What was it about gym teachers in the 70s and 80s?

p-71-b-102p-71-b-102 by NeenahHistory (cc by-nc-sa)

Cool Papa Bell explains a thing about gym teachers.

If you were a member of Generation X, think back on your male high school teachers. Lots of football coaches and auto shop teachers and whatnot.

You probably had some really terrible ones, right? I know I did. I set of male teachers that were pretty much shunned by the other teachers because of their sheer incompetence and general fuck-you attitude. The kind of teachers that were relegated to driver's education duty.

Everyone has them, right?

Not so fast there. Realize that the many male teachers of the 70s and 80s were in the profession only because it provided them with the cheapest, easiest means of avoiding the draft. Getting a teaching credential bought you two extra years of college deferments. And getting a single-subject credential -- physical education for example -- that made you eligible for high school teaching, was the easiest of those.

06/19/13
by jessamyn

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