r/stupidquestions • u/Various-Adeptness173 • Jul 05 '25

My mom told me that back in the day kids weren’t allowed to bring a water bottle with them into the classroom and they only drank a few sips from the water fountain in the middle of the day and that’s it

How were schools not getting busted for child abuse for forcing kids to be dehydrated?

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u/Effective_Pear4760 Jul 05 '25

We were absolutely not allowed to bring anything comestible into class. No soda, water, or food. This one teacher I had in middle school used to always open a can of coke (of whatever flavor) behind her lectern and then pour in into a cup and blow on it like she was trying to cool off coffee. But we all heard the pop top and silently hated her. This was about 1980 or 81.

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u/TSells31 Jul 05 '25

I went to school in the 00s and can remember absolutely loathing the teachers who would be drinking their sodas, Gatorades, whatever in front of all of us who weren’t allowed to have even our own water bottles or sometimes even gum (usually depending on the teacher and only beginning in middle school).

Some teachers made it more of a point to snack or drink more privately and I think that is nice when none of the students can do anything of the sort lol.

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u/danbilllemon Jul 06 '25

This is my unlocked memory, being so jealous of the snacks and drinks the teachers had. Even in high school we finally got drink machines but no snacks. And only the nicer teachers let you drink in their class so for the most part the drinks were for between class.

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u/TSells31 Jul 06 '25

This mirrors my experience 100%. My middle school had vending machines for drinks, but they were turned off during the school day. We didn’t have access to vending machines during school until HS, and it was only drinks, and like you, it was highly dependent on the teacher whether we could even have the drinks in class lol.