One for the UK teachers…
Has anyone retrained to teach via QTS with a professional level 6 diploma (not Bachelors degree). The things I’m reading are giving me mixed messages - some places say a Bachelors Degree, specifically, is required, whilst others say degree equivalent.
I’m based in England.
A couple of weeks ago I saw something out of the corner of my eye to the left. I turned and for a very split second I saw a young man stood there.
It was like we made eye contact - for that very short second we were both looking at one other.
But here’s where it gets weirder, because I didn’t see him with my eyes… I don’t know how to explain it, but I saw him before me as if I was looking at him, but it was almost like I saw him in my head… but not in an imagination-type way. Almost somewhere at the front of my forehead, but it was like I was seeing him with my eyes. It was really, really weird.
Anyway, I basically shook myself out of it and decided I was just being stupid for a few reasons: 1) as mentioned above, the way in which I felt I “saw” him. (although, in fairness to me, it’s the same way in which I “see” other things, so it’s not completely crazy to me), 2) because I don’t like to jump to supernatural conclusions anyway, and 3) because of how he looked. To me, he looked way too old-fashioned-dressed to be from the Edwardian era, and our house is Edwardian.
Anyway, despite me trying to talk myself out of it mentally, it was playing on my mind. So, I decided to do some research into the dress he was in and how he looked…
It all happened so quickly, but I remember he had a blazer on and matching 3/4 length trousers, which fell just below the knee and went from baggier at the top to tight at the knee. It looked like a scratchy, brown material. Almost the same colour as a brown paper bag is the best to describe it, or a brown envelope.
Underneath the blazer was a white shirt of some kind and the blazer was almost like… I don’t know how to explain it (I don’t wear suits etc!), but… kind of wonky in a sense that the buttons didn’t fasten in the middle. There was a longer piece and thus the buttons fastened further to the side instead. The blazer had a boxy fit to it at the bottom.
Where the trousers of matching colour/material met the knee, there was a white material underneath, which gave it like a ruffle effect. Hence why I thought this was too dated to be anything other than my imagination. Ruffles to me and my limited knowledge seemed more Tudor-ish.
I also noted his hair. It was actually surprisingly long - it fell just below his ear- and was parted very severely to one side.
He looked quite young - I would place him late teens to late twenties.
I don’t remember anything about his footwear, unfortunately.
Now, like I say this was playing on my mind for whatever reason, so I decided to do some research. I mainly focussed on the trousers, because the length of them with the white ruffle underneath was the most stand-out thing I noticed.
Google told me that this style of dress was popular in the Georgian and Victorian eras (the latter of which, obviously, is very near anyway). It’s kind of like a Steampunk look.
I then asked if it could be worn in the Edwardian era and what it said was really interesting.
It said that young men would wear “knickerbocker”-style trousers in casual settings or for outdoor pursuits (I guess it was essentially their version of leisure-wear or “athleisure”), such as golf, cycling and shooting.
And - get this - the white ruffle was not a ruffle in this case. But it WOULD indeed give the appearance of a ruffle because they would wear white cotton or linen undergarments underneath… ready for it… wool or TWEED to protect the material, as wool and tweed were more expensive and couldn’t be washed as often. Whereas white cotton or linen could be boiled frequently. This would make sense as to why he had a brown matching “scratchy”-looking set on top of the white.
I also found out that younger men would wear their hair long in that style too.
I do not have any prior knowledge of the historical dress from this time. I don’t even believe I have subconscious knowledge, because if anything - as I say - I talked myself out of it because I felt he didn’t fit the time period (to my knowledge).
I’m now quite bought in to what I saw, but what confuses me (and makes me doubt) is why there would be such a young man here. It’s not usual for such young men to die at home, surely? Unless it’s one of those residual energy-type situations, if you believe in those?
But, like I say, I felt they could see me seeing them… I don’t know. It was weird.
I’m still inclined to gaslight myself that none of this happened, even though I know what I saw (in the front of my forehead… ??). Maybe I’m mentally unwell, who knows!
Would be glad to hear from any spiritualists, sceptics, historians, heck - a doctor would work too tbh!