A Non-standard Deviation by Britguy
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2025 9:23 pm
A Non-standard Deviation
First Published 23/6/13
Part One – The Experiment
Alan Jenkins thought he had been forgiven for upsetting his entire maths class. One afternoon he had absent mindedly addressed their teacher as Miss Frenchie rather than Miss French and, when challenged, compounded his error by informing her that “everyone calls you that.” A naive 15 year old, Alan didn’t know that ‘frenchie’ was a slang term for condom, but Miss French did and she set the whole class two hours extra homework for the weekend as a collective punishment.
Alan thought that this had all blown over by the time the class moved on to statistics. As part of this course the class of thirty was split up into six groups of five who were each instructed to collect data on something they thought was likely to have a ‘normal distribution’. They were then to plot a graph of the data (which should look like a bell curve) and calculate the mean and median values (which ought to be the same or very close) and the standard deviation.
Alan’s group consisted of himself, Tim Dalton, Jack Derry, Belinda Connors and Julie Harris. They decided to survey the class on the number of music singles (on 7” vinyl in those days) they owned in the hope that this would have close to a ‘normal distribution’.
The five of them each went to survey one of the other groups of five as they were all sitting together. After talking to the group he’d been asked to survey Jack returned radiating a rare mixture of nervousness, excitement and amusement. A talkative Irish boy, he couldn’t keep the cause of this to himself for long.
“You won’t believe what Helen Smith and her group want to do!” he announced breathlessly, checking to make sure Miss French was not in earshot. “They want to measure every boy’s prick in the class and make a graph out of that, to teach that dried up old spinster Frenchie a lesson she’ll never forget.”
“I don’t believe it” replied Tim. “Do they really think anyone’ll let them do that? I’m sure those girls would like to look at us all but what’s in it for us?”
“Well, I don’t know” said Jack. “They say they’re going to do it in a way that isn’t too embarrassing and they won’t all be seeing you, just one to measure and one to witness. A lot of people have got it in for Frenchie and I think they might just do it. Can you imagine the look on the old trout’s face when they present the results in class? We’ll just have to wait and see. I reckon I’ll do it if everyone else does.”
There wasn’t much more to be said about it so the group returned to their own assignment.
The next day, Tuesday, during the afternoon break Alan walked into the boys’ toilets where two of the boys in his maths class were washing their hands with their backs to the door and could not possibly have seen him enter. He heard one say to the other in mid-conversation “Yes, it was a bit embarrassing but they tried to make it easy and it’ll be worth it on Monday when they present it. A bell curve of bell-ends you might say. The old bitch’ll have a stroke!”
It seemed the scheme was on, and this was further confirmed when Alan saw Helen and her group mate Pauline leading a group of four more nervous and embarrassed looking male classmates into an empty classroom on Wednesday lunchtime.
The school lunch hour was from 12:30 to 1:30 and Alan had just finished his sandwiches at about 12:45 on Friday when Tim and Jack came over to him.
“We’re the last three that haven’t been measured yet” announced Jack, looking nervous but also a bit exited. “Come on, let’s go! Monday’s going to be priceless!”
“I don’t know” said Alan, “I really don’t think I want to do this.”
“Oh, come on Alan” said Tim impatiently. “It’s no big deal; we’re all made about the same way. I’ll tell you what, me and Jack’ll go first so you can see what happens, then if you really still don’t want to I promise we won’t try to make you. Is that fair?”
Alan reluctantly agreed to this and was led to a room on the top floor of the classroom block.
“Funny, the door’s locked” announced Jack, puzzled, “I’m sure they said room 307.” It was unusual for classroom doors to be locked but not unprecedented. Teachers who had materials they didn’t want to put away between classes sometimes did this.
“That’s 307a” Tim pointed out; “let’s try 307b.”
Room 307 was designed to be one large room that could be made into two small ones with a heavy canvas floor to ceiling folding room divider. Currently it was configured as two small ones with the divider in place. The ‘front’ of 307b could become the ‘back’ of room 307 merely by opening the divider and turning all the desks to face the other way. The boys walked down the corridor the length of room 307 to the door marked 307b and entered.
Helen, Pauline and another of their group, Cindy Truman, were waiting for them. They had placed two tall cupboards next to each other at ninety degrees to the wall between classroom and corridor about five feet from the room divider. Behind this screen they had pushed some desks together to create a makeshift bed. A bit less than the top four feet of anyone lying on this bed would be shielded from view by the cupboards but they would be visible from about the knees down. A chair had been placed at the end of the ‘bed’.
“That’s about the best we can do” announced Helen, “so who’s first?”
“That’s me” said Tim, who was then led over to the ‘bed’.
“We’ve found it’s more comfortable and dignified if you strip completely from the waist down” said Helen. “Sit on that chair and take your shoes and socks off.”
“O.K., whatever you say” replied Tim, complying with her request. He was then directed to go behind the ‘screen’ and take his trousers off, which he did. Helen handed them to Pauline, who was acting as witness and who folded them up and put them on the chair with his shoes. Tim was then asked to lie on the ‘bed’.
“Now if you’re feeling brave I need you to pull your sweater and shirt up out of the way and push your underwear down, then we’ll take it off for you” she said. To Alan’s surprise Tim went along with this and pushed his underpants down below his knees. Alan, Jack and Cindy watched Pauline pull them off his bare legs.
“Hmm, nice” they heard Helen pronounce. “Now, we’ll leave you alone for two minutes to play with it. Try and get it as hard as you can for me.” She pressed the play button on a cassette recorder and started Jane Birken and Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Je t’aime’. Helen and Pauline came back around the other side of the ‘screen’ and for the next two minutes there was no sound except the music as they watched Tim’s legs move restlessly and get further apart as he got into whatever fantasy he was enjoying.
After the two minutes were up Helen and Pauline went back behind the ‘screen’, with Helen carrying a clipboard, pen and ruler. A minute later Pauline handed Tim’s clothes back to him and shortly after that he came out grinning sheepishly. “Piece of cake!” he announced.
Jack went next and the same procedure was followed except that during his two minutes alone Helen and Pauline were whispering and giggling with Cindy and making gestures with their fingers. As before the same two went back in.
“Oh my God, it’s not even three inches!” cried Helen a moment later. “Cindy, come here, you’ve got to see this!” Cindy rushed to see what the fuss was about.
“....ing get off me you ....ing bitches!” Jack shouted angrily and the girls backed away, laughing. “Give me my ....ing clothes!” he demanded, and was given them. Soon afterwards he came storming out breathing heavily, bright red with rage and embarrassment. Jack’s Irish temper was well and truly lost and he looked near to tears. He pointed to Alan. “Your turn” he said grimly.
“No, I don’t want to” replied Alan, terrified by the prospect of girls laughing at his private parts.
“Oh please” cajoled Helen. “We promise not to laugh at you. It’s not a valid result if we don’t get everyone and you’re the last. You don’t want to be the one to spoil it for everyone.”
If it were possible for Jack to get any angrier this exchange had done it. His hands balled into fists and he seemed to be having a hard time restraining himself.
“....ing right you ....ing don’t!” he exploded. “No ....ing way I just ....ing went through that with these ....ing bitches for .... all! You better not .... it up now if you know what’s ....ing good for you. You can stand a bit of ....ing embarrassment; fourteen other guys did!”
“Calm down Jack,” said Tim, “we said we wouldn’t force him if he didn’t want to do it.”
“Yeah, calm down small piece” sniggered Helen. “Someone has to be on the extreme left of the bell curve!”
“....ing .... OFF, bitch!” shouted Jack, punching a cupboard door, almost incoherent with humiliated rage. He stood still breathing deeply for a few moments to regain his self control. Turning to Tim he said “Who said anything about forcing him? I’m not forcing him. If you think I’m playing with his prick trying to get him hard you must be crazy! He can walk out of here and I won’t lay a hand on him. But he needs to understand that fourteen of us have done this for a reason and they won’t like it if one gutless worm spoils it by chickening out. I won’t do anything but I can’t speak for the others. I’d think carefully if I was you” he added, turning to Alan.
Alan considered this and realised that Jack was right. If he spoiled this epic practical joke on an unpopular teacher by refusing to do what everyone else had found the courage to do the consequences were not likely to be pleasant. Being ostracised was about the best he could hope for. By coming this far and leaving his objection this late he’d really left himself with no choice.
“Oh, hell, alright then” he muttered.
First Published 23/6/13
Part One – The Experiment
Alan Jenkins thought he had been forgiven for upsetting his entire maths class. One afternoon he had absent mindedly addressed their teacher as Miss Frenchie rather than Miss French and, when challenged, compounded his error by informing her that “everyone calls you that.” A naive 15 year old, Alan didn’t know that ‘frenchie’ was a slang term for condom, but Miss French did and she set the whole class two hours extra homework for the weekend as a collective punishment.
Alan thought that this had all blown over by the time the class moved on to statistics. As part of this course the class of thirty was split up into six groups of five who were each instructed to collect data on something they thought was likely to have a ‘normal distribution’. They were then to plot a graph of the data (which should look like a bell curve) and calculate the mean and median values (which ought to be the same or very close) and the standard deviation.
Alan’s group consisted of himself, Tim Dalton, Jack Derry, Belinda Connors and Julie Harris. They decided to survey the class on the number of music singles (on 7” vinyl in those days) they owned in the hope that this would have close to a ‘normal distribution’.
The five of them each went to survey one of the other groups of five as they were all sitting together. After talking to the group he’d been asked to survey Jack returned radiating a rare mixture of nervousness, excitement and amusement. A talkative Irish boy, he couldn’t keep the cause of this to himself for long.
“You won’t believe what Helen Smith and her group want to do!” he announced breathlessly, checking to make sure Miss French was not in earshot. “They want to measure every boy’s prick in the class and make a graph out of that, to teach that dried up old spinster Frenchie a lesson she’ll never forget.”
“I don’t believe it” replied Tim. “Do they really think anyone’ll let them do that? I’m sure those girls would like to look at us all but what’s in it for us?”
“Well, I don’t know” said Jack. “They say they’re going to do it in a way that isn’t too embarrassing and they won’t all be seeing you, just one to measure and one to witness. A lot of people have got it in for Frenchie and I think they might just do it. Can you imagine the look on the old trout’s face when they present the results in class? We’ll just have to wait and see. I reckon I’ll do it if everyone else does.”
There wasn’t much more to be said about it so the group returned to their own assignment.
The next day, Tuesday, during the afternoon break Alan walked into the boys’ toilets where two of the boys in his maths class were washing their hands with their backs to the door and could not possibly have seen him enter. He heard one say to the other in mid-conversation “Yes, it was a bit embarrassing but they tried to make it easy and it’ll be worth it on Monday when they present it. A bell curve of bell-ends you might say. The old bitch’ll have a stroke!”
It seemed the scheme was on, and this was further confirmed when Alan saw Helen and her group mate Pauline leading a group of four more nervous and embarrassed looking male classmates into an empty classroom on Wednesday lunchtime.
The school lunch hour was from 12:30 to 1:30 and Alan had just finished his sandwiches at about 12:45 on Friday when Tim and Jack came over to him.
“We’re the last three that haven’t been measured yet” announced Jack, looking nervous but also a bit exited. “Come on, let’s go! Monday’s going to be priceless!”
“I don’t know” said Alan, “I really don’t think I want to do this.”
“Oh, come on Alan” said Tim impatiently. “It’s no big deal; we’re all made about the same way. I’ll tell you what, me and Jack’ll go first so you can see what happens, then if you really still don’t want to I promise we won’t try to make you. Is that fair?”
Alan reluctantly agreed to this and was led to a room on the top floor of the classroom block.
“Funny, the door’s locked” announced Jack, puzzled, “I’m sure they said room 307.” It was unusual for classroom doors to be locked but not unprecedented. Teachers who had materials they didn’t want to put away between classes sometimes did this.
“That’s 307a” Tim pointed out; “let’s try 307b.”
Room 307 was designed to be one large room that could be made into two small ones with a heavy canvas floor to ceiling folding room divider. Currently it was configured as two small ones with the divider in place. The ‘front’ of 307b could become the ‘back’ of room 307 merely by opening the divider and turning all the desks to face the other way. The boys walked down the corridor the length of room 307 to the door marked 307b and entered.
Helen, Pauline and another of their group, Cindy Truman, were waiting for them. They had placed two tall cupboards next to each other at ninety degrees to the wall between classroom and corridor about five feet from the room divider. Behind this screen they had pushed some desks together to create a makeshift bed. A bit less than the top four feet of anyone lying on this bed would be shielded from view by the cupboards but they would be visible from about the knees down. A chair had been placed at the end of the ‘bed’.
“That’s about the best we can do” announced Helen, “so who’s first?”
“That’s me” said Tim, who was then led over to the ‘bed’.
“We’ve found it’s more comfortable and dignified if you strip completely from the waist down” said Helen. “Sit on that chair and take your shoes and socks off.”
“O.K., whatever you say” replied Tim, complying with her request. He was then directed to go behind the ‘screen’ and take his trousers off, which he did. Helen handed them to Pauline, who was acting as witness and who folded them up and put them on the chair with his shoes. Tim was then asked to lie on the ‘bed’.
“Now if you’re feeling brave I need you to pull your sweater and shirt up out of the way and push your underwear down, then we’ll take it off for you” she said. To Alan’s surprise Tim went along with this and pushed his underpants down below his knees. Alan, Jack and Cindy watched Pauline pull them off his bare legs.
“Hmm, nice” they heard Helen pronounce. “Now, we’ll leave you alone for two minutes to play with it. Try and get it as hard as you can for me.” She pressed the play button on a cassette recorder and started Jane Birken and Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Je t’aime’. Helen and Pauline came back around the other side of the ‘screen’ and for the next two minutes there was no sound except the music as they watched Tim’s legs move restlessly and get further apart as he got into whatever fantasy he was enjoying.
After the two minutes were up Helen and Pauline went back behind the ‘screen’, with Helen carrying a clipboard, pen and ruler. A minute later Pauline handed Tim’s clothes back to him and shortly after that he came out grinning sheepishly. “Piece of cake!” he announced.
Jack went next and the same procedure was followed except that during his two minutes alone Helen and Pauline were whispering and giggling with Cindy and making gestures with their fingers. As before the same two went back in.
“Oh my God, it’s not even three inches!” cried Helen a moment later. “Cindy, come here, you’ve got to see this!” Cindy rushed to see what the fuss was about.
“....ing get off me you ....ing bitches!” Jack shouted angrily and the girls backed away, laughing. “Give me my ....ing clothes!” he demanded, and was given them. Soon afterwards he came storming out breathing heavily, bright red with rage and embarrassment. Jack’s Irish temper was well and truly lost and he looked near to tears. He pointed to Alan. “Your turn” he said grimly.
“No, I don’t want to” replied Alan, terrified by the prospect of girls laughing at his private parts.
“Oh please” cajoled Helen. “We promise not to laugh at you. It’s not a valid result if we don’t get everyone and you’re the last. You don’t want to be the one to spoil it for everyone.”
If it were possible for Jack to get any angrier this exchange had done it. His hands balled into fists and he seemed to be having a hard time restraining himself.
“....ing right you ....ing don’t!” he exploded. “No ....ing way I just ....ing went through that with these ....ing bitches for .... all! You better not .... it up now if you know what’s ....ing good for you. You can stand a bit of ....ing embarrassment; fourteen other guys did!”
“Calm down Jack,” said Tim, “we said we wouldn’t force him if he didn’t want to do it.”
“Yeah, calm down small piece” sniggered Helen. “Someone has to be on the extreme left of the bell curve!”
“....ing .... OFF, bitch!” shouted Jack, punching a cupboard door, almost incoherent with humiliated rage. He stood still breathing deeply for a few moments to regain his self control. Turning to Tim he said “Who said anything about forcing him? I’m not forcing him. If you think I’m playing with his prick trying to get him hard you must be crazy! He can walk out of here and I won’t lay a hand on him. But he needs to understand that fourteen of us have done this for a reason and they won’t like it if one gutless worm spoils it by chickening out. I won’t do anything but I can’t speak for the others. I’d think carefully if I was you” he added, turning to Alan.
Alan considered this and realised that Jack was right. If he spoiled this epic practical joke on an unpopular teacher by refusing to do what everyone else had found the courage to do the consequences were not likely to be pleasant. Being ostracised was about the best he could hope for. By coming this far and leaving his objection this late he’d really left himself with no choice.
“Oh, hell, alright then” he muttered.