – you think this guys is cool?
No matter how hard a bunch of snot nosed rambunctious pricks push you, surely as a teacher you exhibit serious instability and a lack of professionalism by flying off the handle like this?
Punish the kids for sure, but hotdamn what happens if this dude goes flat out postal and starts beating the bastards around (and I’m not saying they wouldn’t deserve it)?
March 8th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
The teachers a hero. If more teachers gave a shit like this guy less kids would end up like todays misfits.
The school it was recoreded at was actually Grey High School and not Grey College if we are to be factually correct. If this had happened at Grey College the kids would still be in detention and the teacher would have been screaming in afrikaans.
March 8th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
At Jayne’s comment – The kids these days?? We have all baited teachers. My brothers used to come back wearing their cane slashes with pride & glory.
It is the teenaage years. There are 1000 psychology books confirming this. Kids of that age are meant to be brats fighting against “The System” they have grown up in, it’s how they widen their worlds. This doesn’t justify anything, but it explains things. I def. am all for disciplining.
So don’t worry. The world isn’t going to shite. It is just staying the same.
March 8th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Champagne is right. Same patterns, different weapons. If it was a set up we can conclude three things:
1. The teacher’s done it before – this is not a once off – enough times for them to plan it well
2. These kids are smarter than we give them credit for – these are the types that go on to be Rich Mulholland’s
3. The teacher is bad enough to not hold their attention long enough to prevent shit like this from happening.
I’m a firm believer in discipline and tradition – it builds character. But I’m also a firm believer that good teachers are artists. they are great at what they do. And unfortunately even the best teachers in this country get paid absolutely nothing. I had teachers at school who couldn’t keep a class quiet with a sawn-off shotgun, and others who only had to walk down the corridor and kids automatically went silent – they demanded respect by their presence.
I do feel sorry for the guy, who knows what else came before this vid. But still, he fell for the trap and as a knowing parent, that can never be a good thing.
March 8th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Listen, don’t get me wrong, I do believe that the guy went off a bit much – my question was whether or not he should be fired. I don’t believe so.
My whole life I’ve been naughty, but never ever malicious. Even at school. I’ll always try it on, but would feel like shit for the teacher – although as you pointed out Mike, a lot depends on the teacher.
It’s a tough one to call, they’re shits, they set him up ‘cos they new they could. He’s daft enough to fall for it…!
March 8th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
You nailed it there Mike. I was a bursary scholar (oops… sorry, um… learner) at a private school – one thing I learned is that wealth and privilege are no gauge of character or morals.
I’m the only engineer in an entire family of teachers. My sister buggered off to Mafikeng to teach youngsters who wanted to learn and thirsted for knowledge. I’ve heard many desires to throttle “little sh*ts” voiced (but suppressed)
100% agree on the “teacher as artist” take – I observe the folk who teach my kids – some are brilliant, strict, but creative and respected for it. Others are going through the motions and the kids either loathe or disrespect them. This guy might just have a discipline problem and if he is “a creative” (sorry to box him like that), he may well be volatile!
I recall being shredded verbally by my Afrikaans teacher in the most colourful language without one obscenity. Creative in his own way.
I think it was Pliny(?) who is recorded as moaning about “the youth of today” sometime BC?!
March 9th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Hi,
I have just started checking out your blog and I really had to leave a comment on this video…
3 cheers to the teacher!!!! I was in a private school and I saw first hand what it was like to deal with a bunch of snotty rich kids.(was not one of the them got in cause of hard work) They have no respect for any thing cause in their minds they will all get daddy’s money when the come out of school. I think that it really crappy to deal with a class of students that no matter how hard you try don’t give a damp about what you are talking about…
March 9th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
This guy deserves a medal. He has only said what so many teachers today think.
And to try and justify the kids behaviour by saying we all did this sort of thing is horseshit. Yeah, I pushed my teachers as far as I could. The difference was that when I pushed them too far, I got disciplined for it. This guys hands are tied and then a select few make him out to be the bad guy??
I say make him spokesperson for the education board.
March 9th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Ohforgodsake. Gaby, not all rich kids are spoilt brats, and not all poor kids know the meaning of hard work & appreciation. That is such a hollywood generalisation of income groups. Rather go into private rich schools, suburban gov schools, and township schools – you’ll notice there are the brats, the bored kids testing the limits, the quiet ones etc in every single one of them.
Between the comments here & on Splattermail, I’ve been thinking about it – people keep saying that these kids need to learn what it is like in the real world. And the meaning of respect. And so it seems to be concluded that this teacher’s reaction teaches them this.
But with that, I’d have to disagree. I can’t say I have ever been sworn at like that in my working or social life, or had a chair banged about like that around me. And I’d have issues if I had. Plus, consider what you mean by “respect” & whether this teacher showed it to these children, the learners entrusted to his care. Surely, the big bad world keeps trying to teach us to rather be the “bigger person”, not rise to the bait?
Should he be fired? That’s up to the school’s policies. And whether this is a recurring issue. It is a very tough call. I’d personally say no, but he, like the kids, would have to feel the repercussions for the whole incident.
March 9th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Give the guy a medal and a raise, hell give him back the cane.I went to Grey High and was disciplined for my wrongs and i took it, and have come out to the Big bad world to see it with my own eyes that without discipline there is havoc. If the Little rats cant take it run back to mommy,should have gone to a girls school. Swearing however is a lack of a respect but cant blame the guy as what else is there left to do with the little brats that are coming out these days. I look forward to coming back and handing a few backhands myself,repect for the elders has gone out the window,bring back discipline. Parents dont see the little runts causing the trouble,would be different if they saw a video of their own kids causing the trouble…..
March 9th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
I think it is hard to understand how desperate teachers can feel unless you’ve been there. Teenagers have an unparalleled capacity to annoy, frustrate and bait their teachers. I think the video show obvious direspect and antagonistic behaviour, but I dont think it is acceptable to address anyone as the teacher in this video did. It sounds weird, but had he responded in the same way and used less “unacceptable” words I would defend him completely. But isnt this man supposed to be an example to students? It is not acceptable to speak to anyone else like that – why them?
I’m clearly in two minds about the issue. Except on one point: should he be fired? No way! He was pushed to his behaviour by his class deliberately!
March 9th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
You bloody bastards! You’re a bunch of fucking animals!
I’m guessing people are just too scared to comment on the original post at Splattermail.
March 10th, 2007 at 8:41 am
We need more teachers like this. In this country of South Africa. We need discipline. As a youngster I remember being terrified of authority (teachers / police) but today the kids don’t give a shit. What we need is order and discipline in this country and what I saw on this video is what we need!
March 10th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I’m with Champs and Mike on this. I went to both a government school and later a private school, seeing first hand that kids were broadly the same at both, with the same proportion of brats, quiet kids and so on. Being rich or poor made no difference that I could see, people are broadly the same regardless of wealth.
Whenever this topic comes up, the usual canards are trotted out to explain it. Kids, we’re told, are worse than ever before and we need to bring back corporal punishment. Neither are true: This may be controversial but the real reason for classroom indiscipline is the teachers.
Some of my teachers had absolutely no idea how to handle a class of teenage boys and as a result their classes were rowdy and chaotic. They were not respected and not regarded fondly by their students who took advantage of their weakness. Yet there were also teachers who could keep a class quiet through the sheer force of their presence, having both the respect and regard of their students. Changing classes was like night and day, chaos and disrepect in one and attentive silence in the next. Considering that it’s the same set of boys we’re talking about here, the only conclusion is that teaching styles matter more than we realise.
But the most interesting thing about this is that nearly all the teachers who could maintain discipline and respect were ‘old-school’ in their approach, they seldom raised their voices, never swore and never resorted to corporal punishment but they also refused to treat the students as equals or use any of the other methods recommended by proponents of sensitive teaching. And I think that’s the heart of the problem: Most new teachers are being taught a modern, supposedly more sensitive style of teaching that was dreamt up by sociologists whose only experience of the classroom was their days daydreaming at the back. It just doesn’t work.
Instead, universities and teaching colleges need to study the methods of those teachers who do succeed in maintaining discipline in their classes, figure out what they’re doing right and teach it as a mandatory subject to everybody that studies to become a teacher. In addition, schools need to create mechanisms through which older and more experienced teachers can share their methods with new and inexperienced teachers. They also need to be backed up by their schools, ensuring that punishments like detention are actually enforced and that they suck enough for pupils to hate them.
To be fair, I do feel for this guy. I know how infuriatingly annoying a class of teenagers can be and I can imagine how frustrating it must be to be up against a class of brats knowing full well that it’s beyond your abilities to discipline them. So his outburst is understandable, but it was unprofessional and unproductive – it will earn him neither discipline nor respect. Grey shouldn’t fire him because of this, but his days are numbered anyway if he can’t discipline his students. More’s the pity, it sounds like he’s a nice enough guy and an effective teacher aside from that.
As an added benefit, showing teachers how to effectively control classes will go a long way towards preventing many from quitting and encouraging students to become teachers in the first place, since it will empower them with something in place of the paralysed helplessness most of them feel in the face of indisciplined students.
March 11th, 2007 at 10:33 am
“Grey shouldn’t fire him because of this, but his days are numbered anyway if he can’t discipline his students. More’s the pity, it sounds like he’s a nice enough guy and an effective teacher aside from that.”
Absolutely spot on. It’s sad really, the guy was wrong, he lost it, and it’s helping no-one, I still wouldn’t fire hime, but I wouldn’t be using him as an example of good practice either.
Bet he’s a hero in the staff room though…!
March 12th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Regardless of whether he’s right or wrong, it is for exactly this reason I could never be a teacher. That would be me in week one of my tenure.
March 12th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Forgive me for my intolerance, and going against the opinion of a big portion of the commenters, but if I ever told a teacher that typa shit, even if he/she had it coming (like the students in that room), I woulda been expelled just like that! And I, in championing the right to tell people where to get off, don’t believe in double standards. That dude needs to either go or be seriously reprimanded. If only I could: “Shut the fuck up, all you teachers. You’re a bunch of bloody bastards! You are collectively the most…bleh bleh bleh bleh.” It’s all about game face Rich…!, we’ve had this chat, holmes.
That shit was lank funny, though..”bloody bastards”
! I particularly liked that “shut up” after the brief pause. Classic!
March 20th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
The man is one of the most gifted teachers I have ever been taught by. He is inspirational and one of (if not ) the best visual educaters in South Africa. He would have no problem teaching at any art institution in the world with his credentials.
I was also an unruly matric @ grey but never to the extent of those Little shits! Corpral punishment yes please! It made me a better person!
Matric 98
March 28th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Please sum1 give me a link to this clip…..Mr Baylis was my art teacher years ago….i HAVE to see this…its no longer available on youtube…Link or Mail it PPPLLLLEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSEEEEEEEEE mr Baylis is a Champ
May 4th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Mr Bayliss was my teacher between 2000 and 2003, really good teacher. Unfortunately, those little asses in his class (Mr Walton and company) give him a bad image but Baylo should have fucked them up. Anyway, just my 2 cents worth.
July 9th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
The video is no longer on YouTube. Anybody know where I can get it?