Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Bravo Magazine

John Lennon was rebellious by nature.

His high school years were no exception.

A new post via the former Beatle’s Instagram account reveals Lennon’s detention records from September 9, 1955 to July 11, 1956.

One of the few documents of Lennon’s school years to survives, the record was rescued by a Quarry Bank High School employee before the book containing the school’s records were later destroyed.

Over this 10-month period, John Lennon racked up no less than 29 accounts of unruly behavior.

By Lennon’s account, he was no happier to be there.

“In school, didn’t they see that I’m cleverer than anybody in this school?” Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1970, “ That the teachers are stupid, too? That all they had was information that I didn’t need?”

“I got f****n’ lost in being at high school” he then lamented. “A couple of teachers would notice me, encourage me to be something or other, to draw or to paint – express myself. But most of the time they were trying to beat me into being a f****n’ dentist or a teacher.”

Lennon also sang of some of these anxieties on song ‘Working Class Hero’ from 1970 album John Lennon/The Plastic Ono Band.

View this post on Instagram

QUARRY BANK HIGH SCHOOL DETENTION SHEET, 1955-1956⠀ Lined sheet torn from a Quarry Bank High School detention book, inscribed at the top with the pupil’s surname "Lennon" and with twenty-nine handwritten entries on either side, in blue and red ink and pencil in various hands, recording 29 occasions between 9 September 1955 and 11 July 1956 when Lennon received reprimands from a number of different teachers. This page came from a book that was rescued from a bonfire at Quarry Bank High School in the late 1970s. During one summer holidays a member of staff had been instructed to clear out a storage room and to burn all the redundant old books. He spotted the name "Lennon" at the top of some of the pages in one and tore out the pages he found. Apparently a number of the pages he saved were lost or destroyed in an accident at a later date, and this is one of a few to survive.

A post shared by John Lennon (@johnlennonofficial) on Nov 18, 2019 at 9:30am PST