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30 Students And Parents Call Out Their Teachers Who Were So Wrong, They Shouldn’t Be Teaching Anyone
Young kids soak up new information like a sponge. That is why educating them is important from an early age. It’s also crucial to have your facts straight before telling them to children—some of them might never forget what they've learned from a teacher. Whether it’s right or wrong.
The AskReddit community discussed statements by their elementary school teachers that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Their examples ranged from blindly denying scientific facts to cases of plain ignorance, all of which prove two things: a) some of the information you learn as a kid sticks for years to come, and b) certain people should be taught rather than teaching.
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#1
I had a teacher try to tell the class that Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus were the only planets known to have rings. I raised my hand and added that Jupiter had rings too, but that they were so faint they were hard to see. She vehemently denied it. When I politely (yes, really) told her that I had just seen it in a book, she gave me detention for trying to correct her in front of the class. The next day, before class began, she approached me with an encyclopedia opened to a page about Jupiter, and apologized. She told the class I was indeed right, and that it's important to listen and learn from people even when we think we are 100% right. One of the more wholesome moments I can remember from school in my youth.
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#2
That if I didn’t learn my times tables I’d wind up a broke garbage man, never learned then but I’m a garbage man who made 6 figures last year
#3
Sex ed teacher in grade 7 told me that the white stuff that collects in my underwear is semen. I’m a girl.
I learned way later that it’s actually discharge and EVERY vagina does this.
#5
My name's pronunciation. 1st grade 1st day of the year we all told our names, introductions etc. My name is from a SEA country and not even that difficult to say just read differently than its spelled, its even monosyllable. My teacher screeched at me and told me it'll be pronounced the way its phonetically spelled in English which included swapping two middle letters for some reason. The other students went along with it and so did I. Even to this day I still introduce myself by that pronunciation except to people of my own race. In university I started getting people that wanted to pronounce it correctly which was incredibly kind and they sort of pointed out how messed up it was for that teacher to decide that for me.
#6
People are going to offer you drugs disguised as candy at the park.. Just say no!
20 years later and I still haven’t been offered drugs at the park.
#7
"You shouldn't write 'Xmas' instead of 'Christmas' because you're X-ing out Christ." The X is really the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ.
#8
My mom told her 1st grade teacher her favorite color was magenta. Her teacher punished her for not picking a real color, and for arguing with her about it. My great-grandma, a painter, sent my mom to school the next day with a tube of magenta paint! Not long after this my mom skipped to the second grade😂
#9
1st grade math Teacher: what's 2-1 Class: 1 Teacher: What about 1-2 Class: confused Teacher: See, you can't subtract a smaller number from a bugger number Me, an intellectual: Hey, wait a minute, that's negative 1 Teacher: Shush, those don't exist til third grade
Blurryface 2 years ago
Hey but this is kinda funny. The teacher didn’t outright deny the existence of negative numbers, just kept all the rest of the kids from getting confused. At least, IMO. :)
#10
That I could avoid a nuclear blast by hiding beneath my school desk.
Silly woman. I saw a movie about this, and now I know to climb into a refrigerator instead.
Paulo Freitas 2 years ago
No, no, it only works with old refrigerators that had a thin lead linning, the new ones have insulting foam, só you may survive the blast lmao, but you Will end up dying from radiation poisoning .... ( And yes i am in fact jocking )
#11
A student in my class asked why we call it the 20th century when the year was 19xx. The teacher explained that most likely that a long time ago probably in the dark ages they made a mistake in printing a calendar, but by the time it was noticed all the calendars had been made and sent out, so they just left it that way.
I heard her say this and knew it was all kinds of bull s**t, but I said nothing because I was a shy 4th grader and she was a hostile nun.
#12
That the moon emits light, just like the sun. As a nerdy kid interested in space I told her that it’s actually reflecting the light of the sun, but she did not believe me.
#13
Never forget it. In 4th grade we were learning about bats. And the teacher asked the class to name as many different types of bats as we could. I raised my hand and said "Vampire Bats," and he said name only real ones please.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_bat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_bat)
They are real, and I knew it. But he made me feel like an a*s.
#14
6th Grade
Me: But what happens when you subtract a negative number *from* a negative number
Teacher: You...can't do that
#15
That I couldn't have blue eyes if my mom had brown eyes. Thus began a life long obsession with genetics so I could prove her an absolute f*****g fool. Bless my mom's single recessive gene she passed to me. I missed the blonde but I'll take the blue eyes.
Remi (He/Him) 2 years ago
That's one we had as an example in biology class. Get one blue gene, one brown gene, your eyes are brown. Your kid will get from you either the blue or the brown and it's 50% chance on which. if both parents have one blue gene and one brown, they both have brown eyes with the 25% chance of a blue eyed kid (getting blue gene from both parents), 50% chance kid will have the one blue one brown combo with brown eyes and 25% chance the kid will have both genes for brown eyes (looks the same as the 50% chance kid, but can't have blue eyed kids, cause both the genes are brown)
#16
Science teacher in 4th grade told us it takes food 45 minutes to get to your stomach after swallowing. Spent an entire class period on it. He handed us each a piece of cereal to eat at the beginning of class. Halfway through (some 20 minutes later), we had to point to where it likely was in our system. The correct answer, according to him, was somewhere right above our collarbone. Years later, a bite of too-hot oatmeal told me he was an idiot in all of about four seconds.
#17
I got sent to the principal's office for using the word "plethora." The teacher thought it was a swear word. So did the principal.
EDIT: For those asking about a dictionary, yes, they looked it up. And there is some obscure, arcane definition that means a swelling of a body part. This, of course, is the only definition my teacher knew, not the extremely common one.
#18
That there was no such thing as a black flower. She put a big X through my painting.
#19
That Lincoln was the first American president. I told her she was wrong, it was Washington, and she snapped, saying ‘well why do you know so much about American politics it is pathetic.’ And all the other kids in my class started making fun of me for being stupid.
Reasons why I hate rural Canada.
Ari (they/them) 2 years ago (edited)
Ah yes, the first 15 leaders of American are completely irrelevant. LiNcOlN wAs ThE fIrSt PrEsIdEnT!! /s
#20
Not a teacher but the principal. When I reported one of the school bullies for physically attacking me (plenty of obvious proof), he put the blame on ME, & told me to "grow up". Spineless worm!
Hoody Hoo 2 years ago
Got expelled for that once, until my parents pointed out the finger-shaped bruises around my neck.
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Zane Lumagrowl 2 years ago
God I hate this attitude so much from teachers and admins. When I was getting bullied in school, it was always my fault for "not trying to make friends with the other kids"... why would I want to be friends with them when they treat me so horribly?
Spiderman the webhead<3 2 years ago
The obvious thing to do the next time it happens is slap/hit the bully back and if you get punished just say I manned up like you told me to.
Petra Schaap 2 years ago (edited)
same here! got sent to the principal after hitting a girl that kept bullying me. Principal said it was my own fault because i "dressed weird" I wore back jeans and black shirts. Not even emo or gothic or new wave or anything. idiot. When my mom came to school she told him he's an idiot. edit: i also wore army boots. A teacher (not mine) once aproached me and snapped "are those your dads shoes" i was way passed the age of always being polite, and snapped "no my moms" to wich he replied "does she have such ugly big feet too" A TEACHER.
Marissa Wolff 2 years ago
I do sincerely want that teacher to kill himself. F**k him and his judgemental way of thinking.
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Do_You_Think_I_Give_A_Tortilla 2 years ago
had that happen cus the girl who hurt me had her obsessive mom working at the school
Cajun Affiliates 2 years ago
This is exactly why my teens are homeschooled. The powers that be at public school chose victim blaming over addressing the problem.
H.c Ch 2 years ago
Sorry to say he right in a sense thou, only way ti deal with bully is fight back. Telling teacher or adult don't work, they can't be with you 24hr a day. You want to stop a bully grab a baseball bat beat him with it. How much you wanna bet your bully problem will be solved. Everyone need to stop saying violence don't solve our problem, but it does. In the case of bullies.
Catastrophisticate 2 years ago
Teachers, principal, counsellors... I got 6 years of "just ignore them and they will stop". It didn't.
Marissa Wolff 2 years ago
I really hate that piece of advice because it never works. Ignoring mean people doesn't make them stop harassing you, it actually makes them KEEP harassing you.
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Brandon Parisien 2 years ago
I told mine a student had a gun out, in class. He did: nothing. Not a damn thing.
Marissa Wolff 2 years ago
I reported a student for almost burning another student (who was pne of my friends) alive with his dad's lighter he had in his zip-up hoodie pocket in my high school and the dean, principal and superintendent had spend time in the detention room for a full week and he had Saturday school too. We used to be friends, but not anymore after that, which made me happy.
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Karen Philpott 2 years ago
Had that happen to my kids. Yes he was not the best principal I'd ever had to deal with.
Mary Lugo 2 years ago
Attacked, physically and verbally, by another male teacher. I was told I was being too confrontational. Does that make two spineless worms?
SkyBlueandBlack 2 years ago
Ah. My teacher watched my bully pull a chunk of hair out of my head, rolled her eyes, and turned her back. I grabbed his hair and pulled his head down to the floor. Long story short, my parents were friends with the principal, which I knew and she learned the hard way.
Ashen Brooks (They/Them) 2 years ago
I got harassed last year when I told the principal that it was because I told them I went by they/them she said "look, you cant expect us to all feel comfortable" even though I said "I dont care if they dont call me by these, but I personally dont think they should be assaulting me like this" because they had been pulling on my hood and pulling me to the ground, causing dizziness, but the guys said I threatened them and so she let them off the hook..
RafCo (he/him) 2 years ago
That was the era. All adults were like that before the 90s, and probably well into the 90s. My step dad told me to find a weapon and make them regret it. That was just the way things were, spare the rod, spoil the child, and all that c**p.
Biana Weatherford 2 years ago
My mother contacted the principal of the school who said the same thing. So she called the district attorney. Who said the same thing. So she kept working her way up. They couldn't provide a safe environment for me to learn. Took about 3 months, but they got it.
Lizzie Lola 2 years ago
Similar, but different. HS drama class, learning theater makeup, teacher made a "black eye" on a student. Student went to office saying she'd bit him. Teacher gets called down, "Did you touch it?" Office, "NO! It looks really painful!" Teacher wipes makeup off students face, office is befuddled.
Sarah SH 2 years ago
At a school in a nearby community two groups of kids got into a big fight. One group wearing shirts that said Black Lives Matter and the other wearing White Lives Matter shirts. Only one group got suspended.
Marissa Wolff 2 years ago
It had to be the WLM students that got suspended from school because they're racist.
Load More Replies... RedBadgerCan'tSwim 2 years ago
When/where I went to high school (USA/20yrs ago), we didn't report bullies. Either the person being bullied, or one of their friends, clocked the bully in the jaw. If it got worse we went off campus and settled it. Not saying violence is the best solution but it usually worked.
Hobby Hopper 2 years ago
I don't know if I could trust myself to do that. I feel like I'd let my anger get the best of me and either kill someone or end up dead myself. Just another reason I avoid fighting. I know they say dudes can fight and end up best friends, but I must be weird, because I'm not built that way. To me, physical violence is a line you don't cross unless you're prepared to kill or be killed.
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Marissa Wolff 2 years ago
Okay, wow! I've had this same thing happen to me on Facebook; I'd be getting bullied in a group I'm in and then the blame would be put on me instead of the members who actually were treating me like s**t and then I would be banned from the group.
Brian Dean 2 years ago (edited)
Without saying what was said. Got in a fight with a kid using racial slurs and he was allowed to return to class while I got suspended for 3 days, the principal just asked me and I quote "well are you?"
Maple Porkly 2 years ago
I had this happen to me. Was in my school for 7 years (started in preschool), the kids was new. Principal said I could go to a different school if I had a problem. It later escalated to the parent of that kid yelling at me as I walked home from school. I didn't want to leave my school so I said nothing and just lived with it until I graduated from that school two years later.
Michelle Rever 2 years ago
I was THE kid everyone bullied, and I remember in elementary school something had happened. I can't tell you what, because what stuck with me was the vice principal saying, "What happened NOW, Michelle?" with utter contempt for me in her voice. She wasn't nearly as bad as my math teacher, who was just so cruel. She made me feel so stupid that I actually lost skills.
michele mbennett1010@att.net 2 years ago
Gaslighting at its finest! That is where this behavior is learned, right from the professionals.
#21
"The higher you go up on a mountain the hotter it gets because you're getting closer to the sun" - my 5th grade teacher
#22
That in a court of law we are guilty until proven innocent. She confidently told us that multiple times, pretty sure she got it backwards
Zia Barrett 2 years ago
O.o It being the other way around is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of democracy...
#23
I had a primary school teacher ask the class how many hours were in a day. I proudly put up my hand and said '24'. She said no. So someone else said 12. She said no.
Her answer was 8. There are 8 hours in a say. I still don't know whether she was trying to ask about a work/school day, but asking 8 yr olds doesn't really clarify that, especially when she said in a day.
#25
"You'll never be successful at anything you do." Adjusted for inflation, I probably make 3 times her salary. F**k you Mrs G.
#26
I had a religion teacher tell us that humans evolved simultaneously across the world at the same time. This was proof of a "miracle." I insisted we all came from Africa and then spread out.
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
the argument that we evolved separately is to try prove we're different species and therefore race is real. not surprising from a religious person.
#27
I remember an elementary school teacher warning us to not accept apples on Halloween, cuz some people put razorblades in them. I mean, wouldnt you see the big fat cut on the apple?
#28
I was told in no uncertain terms that the match in shape between Africa and South America was coincidental.
*edit* That is to say: The match between the Western coastline of Africa and the Eastern coastline of South America.
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
I noticed this in kindergarten and pointed it out... If a 5 yearold can figure this out, so can a teacher. Unless she's a young earth creationist. Guessing from these being american posts, I'm going with young earther.
#29
That when you get to middle school and high school, the teachers won’t constantly remind you of assignments that are approaching their due dates, or hunt you down for missing assignments
i_like_boats 2 years ago
When I was little my 1st grade teacher told we would only be allowed to sit a certain way in 2nd grade so we should practice sitting “criss cross applesauce”. Yeah, second grade teacher didn’t care
#30
Not many people know this but the USA bombed Pearl Harbour. We’re Canadian, but still, an adult should know better.
Ari (they/them) 2 years ago (edited)
Destroy your own military base as a world war is raging around you. Completely logical. Edit: I know that sometimes military bases are destroyed on purpose (but usually when they are retreating)
#31
That teaching multiplication tables as fast as possible is the best way to do it. No. Speeding through teaching each set (like blowing through a set a week) and having timed tests set me up for complete failure. The timed tests made me so anxious I couldn't think straight enough to correctly answer the ones I actually had the chance to try and answer. Then of course all the ones left undone were counted against you. I don't think I ever managed to fill one of those things completely out before the timer went off. The saddest part is even though I was visibly struggling and failing the subject the teacher never seemed to see that as a red flag and attempt to help me. And math builds on itself so after the multiplication tables everything else I ever had to learn was way harder than it needed to be. If more time was taken to teach each set, ending with a normal non-timed test, I would probably know my multiplication tables today. But I don't. I was also told I'd never graduate without knowing my multiplication tables, that was also a lie
Fluffy mommy panda 2 years ago
Or if you do 9×3 it be 3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3=9 You take what ever and make it what ever number your times it with that many. Another one 4×3 4+4+4=12 But in everyday life you don't really need it unless your job calls for it.
#32
I teach high school. I had a student recently tell me that she was nervous that all the detentions she got at her old school because of being late to school would remain on her record. She was so relieved when I told her that they wouldn't.
#33
That I will I will never amount to anything
Fluffy mommy panda 2 years ago
I'm so sorry a teacher should never say that and get in big trouble for saying that. She is just a big bully. And don't need to be working in any educational system.
#34
Never start a sentence with “because.”
#35
I live in Germany and my teacher told us poor 3rd graders who knew little to no english in Sex Ed that "Sex" by definition means abusing someone. I think about that a lot and I still have no idea why she would tell us that.
#36
The sun was on fire 🤦♀️ wasn't til last year that my boyfriend reminded me that fire needs oxygen and the sun is a nuclear fusion. Los Angeles Public School system guys.
#37
I had a teacher try telling me you sweat urine and that's why you smell when you sweat. Naturally as a young gullible I believed it because your teacher is supposed to be right, and went home telling my parents that who then told me the truth.
#38
middle school not elementary, but my sixth grade _science teacher_ told the class that sound travels faster than light because “if a plane is flying overhead, you hear it before you see it!”
Fluffy mommy panda 2 years ago
That makes no sense what so ever......because there was no example of light.
#39
I went to a catholic school and our mascot was the Pelicans. They told us they chose the Pelicans because when pelicans can't find enough food, the mother pelican will tear off pieces of her own flesh to feed her children. I learned as an adult that this is a complete myth.
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
well they did teach you other complete myths at that school as well. The myth of the pelican is a metaphor for jesus sacrificing himself for his children (us). once you are a grownup you realise both are myths.
#40
"The ash at Pompeii sealed everything up so well that bakers' ovens were found containing bread that was still fresh enough to eat!" Yeah, no. The very idea is completely preposterous.
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
no the ash was at like 800 degrees centigrade so it basically vaporised anything organic, leaving hollow moulds of peoples' bodies.
#41
That "A lot" should be "Alot". I always got that red pen underline bringing them together and lost marks. I'll never let that go.
#42
The teacher when talking about being left handed and right handed, stated that if you write with your right hand that you kick with your right foot. I had to correct her as I'm ambidextrous. I can write with both hands and kick with both feet. I loved playing footy as a kid and would annoy people a lot. The issue is the rules in some sports as I would get told off when I would switch hands. Table tennis/Ping pong, badminton was a no, but it was allowed in baseball and cricket. People weren't happy with me changing hands. Aren't you supposed to play to your advantage?
JoJo Anisko 2 years ago
I'm a right-hander who deals cards with my left. No, not slipping any off the bottom of the deck or up my sleeve. 😚
#43
In Junior High I had a social studies teacher that told the story of her friend who got a raise and ended up taking home less money because of the taxes... no wonder that myth is so prevalent in my province.
Zia Barrett 2 years ago
The new tax band only taxes at that higher rate the amount of money above that number, not all of it. For context.
#45
Christopher Columbus proved the Earth was round.
#47
I’ll never forget my year 2 teacher telling the class that “crayon” is the only word with the letter y in the middle. Even as a child, I knew that was utter bollocks lol
#48
That it's weird that you can write with both hands, pick one and stick with it. I could've had horrible chicken scratch handwriting with both hands instead of just one! For that I'll never forgive my kindergarten teacher.
Zia Barrett 2 years ago
Same, ad "picking" my left one because I could write with it longer before it would hurt got my right hand tied to the chair so I couldn't switch hands when it did hurt.
#49
OP here with just a quick example: I have this one really clear memory of a teacher at some point in my early school-years coming up with this really weird explanation of the Moon's existence. Someone asked her something about the Moon and where it was from or why it existed and she ended up saying that the Moon was actually part of the Earth that broke off (maybe true by some theories?), but she claimed that it happened in like the 70s lmao (definitely not true).
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
Yes that is was part of earth is one of the theories. But to congeal into a neat ball would imply it happened like 4 billion years ago when we were still a mere accretion disk or hot ball of lava.
#50
You will need to write in cursive once you get to middle school and beyond.
7th grade teachers explicitly prohibited kids turning essays in written in cursive. Don't think I ever saw it in high school, college, or throughout my career except from older people.
Tushar Roy Mukherjee 2 years ago
I still write in cursive. Find it easier than making a break for every character.
#51
My third grade teacher said that if you're close to them clouds don't look like clouds, but like dew. I was really surprised the first time I was in an airplane and saw that clouds do indeed look like clouds.
#52
That you can’t have thunder and lightening at the same time as a tornado. Got marks taken off a drawing for that.
#53
That in high-school, you not only need to memorize the answers to the questions, but you also have to memorize the questions as well. Apparently, according to my teacher, you were just handed a blank piece of paper 💀
#54
My middle and high school English teachers insisted that annotating novels was going to be a vital skill for college and life beyond that. I didn't have to annotate a single book since high school.
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
it depends on whether you go into academia or politics. In either you end up reading long documents as PDF form and need to annotate them to remember your thoughts on the document as you go.
#56
That you're supposed to start every word with a capital letter
#57
That middle and high school teachers were super strict and wouldn't put up with any of our BS because they would put everything on our "permanent record."
#58
That 9 9s is 83. Which she then went on to prove, to her own satisfaction, using a Snakes and Ladders board.
#59
That white fire was the hottest fire
What do you think ?
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 2 years ago
I’ve told this story before but in kindergarten, I had a teacher tell the entire class that there were no marine mammals and dolphins were fish. My nerdy a*s corrected her, and I got sent to the principal’s office. I got a lecture on you can’t fix stupid, and she got embarrassed by a 5-y/o
crowspectre (he/they) 2 years ago
Wait till she learns about whales. Or seals if you define them as marine
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What_the_actual_sloth? 2 years ago
Wasn't so much teaching; moreso teacher/student conflict. Im epileptic and often seized in the middle of class in Year4. My teacher (Miss Hodgekins- deserves to be shamed) would yell at me regardless of the fact that I couldn't hear her. She would send letters home stating that I am ignorant and refuse to pay attention and often disrupt the class with weird noises. She called my seizures "daydreams" and my mother was livid. She stormed up the school and tore her a new one. Bear in mind I was 9 years old. This was a PRIMARY SCHOOL. A PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER! Wherever you may be Miss Hodgekins, I hope you step on a lego every day of your life until you do.
Onyx May 2 years ago
Atonic seizures exist. I also got in an argument with a teacher about this
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Carbonel 2 years ago
From my daughters primary school, only a couple of years ago: that we have Easter eggs because the rock that was in front of Jesus’ tomb was shaped like an egg: that Mary Seacole was not a suitable subject for a project on famous women as the teacher had never heard of her.
Colin 2 years ago
The British Hotel nurse. Teacher probably never heard of the Crimea War either.
Load More Replies... T5n 2 years ago
Im going to preface this by noting that I’m tolerant of all religions. But I was teaching geology to some homeschool students and was showing a fossil shell imprint that was found in Colorado . When I asked the kids how they think it got to Colorado (which has been underwater six times throughout geological history), the mother(their homeschool teacher) immediately insisted it was a flood, despite me holding physical proof that a shell(one of many ) had imprinted via natural geological/biological processes. I just gave up (since she was adamant about it)and went from teaching science to “look how cool these rocks are” so she wouldn’t interject again. She took her kids and stormed off afterwards. Don’t ask about science if you aren’t prepared to learn science.
Frozengeckolover 2 years ago
I was also homeschooled for part of my childhood. A lot of homeschool curriculum is very religious. Evolution is refuted, "God did it" is the explanation for a lot of things, and the Noah flood is the basis for a lot of lessons across various subjects. My mom bought some books at a book fair that were full of religious rhetoric, presented as factual information. (ex. God created the earth exactly as it is today. He made beautiful things for us to enjoy, like the Grand Canyon. All of this has existed for exactly 6,000 years). The books were also sexist; with an entire social studies lesson on why women are inferior human beings. They threw out that set of books when they realized how awful they were. My parents were very religious, but they did try to keep an open mind.
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Nitka Tsar 2 years ago
They don‘t exist! They are unicorns of the sea! /s
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Old Roadie 2 years ago
Arizona desert, 1956: found seashells all over yard, took them to Show 'n Tell. Teacher not impressed, said they were souvenirs from a beach trip. I checked cousins and neighbors' yards. Shells embedded in rock all over neighborhood. Teacher *should have told our class about the ancient inland sea that covered much of the area ...but no ...she said all the neighborhood finds were beach souvenirs. Right... someone brought home buckets of fossilized shells to scatter around neighborhood.
Ash 2 years ago
My mom once worked as a teacher's aide in a 3rd-grade class where they had a long-term sub who told the kids that there were 5 continents (in the US we define them as 7 continents), that the Arctic was a continent, and that owls were mammals. My mom was horrified.
Vix Spiderthrust 2 years ago
Wait, so if the Arctic is a continent, what were the other four continents he recognised? Laurasia, Gondwanaland, Micronesia and the moon?
Load More Replies... No Way 2 years ago
I had a sex ed teacher tell us that guys knew when a girl was on her period because they could smell it :(
Ru Bee 2 years ago
If they are giraffes then yup seems legit...was it a giraffe sex ed class? ...oh wait no that's if they are fertile... my bad.
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HarperTheCentaur (they/them) 2 years ago
I can't remember now what the problem was, but my teacher was once stumped with a math problem because she got a different answer than the one in the grade book and couldn't figure out what she did wrong. I ended up explaining it to her and the class. It was very satisfying considering that teacher hated my guts and would verbally harass and gaslight me (literally, as in she tried to convince me I was crazy and that the Devil was speaking to me) on a near daily basis. F**k you, Ms. Harris.
Marilyn Russell 2 years ago
She probably knew you were smarter than her and was intimidated by a child. Just because teachers are adults and supposed to be mature and responsible, doesn’t mean they actually grew up and learned life lessons.
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Raine Soo 2 years ago
When I was in the sixth grade, our class had a weekly spelling bee. The opposing team had to spell my word, which was 'invincible'. The teacher said that she had never heard of that word before. I answered "Yeah, it exists. It means 'to not be beaten''." To her credit, she believed me.
Marilyn Russell 2 years ago
I bet there are a few thousand words in the dictionary she also hasn’t heard of…
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Phoenix the Frog 2 years ago
I had a S.S teacher who said autism was because cavemen didn't eat enough vegetables. Also a friend's brother has a Science teacher who does not believe in evolution.
Hoody Hoo 2 years ago
Got sent to the Principal's office for correcting a teacher who said the Lost Colony was in present-day Roanoke, VA. It was in present-day Manteo, NC, which was part of the Virginia COLONY, not the current state. I knew this because my family lived there every summer, but the teacher was insistent. Never admitted she was wrong, either.
CrazyKnitter 2 years ago
My first grade teacher was antisemitic and did a lot of passive aggressive behavior, but what I still remember is right before Christmas break all the other kids got presents of stuffed animals and candy and I got nothing. When my parents complained, she gave me a small Santa ornament.
Jessica Avery 2 years ago
This makes me so glad I went to a DOD school most of my life... We apparently took better care to get competent teachers cause I never had any experiences like this
Ava Leal 2 years ago
In high school, my Marine Biology teacher kept using Giant and Colossal squid designations interchangeably. I informed him they're actually two species of squid and the terms are not interchangeable. He denied it and moved on with class, continuing to use them this way. I went home that night and printed out pages from the internet that included their exact taxonomies, which showed them as separate species, and brought them into class the next day. The teacher thought it was pretty cool that he could still learn something about his own topic, so that was neat.
fogharty 2 years ago
Was told if I didn’t learn touch typing I’d never get a job as a secretary.
Seabeast 2 years ago
I wonder how long ago many of these experiences occurred? There was a time when women who went to college pretty much got the choice of being nurse, being a teacher, or finding someone to marry. There were probably a lot of them still teaching some 20 or 30 years after that was no longer the case.
Old Roadie 2 years ago
Circa 1960s: denied science career. Girls had 2Choice Plan: Homemaking and Secretarial.
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Fritz Dygert 2 years ago
My first day in Kindergarten my teacher read my last name and stated that it was wrong. There was no such last name as mine. I went home crying because my parents had given me the wrong last name The next day my mom straightened out that teacher.
Maple Porkly 2 years ago
I had a terrible sex ed teacher one year who told the class that boys can have sex with any girl without consequence but girls will hurt and bleed and get a disease from everyone they do it with. I think it was a scare tactic for the girls to reduce teen pregnancy but why single us girls out? The same year we had a wonderful student teacher who gave us a great exercise on sexism. He gave us professions and told us to give the person a name (no pictures, just the job). For example, a bus driver and you could say Joe or Sally or whatever. After about 20 of these he asked how many were given man names and how many were women names. My parents were old fashioned so I was taught that unless I wanted to be a teacher or nurse I was a mom and nothing more. So of course all but one had a man name. He gave me hope for my future to not just be a vessel for babies. Wish I could remember his name.
Haunted Human 2 years ago (edited)
Tenth grade world geography "coach" insisted there are 8 continents & year after year would mark any other answer wrong... until my Mom arrived to take the matter up with the principle. You'd have thought he would have learned the 1st time when my older brother was in his class, but he clearly needed a refresher course when I got him 5 years later. Central America, if you're wondering.
hereforthecatpics 2 years ago
My sister’s teacher told her to measure from the end of the ruler. Not a metal one, a plastic one where the end is about a cm before 0.
Marilyn Russell 2 years ago
Well I guess I had pretty good teachers back as a kid in the mid 70’s and 80’s, but I was also curious and read a lot myself about anything that interested me.
Rhon Young 2 years ago
I was told that the suburb my aunt and uncle lived in in Sydney was not in Sydney but in Melbourne. Funny it never seemed to take that long to visit them for the day!
Angie Falzarano 2 years ago (edited)
In elementary school we had these reading things called SRA and RFUs. You read the story and then answered questions about what you read. Each had its own number so that you could mark which ones you had done on the list. Having done this for about 2 yrs I knew how to mark them. But a new teacher told me I was wrong. That I mark number 1 then the next one I mark number and so on even though I did like #30. Went home very upset. Mom called the teacher. He went back and realized his error and apologized. Drama director in HS told me I did nothing when I received an award from my peers saying I wouldn't have received it had it been her. I put a lot of hours in with drama. I have put costumes together that Ive won awards on (nothing fancy just put together from several different pieces I find or have). I always do a raspberry at her name with every new costume and specially with an award in my hand. Miss yarborough you were an #!!#!#!
Suzy Creamcheese 2 years ago
(sigh) I don't remember teachers being this stupid when I was a kid.
BookDragon 2 years ago
To be fair, not all teachers are like this. Mine are very clever and always willing to learn new things. (I'm 15 btw, so there's still some sane teachers nowadays)
Load More Replies... and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 2 years ago
I’ve told this story before but in kindergarten, I had a teacher tell the entire class that there were no marine mammals and dolphins were fish. My nerdy a*s corrected her, and I got sent to the principal’s office. I got a lecture on you can’t fix stupid, and she got embarrassed by a 5-y/o
crowspectre (he/they) 2 years ago
Wait till she learns about whales. Or seals if you define them as marine
Load More Replies... What_the_actual_sloth? 2 years ago
Wasn't so much teaching; moreso teacher/student conflict. Im epileptic and often seized in the middle of class in Year4. My teacher (Miss Hodgekins- deserves to be shamed) would yell at me regardless of the fact that I couldn't hear her. She would send letters home stating that I am ignorant and refuse to pay attention and often disrupt the class with weird noises. She called my seizures "daydreams" and my mother was livid. She stormed up the school and tore her a new one. Bear in mind I was 9 years old. This was a PRIMARY SCHOOL. A PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER! Wherever you may be Miss Hodgekins, I hope you step on a lego every day of your life until you do.
Onyx May 2 years ago
Atonic seizures exist. I also got in an argument with a teacher about this
Load More Replies... Carbonel 2 years ago
From my daughters primary school, only a couple of years ago: that we have Easter eggs because the rock that was in front of Jesus’ tomb was shaped like an egg: that Mary Seacole was not a suitable subject for a project on famous women as the teacher had never heard of her.
Colin 2 years ago
The British Hotel nurse. Teacher probably never heard of the Crimea War either.
Load More Replies... T5n 2 years ago
Im going to preface this by noting that I’m tolerant of all religions. But I was teaching geology to some homeschool students and was showing a fossil shell imprint that was found in Colorado . When I asked the kids how they think it got to Colorado (which has been underwater six times throughout geological history), the mother(their homeschool teacher) immediately insisted it was a flood, despite me holding physical proof that a shell(one of many ) had imprinted via natural geological/biological processes. I just gave up (since she was adamant about it)and went from teaching science to “look how cool these rocks are” so she wouldn’t interject again. She took her kids and stormed off afterwards. Don’t ask about science if you aren’t prepared to learn science.
Frozengeckolover 2 years ago
I was also homeschooled for part of my childhood. A lot of homeschool curriculum is very religious. Evolution is refuted, "God did it" is the explanation for a lot of things, and the Noah flood is the basis for a lot of lessons across various subjects. My mom bought some books at a book fair that were full of religious rhetoric, presented as factual information. (ex. God created the earth exactly as it is today. He made beautiful things for us to enjoy, like the Grand Canyon. All of this has existed for exactly 6,000 years). The books were also sexist; with an entire social studies lesson on why women are inferior human beings. They threw out that set of books when they realized how awful they were. My parents were very religious, but they did try to keep an open mind.
Load More Replies... Nitka Tsar 2 years ago
They don‘t exist! They are unicorns of the sea! /s
Load More Replies... Old Roadie 2 years ago
Arizona desert, 1956: found seashells all over yard, took them to Show 'n Tell. Teacher not impressed, said they were souvenirs from a beach trip. I checked cousins and neighbors' yards. Shells embedded in rock all over neighborhood. Teacher *should have told our class about the ancient inland sea that covered much of the area ...but no ...she said all the neighborhood finds were beach souvenirs. Right... someone brought home buckets of fossilized shells to scatter around neighborhood.
Ash 2 years ago
My mom once worked as a teacher's aide in a 3rd-grade class where they had a long-term sub who told the kids that there were 5 continents (in the US we define them as 7 continents), that the Arctic was a continent, and that owls were mammals. My mom was horrified.
Vix Spiderthrust 2 years ago
Wait, so if the Arctic is a continent, what were the other four continents he recognised? Laurasia, Gondwanaland, Micronesia and the moon?
Load More Replies... No Way 2 years ago
I had a sex ed teacher tell us that guys knew when a girl was on her period because they could smell it :(
Ru Bee 2 years ago
If they are giraffes then yup seems legit...was it a giraffe sex ed class? ...oh wait no that's if they are fertile... my bad.
Load More Replies... HarperTheCentaur (they/them) 2 years ago
I can't remember now what the problem was, but my teacher was once stumped with a math problem because she got a different answer than the one in the grade book and couldn't figure out what she did wrong. I ended up explaining it to her and the class. It was very satisfying considering that teacher hated my guts and would verbally harass and gaslight me (literally, as in she tried to convince me I was crazy and that the Devil was speaking to me) on a near daily basis. F**k you, Ms. Harris.
Marilyn Russell 2 years ago
She probably knew you were smarter than her and was intimidated by a child. Just because teachers are adults and supposed to be mature and responsible, doesn’t mean they actually grew up and learned life lessons.
Load More Replies... Raine Soo 2 years ago
When I was in the sixth grade, our class had a weekly spelling bee. The opposing team had to spell my word, which was 'invincible'. The teacher said that she had never heard of that word before. I answered "Yeah, it exists. It means 'to not be beaten''." To her credit, she believed me.
Marilyn Russell 2 years ago
I bet there are a few thousand words in the dictionary she also hasn’t heard of…
Load More Replies... Phoenix the Frog 2 years ago
I had a S.S teacher who said autism was because cavemen didn't eat enough vegetables. Also a friend's brother has a Science teacher who does not believe in evolution.
Hoody Hoo 2 years ago
Got sent to the Principal's office for correcting a teacher who said the Lost Colony was in present-day Roanoke, VA. It was in present-day Manteo, NC, which was part of the Virginia COLONY, not the current state. I knew this because my family lived there every summer, but the teacher was insistent. Never admitted she was wrong, either.
CrazyKnitter 2 years ago
My first grade teacher was antisemitic and did a lot of passive aggressive behavior, but what I still remember is right before Christmas break all the other kids got presents of stuffed animals and candy and I got nothing. When my parents complained, she gave me a small Santa ornament.
Jessica Avery 2 years ago
This makes me so glad I went to a DOD school most of my life... We apparently took better care to get competent teachers cause I never had any experiences like this
Ava Leal 2 years ago
In high school, my Marine Biology teacher kept using Giant and Colossal squid designations interchangeably. I informed him they're actually two species of squid and the terms are not interchangeable. He denied it and moved on with class, continuing to use them this way. I went home that night and printed out pages from the internet that included their exact taxonomies, which showed them as separate species, and brought them into class the next day. The teacher thought it was pretty cool that he could still learn something about his own topic, so that was neat.
fogharty 2 years ago
Was told if I didn’t learn touch typing I’d never get a job as a secretary.
Seabeast 2 years ago
I wonder how long ago many of these experiences occurred? There was a time when women who went to college pretty much got the choice of being nurse, being a teacher, or finding someone to marry. There were probably a lot of them still teaching some 20 or 30 years after that was no longer the case.
Old Roadie 2 years ago
Circa 1960s: denied science career. Girls had 2Choice Plan: Homemaking and Secretarial.
Load More Replies... Fritz Dygert 2 years ago
My first day in Kindergarten my teacher read my last name and stated that it was wrong. There was no such last name as mine. I went home crying because my parents had given me the wrong last name The next day my mom straightened out that teacher.
Maple Porkly 2 years ago
I had a terrible sex ed teacher one year who told the class that boys can have sex with any girl without consequence but girls will hurt and bleed and get a disease from everyone they do it with. I think it was a scare tactic for the girls to reduce teen pregnancy but why single us girls out? The same year we had a wonderful student teacher who gave us a great exercise on sexism. He gave us professions and told us to give the person a name (no pictures, just the job). For example, a bus driver and you could say Joe or Sally or whatever. After about 20 of these he asked how many were given man names and how many were women names. My parents were old fashioned so I was taught that unless I wanted to be a teacher or nurse I was a mom and nothing more. So of course all but one had a man name. He gave me hope for my future to not just be a vessel for babies. Wish I could remember his name.
Haunted Human 2 years ago (edited)
Tenth grade world geography "coach" insisted there are 8 continents & year after year would mark any other answer wrong... until my Mom arrived to take the matter up with the principle. You'd have thought he would have learned the 1st time when my older brother was in his class, but he clearly needed a refresher course when I got him 5 years later. Central America, if you're wondering.
hereforthecatpics 2 years ago
My sister’s teacher told her to measure from the end of the ruler. Not a metal one, a plastic one where the end is about a cm before 0.
Marilyn Russell 2 years ago
Well I guess I had pretty good teachers back as a kid in the mid 70’s and 80’s, but I was also curious and read a lot myself about anything that interested me.
Rhon Young 2 years ago
I was told that the suburb my aunt and uncle lived in in Sydney was not in Sydney but in Melbourne. Funny it never seemed to take that long to visit them for the day!
Angie Falzarano 2 years ago (edited)
In elementary school we had these reading things called SRA and RFUs. You read the story and then answered questions about what you read. Each had its own number so that you could mark which ones you had done on the list. Having done this for about 2 yrs I knew how to mark them. But a new teacher told me I was wrong. That I mark number 1 then the next one I mark number and so on even though I did like #30. Went home very upset. Mom called the teacher. He went back and realized his error and apologized. Drama director in HS told me I did nothing when I received an award from my peers saying I wouldn't have received it had it been her. I put a lot of hours in with drama. I have put costumes together that Ive won awards on (nothing fancy just put together from several different pieces I find or have). I always do a raspberry at her name with every new costume and specially with an award in my hand. Miss yarborough you were an #!!#!#!
Suzy Creamcheese 2 years ago
(sigh) I don't remember teachers being this stupid when I was a kid.
BookDragon 2 years ago
To be fair, not all teachers are like this. Mine are very clever and always willing to learn new things. (I'm 15 btw, so there's still some sane teachers nowadays)
Load More Replies...
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