the strangest post-leaving school encounter i had was with this history teacher. he was awful as a teacher, one of those who've just become totally cynical and given up. he used to read in a monotone and we had to write it down, period (elizabethan maybe lol), no teaching involved. i used to think i had no interest in history back then cos he made it sound so utterly boring.
anyway a couple of years after leaving school, i was down the pub in the afternoon with my friends and he was there by himself, so drunk he could hardly stand up. he staggered over to me, poked me in the chest and told me he knew i'd never come to anything, cos your scum sonny, that kind of thing. he had to be politely informed that being mindlessly pissed at 3pm in the afternoon does not allow one to be self-righteous in such judgements. maybe his wife had left him, or something, who knows?
yeah i had two history teachers at 6th form - chalk and cheese - one read from two books for two years, the other one did the same but with animation and encouragement and let you argue. The teaching at my 6th form seemed over managed and set in stone and the teachers seemed as if they had no real choice in their defence. My early love of history came from a teacher who used to just let you guess and fill in the gaps and let you know whether you were right or wrong after, this was a junior school.
History is such an interesting and utterly intriguing subject and i went on to do it at uni regardless of the shitness of the teaching, but then the curriculum at the time, dunno if it is the same now, was utterly empirical even at a level, just wars conquests that sort of thing, not very involving.
I did some work experience as a teacher at 6th form too and it's that kind of teacher that put me off, teaching, the sort of person that would read dates and facts from a book and then go on about how kids have no interest in learning about history. I just didn't ever want to become that jaded person.
One teacher tried to sue me after school as he blamed me for all this shit that had happened to him after i called his son a cunt, he was really paranoid, thought i was a bad one cos i didn't sing the national anthem once that sort of thing.