ID: 344
Date: 1970s- 2002
Title: Glory, glory Hallelujah
Gender: Male and Female 
Classification: Fun 
Rhyme: 

Mine eyes have seen the glory,
Of the burning of the school.
We have tortured every teacher,
We have broken every rule.
We have boarded up the office,
And we've hung the principal,
And now we're marching on.
Glory, glory hallelujah,
The teacher hit me with a ruler,
So I socked on the B,
With a rotten tangerine,
And she sank down like a German submarine.

(Whangarei, 1970s)

--

Glory, glory hallelujah,
Teacher hit me with a ruler,
So I hid behind the door with a magnum 44
And the teacher was no more.
I went to her funeral.
I went to her grave
Instead of chucking flowers, 
I chucked a grenade,
Her body went up, 
Her body went down,
Her body went splat,
All over the ground.

(NZ, 1990s)

--

Glory, glory, how peculiar,
Teacher hit me with a ruler,
The ruler snapped in half,
And we all began to laugh,
And the walls came tumbling down.

(New Plymouth, 1980s)

--

Glory, glory, how peculiar,
Teacher hit me with a ruler,
Cos I bopped her on the beam,
With a rotten tangerine,
And the juice came flowing down.

(New Plymouth, 1980s)

--

Glory, glory hallelujah,
Teacher hit me with a ruler,
I hit her on the chin,
With a rotten mandarin,
And her teeth came marching out.

(Christchurch, 1970s; Amberley, 1990s; Christchurch, 1990s)

--

Mine eyes have seen the glory 
Of the burning of the school,
We've murdered every teacher,
And we've broken every rule.
We're marching down the corridor,
To hang the principal,
And we go marching on.

(Christchurch, 1970s)

--

We're marching to the glory,
Of the burning of the school.
We murdered all the teachers,
And we broke the golden rule.
We went into the office 
And we shot the principal,
And the blood came pouring out!
Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die (x 3)
And the blood came pouring out.

(Wellington,1970s)

--

Glory, glory hallelujah,
Smack the teacher with a ruler,
Hide behind the door,
With a magnum 44,
And the teacher isn't teaching anymore.

(Timaru, 2002; Rotorua, 2002)

--

Glory, glory hallelujah
Teacher hit me  with a ruler,
Hid behind the door,
With a magnum 44,
And the teacher was a teacher, no more!

(Christchurch, 1990)

--
 
Background Info: Sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body". (Turner, 1969:64)

==

For comment on physical violence in schools or 'beatings', see Opie, 1967:374.

==

Many variations recorded in Knapp, 1976:173-175, including the lines:

We have barbequed the principal,
Destroyed the PTA.

We have stood in every corner,
We have spit on every wall.

I shot her in the seater,
With a forty-five repeater.

I hit her in the rear,
With a bottle of beer.

I shot her in the butt,
With a rotten coconut.

==
 
Keywords: teacher, violence, authority, power 
Location: Various NZ, Australia 
Group size: 2 
Incidence: 12