We’ve all been there – crushing on the cute classmate sitting next to you, wondering if they even know you exist. What we perhaps didn’t think about was how our teachers got a front row seat in observing our school age crushes.
In this AskReddit article, teachers go into detail on the various encounters they’ve witnessed (and it’s just as awkward and adorable as you would hope).
#1. Why Can’t Adults Be This Direct?
I teach preschool. They tend to lack any sort of filter, so they’ll just say it outright, sometimes to me, sometimes to their crush: “Matthew is my boyfriend!” or “Let’s get married, Julia.” They will also occasionally try to kiss their crush. Today, one of my students Gavin kissed my hand & proposed. He’s four. It was adorable. I almost wish adult men were as up front (although I think I’d be a bit freaked out with a proposal).
#2. Future Heartbreaker
Today one of my kids complimented a girl that he has a (kid) ‘crush’ on and told her how pretty she was in front of the whole class. Next all the girls and the class were asking him if they were pretty too. He handled it like a champ and told them ‘of course, you are all beautiful.’
#3. Subtlety Isn’t Exactly A Strong Suit
I teach in a school that has an academic entrance exam. Halfway through last term, a girl came during term to sit the exam, wanting to join S3 (age 14-15). She sat the exam, and then spent lunch hanging out with the other S3 pupils. I went past a classroom, and had to stick my head in because a riot was happening. This girl, who was very pretty, was sitting in the middle of a crowd of basically EVERY boy in the year, who were just clustered around her all trying to impress her. It was hilarious and extremely pathetic. I’m sure part of it was simply because she was someone new, but they weren’t exactly being subtle…of course I yelled at them and kicked them all out of the classroom.
#4. Encouraging Incest
I have two students that I’ll give fake names: a boy, James, and a girl, Lucy, in my class. They are always together: recess, lunch time, free choice, the two are always working together. They are both very shy and giggly and it seemed a mutual crush was there, noted by me and their math teacher as well. One day, I hear James getting teased by some other kids for his crush on Lucy. His math teacher and I pull him aside and have a talk with him. We tell him that we’ll be talking with the class as a whole about crushes and teasing (he’s not the only one). His math teacher also tells him that, if he does have a crush on Lucy, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about because she’s a nice, sweet girl. James just looks awkward and asks to go so we let him. A few days later, I’m walking my kids out to the parent pick up and I see Lucy’s dad is here to pick her up. James waves to both of them as they leave and I ask if he’s been over to Lucy’s house to play and if he knows her dad. ‘Yea, miss. That’s my uncle.’ OH SHIT. I HAVE ENCOURAGED COUSIN INCEST. I awkwardly gather my nerves and start to say, ‘Ah, you remember that talk we had about Lucy and liking her? Ah well, I didn’t realize she was your cousin so-‘ ‘I thought you didn’t. That was weird, miss.’ Then he just laughed and said he liked a different girl anyway from his older sisters class.
#5. Teacher’s Pet
The one that sticks to mind is the little 2 1/2 year old from my group. She spoke only a little at the time, and didn’t bother much with learning the names of the grown ups to any extent, but shortly before I left, they hired a really young guy, about 19, as an assistant.. The girl sees him walking in to the ward for the first time and just freezes. She actually dropped her toy, and her eyes go round like saucers, her jaw dropping. It was both adorable and absolutely hilarious to watch. We introduced him and none of the kids were that fussed, but she just stood there, mouthing his name, whispering it to herself a few times to make sure she got it right. He sat down on the play mat with her and she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She offered him a toy which he accepted gracefully, and I swear she lost her breath. From then on, she loved him. She was quite shy to begin with, walking up to him at times, saying his name and then when she got his attention, she would giggle uncontrollably, blushing bright red and run away. If he took sick days or didn’t come in till late, she would get sort of depressed and not want to play much. All the kids played favourites with the assistants, little boys have their crushes and so on, but this one was a little different. It was as if she had decided he was her soulmate. He was so kind to her, and the kind of relationship they had was never anything that made you think anything creepy, he just couldn’t bear to reject her. In the afternoons he’d read to the kids for as long as they were willing to sit still and listen, and she always made sure to be the one to sit on his lap or next to him to flip the pages.
#6. You Go Girl!
A girl who is an awesome student has been dating a true player on-and-off for the last year. She went so far to tell me that she got back together with him after he cheated on her.
So literally last Friday, I’m sitting in the band hall watching kids practice. This sweet girl comes in the hall and is walking with a sense of purpose. As she passes me, she says something under her breath that I didn’t quite get the first time. Confused by what she said, I watch her walk up to said guy. She grabs him by the shoulders and spins him around. She says something to which he responds with a short answer but had that look on his face that he got caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.
She then balls up her fist and socks the guy 4-5 times and storms off. At that point, I realized what she said. ‘SCVanguard, you are going to have to write me an office referral.’
Best referral ever.
#7. If Only…
I teach English. I remember a star football player (senior) coming into the room to rap with me for a bit before third period started every Friday. In my third period a female student (junior) of mine who was extremely intelligent and very pretty (yet somewhat shy being an AP student and all) was sitting in the front row and always stared at him when he came in. He would talk about football and stuff with me and every so often I’d look back at her still staring right at him and smiling the entire time. She would not turn that smile off no matter who was looking or what anyone said. It was actually one of the cutest/saddest things I ever saw, seeing as how the guy never even turned around to notice her. If he did….who knows, maybe they would have hit it off. Maybe they did after they weren’t my students…..
#8. Middle School Drama
Former 6th grade teacher here. I was there to witness one of my kids take his first big leap: at lunch, he asked the girl he had a crush on ‘will you go on a date with me?’ She smiled and said yes. Immediately the boy on the other side of her said ‘Don’t go out with this fucker, go out with me!’ She smiled AND SAID OK.
Middle school is tough, man.
#9. Real Life Chemistry
A couple met in my HS chemistry class room, this was three years ago. He was a junior in HS, she was a sophomore. They told me last fall that when the date is set, I’ll be invited to the wedding. Best example of chemistry ever.
#10. Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.
I teach 16 year olds. When a girl likes a guy she’ll draw hearts on his notes. When a guy likes a girl he’ll draw penises on her notes.
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