Eric Trevor Allison.
He was one of nature's true latin teachers: no more capable of keeping control of kids than a the Ginger Führer is of looking after a laptop in a pub...

He was infact autistic. His knowledge of train and bus timtables was undenably freaky. sure... he used the system regularly, but he knew ALL timtables: not only our area, but for all of the midlands.

He has serious personal hygene issues. he had BAD problems with B-O, breath, teeth, you name it.

He wore the same clothes day-in, day out. He'd go running in his teaching clothes, beraka killer-sweat, and then teach for a week in teh same clothes.

The best thing about his Temper. It was guaged by his states of un-dress.

Stage 1: pens out of pocket. He'd line up his 3 parker roller-ball-pens on right hand side of the desk, (red, blue, black from right to left)

Stage 2: his watch would come off, (cheesy strap and skin-mulch and all...), and would be positoned on the LHS of the desk.


Stage 3. Jacket off. Positioned on the back of the chair.

Stage 4: (becoming volatile) Off with the Tie. He taught in the school for 4 years while I was there, and it was ALWAYS the same puke-green tie. Placed in top left jacket pocket (where the pens came from)

Stage 5. Final stage, and always pre-curser to a serious session of rage. Screaming, shouting, and spit flying from his mouth.

We favoured this when compared to his good moods.. when he was in a good mood, he'd put his arm around your shoulder as he explained the complexities of the dative form or Puer.

Not fun: There's a limit to how long a 10year-old can hold his breath.

We used to push him to stage 4, and hover on the brink of stage 5 for as long as we could. I kid you not: his stages were simple and amusing, and he NEVER deviated from the set path of anger, no matter how hard you pushed.
( Humpty Dumpty was Pushed Is unaware of having any limits., Thu 10 Nov 2005, 16:29, Reply)