Basic Trope: Students are surprised when they see their teacher outside of school.
- Straight: Little Bobby sees Mrs. Crabtree at the mall on a Saturday and is weirded out.
- Exaggerated: Bobby literally thinks there is an anti-teacher Force Field around the school and is surprised when he sees Mrs. Crabtree taking a single step out of the building.
- Downplayed: Bobby sees Mrs. Crabtree at a baseball game and is surprised to learn she likes baseball, but otherwise doesn't care that she is outside school.
- Justified: Children do not often think about their teachers outside of a school setting, leading some of them to think that teachers live at school. ("Out of sight, out of mind.")
- Inverted: Mrs. Crabtree is surprised to see Bobby out and about.
- Subverted:
- Bobby sees Mrs. Crabtree outside school, but reacts well.
- Bobby is only surprised because Mrs. Crabtree is an agoraphobe.
- Double Subverted:
- Then he sees her boyfriend and comes to the shocking realization that teachers aren't asexual.
- Mrs. Crabtree was lying when she told Bobby about her agoraphobia.
- Parodied: Bobby sees Mrs. Crabtree out of school and his head explodes.
- Bobby still has this reaction... even when Mrs. Crabtree is his mother so logically he would have to see her out of school.
- Zig Zagged: Bobby sees Mrs. Crabtree and is not surprised. She sees him and starts freaking out. He doesn't understand why until his gym coach comes up and gives her a kiss and then he starts freaking out when he realizes they're dating. Then the coach freaks out when he realizes Bobby is there. And then Booby's parents freak. Finally, it turns out that all of this was Bobby's aunt's cat's dream.
- Averted:
- Bobby and Mrs. Crabtree see each other out of school all the time and actually enjoy each others' company.
- Mrs. Crabtree never sees any of her students outside of school.
- Enforced: The writers want to play up children's perceptions of their teachers for laughs.
- Lampshaded:
- "Mrs. Crabtree! I didn't think they allowed you to leave school!"
- "I'm a kid. We never think about our teachers outside the school walls."
- Invoked:
- Mrs. Crabtree purposefully makes her kids think she never leaves school so that when they do see her, they get weirded out.
- Mrs. Crabtree wonders if her students would freak out if they saw her out of school, and decides to find out.
- Exploited: Mrs. Crabtree takes the opportunity to give Bobby a warning about his behavior. His fear causes it to sink in.
- Defied:
- Mrs. Crabtree makes it clear to her class that teachers are equal members of society.
- Mrs. Crabtree deliberately avoids her students; she takes walks late at night (when her students are likely to be in bed), spends as much time as possible in private or in adult-only areas such as bars, and goes out of town to shop.
- Mrs. Crabtree accepts a teaching job in another school district to greatly reduce the chances of her students seeing her out of the classroom.
- Discussed: "Wouldn't it be weird to see Mrs. Crabtree here?"
- Conversed: "Why do kids on TV always get weird when they see their teachers outside of school? Do kids act like that in real life?"
- Implied: Bobby is freaked out, and his mother is busy explaining to him that teachers are people too.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Not applicable. (This trope is always intentional.)
- Deconstructed: Mrs. Crabtree asks Bobby why he would be so surprised to see her out of school.
- Reconstructed: Bobby explains that kids have a very limited scope and it should be expected.
- Played For Laughs: Bobby screams in terror when he sees Mrs. Crabtree at the mall.
- Played For Drama: Bobby looks up to Mrs. Crabtree, so it comes as a horrible surprise when he sees her drunk and fighting with her boyfriend.
- Played For Horror: Bobby finds out that Mrs. Crabtree is a serial killer when she's outside of school.
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