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People Share Stories About Jerk Teachers That “Radicalized” Them In Their Youth (30 Tweets)
Going to school is supposed to be one of the best chapters of your life as you learn about the world and get taught all the skills that you need for adulthood. And teachers are supposed to be your mentors and sometimes even your friends. Unfortunately, this romantic idea of what school should be like doesn’t always match up with reality.
Justin Boldaji shared a story on Twitter about how his science teacher gave him a lower mark on his test because he doodled monsters in the margins of the paper. He then asked other internet users to share their own stories about how and when they became “radicalized” in school. Upvote the stories that resonated with you, dear Pandas, and drop us a comment if anything similar has happened to you in school. Be sure to scroll down for Bored Panda's interview with Justin.
Justin’s story moved a lot of people who thought that they had a lot in common with him. His post got more than 225k likes and was retweeted 16.8k times and lots of Twitter users went on to explain what jerk teachers they had to deal with in their school days.
Image credits: justinboldaji
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I think the teacher needs to go back to school to learn and not teach.
My husband got a poor grade on an creative writing paper in college because he wrote a story about two guys talking about what seemed to be a mob hit involving "getting rid of the bodies" only to find out it was a nervous father hiring a man to get rid of his kids goldfish that had died under his care. His reason...He didn't like stories with twist endings like that.
Imagine reading a story and having it do exactly what you expect it to. that's a boring-a*s story.
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Had the same problem in philosophy when I did my A level. Teacher gave me a text, made me compare Locke to Rousseau and asked for my opinion (giving examples from the text as justification) and gave me zero points for that part. I unknowingly disagreed strongly with her opinion. And my parents got mad at me for that. :D
OMG this exact thing happened to me but it was an open opinion case. So I wrote on the hell's angels (I always tried to do something different) and I wrote about all the good as opposed to all the bad they are known for. Such as they're yearly toy drive for needy kids etc. The professor said my opinion was wrong. I was like wtf???
How dare you look for good in others!! Or have an opinion.
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My philosophy teacher was like that. After 5 weeks I quit class because no matter what my opinion was, I was "wrong". Stupid fuckass. Glad I never met that guy again.
You should have written, "Yours, too." Then get back to your teacher to get an A.
Professors often need their egos stroked. In college, I took a class on existentialism. I noticed that the professor would often negate the opinions of students during class discussion. So, when it came to writing my papers, I mirrored what he lectured. I aced the course because I knew how to play his game. I realize that it does suck for people with original thought.
Some people just always wanna be right and not listen to others opinions not very fair if you ask me
If someone can JUSTIFY their opinion with facts or excerpts from a book, they should get credit for it. If they've just made something up out of whole cloth, then no credit. I mean, if I said Oliver Twist's main theme was that child labor is a good thing, then I'd probably have a hard time supporting that conclusion. But it's POSSIBLE that someone could weave together a theory that child labor allowed Oliver to leave the poor house/orphanage and support himself with the dignity of work and then, by working with Fagin's gang of pickpockets and thieves, he learned to work as part of a team, and it served as a stepping stone toward his ultimate better life, or some such nonsense -- if the argument doesn't have any obvious holes and there's internal evidence in the book to be cited, a good professor would give you credit for constructing an effective argument, even if they disagreed with your thesis.
that happened to me too. 0 out of 20 points. the teacher also just wrote "your opinion is wrong" on the sheet.
Sounds like philosophy lol. I failed twice because of opinion essays 😂
very common in college, I know someone who wrote views 180 from his own to get good grades from some very politicized professors. Very common
I did something similar - I reviewed a paper and added that I disagreed with the opinion in the paper. Got a low grade because of this.
And this is how we end up with a president who believes that his half-baked opinions are better than, you know, actual verifiable facts.
The Chinese teaching systen works that way. Practice TOEFL writing tasks often ask for your opinion on an issue. On setting such a task to a class for the first time I was met with complaints. "But teacher you haven't told us what our opinion is yet".
I had to write a paper explaining my personal philosophy of music education. The teacher kept making major changes on it and handing it back to me to continue working on. My final draft got me an A in the class because I finally figured out that what she wanted was HER philosophy of music education. Not mine.
That's the purpose of school. Making everyone think the same.
When I went to school, we studied "The Visit" from Dürrenmatt and we had to judge the behavior of the main character. I said that she was a evil person and her "justice" was in fact revenge..teacher wasn' t happy, bad grade. 25 years later, my daughter had to answer the same question, she thought the main character was in his right and did well. Teacher not happy, bad grade :-)
If I could have just written "no" for more than a few essay prompts...
That is exactly right...they just want unison repetition of whatever they spout. went in the opposite direction from their "greatness of America" nonsense and argued in favor of the omnipotent police state, and that the administrators of our city's schools should emulate the SS. As this was New York in the late 1970s, and my teachers and administrators were virtually all Jews who had grown up in the shadow of World War II, I accomplished my objective of scaring the living hell out of them.
Sometimes when an author writes that the carpet was threadbare they just mean it was old nd not making a comment on the downfall of morals in society .
At a Catholic university in the mid-1970s, my instructor in Old Testament Prophets, a nun, threatened to give me an F for the entire course unless I got my opinions in line with Church teachings. I told her that being Jewish, I was not bound by Church doctrine or her interpretation. Neither the department chair nor the academic VP would help me, so I went to the "Vice President of Special Projects", with whom I got along splendidly, and he pushed a button or two (I think a threat to have her cloistered for a whole year was part of it), and two days later she asked me if a B without having to take the final would make him back off. Ossified church doctrine is powerful. Knowing the right people is more powerful.
The person in the position as a teacher did not know how to TEACH. How about: "See me, I'd like to hear more about your viewpoint."
There is no teaching on how to think. The schools teach what to think
i once had to write an opinion about my country ( dont remember the exact name of the topic). i got D with a comment " your opinnion is too negative"
I have never understood teachers who want your opinion and then tell you it's wrong.
The never ask "your opinion" unless it's part of the curicullum to defend it. Ready to bet an old $2 they got the question wrong. Good answer to the wrong question as an old teacher used to say.
Learnt is much more common in British English than in American English.
Load More Replies... According to Justin, what happened to him in the 4th grade still bothers him to this day. "It’s a memory that resurfaces occasionally and I get angry about it all over again." He added that he didn't expect his thread to go viral and expected 10 to 15 likes at best.
Justin said that his teacher's actions didn't demotivate him or stop him from drawing: "If anything it made me realize even more clearly that I wanted to do something artistic for a living, because if someone hates monsters, they’re dead inside. Regarding my art these days, I have a kids book I’m self publishing in a month or two called 'The T. Rex With Fluff Who Wanted to be Tough.' It’s about a dinosaur who wants to be cool but thinks he can’t because of how he looks. It’s a book that I think will be able to help a lot of kids."
He also had some advice for people who are in school now and are having a rough time with their teachers. "School doesn’t last forever and you’re gonna deal with these jamokes in the professional world so never falter to the haters. Do your own thing always!" Justin said.
That's terrible. I assure you, people definitely love you even if you're fat.
How hard is it to accommodate something like that? It costs the teacher nothing. I've had students with bad eyes and would make big font assignments for them. It costs nothing
Even though we have high expectations from teachers, we sometimes forget that they’re human beings—they have flaws and, unfortunately, sometimes they punish their students for being creative or when they ‘step out of line.’ While other teachers can be straight-up bullies.
ThoughtCo. writes how an anonymous survey from 2006 showed that 45 percent of teachers admitted that they bullied a student at least once. Teachers can bully students because they lack the proper training in how children should be disciplined. Others might bully students because they are bullied in class themselves or were the victims of bullies when they were kids.
How did a teacher who never saw you before expect you to have homework?!
This c**p happened a lot to me because I would ace tests and throw off the curve on grading. I hated those curves. They were designed for bad teachers that hoped their poor teaching skills wouldn't result in half the class failing.
Alan McEvoy explains in a piece in Tolerance Magazine how students feel powerless and shamed when teachers target them. “Teacher bullying can also have a contagion effect, indicating to students that the bullying of a particular individual is acceptable and making the individual vulnerable to more abuse,” he adds.
You’d think that other teachers would step in and put a stop to their colleague’s actions, but this is wishful thinking. Sometimes, they’ll think that there’s nothing that they can do. While the teachers who bully their students defend themselves by saying how they’re ‘disciplining’ and ‘motivating’ their students or even try to write it off as a joke.
If you suspect that your child’s being bullied, it’s incredibly important that you support them, document all the times they were picked on by their teachers, talk to other parents to see if the problem’s bigger than you suspected.
Afterward, try meeting with the teacher and if that doesn’t work, go up the chain of command: have a chat with the principal, then the superintendent, then the school board.
I remember a friend in elementary school how could not bring materials for art class. Would be sitting there hour for hour, doing nothing, earning an E, ignored by the teachers. I was too young to fully understand, but I grasp he wanted but couldn't and no one with the power to change something would care.
My husband did an abstract art piece (painting) that had simple figures of people dancing outside the walls of a city while the city was burning. He proudly took it to class only to have the TA (professor was out) look at it and say, "No..that's not abstract..this is." And proceeded to take a paint brush and spattered black paint all over my husbands work. My husband was furious. So was I. IDGAF if you think it was wrong or not...you don't destroy someone else's work like that.
Had that happen too. Teacher insisted I must've plagiarized it. Tried to give me a failing grade. My mother went postal so the principal graded it himself looking up my references and reading it word by word. He gave it back to the English teacher and said "She earned an A." The teacher was furious..swears I got away with cheating. No one liked her in the school..not even the other teachers. Not surprising that she left after several of the parents threatened to sue if she wasn't fired backed by several of the good teachers threatening to resign.
Or you could argue you shouldn't be punished for not burning something down...
And teachers like this are why I don't "believe int he perfect teacher"...
I was the same. We were doing our GCSEs and reading in class. The teacher asked me a question and my response was "what page are you on" I'd read the text book about three times and was reading another book. Didn't go down well.
I would have marched into the principals office and stated breach of contract.
How does a high IQ make you a serial killer........i don't understand
Oh, yeah. They're stooping to below petty when they go after the ragged edges.
I took business classes in high school including Business Law. There was this one guy in class that liked me and showed it by pawing me during class. Every time I moved, he'd show up at the last minute and squeeze a chair in next to me so he could do it again. I finally yelled "Keep your hands off me!" The guy turned beet red and moved away. The teacher said "Is there a problem?" I replied "Not anymore." The guy sat on the opposite side of the room from me after that. Sorry your teacher was a douche apparently.
We once transferred mid-year in school. I'd learned cursive at the prior school. I had to not use it because the new school didn't do that till the next grade level.
My Finnish teacher claimed I didn't turn in my writings (some short story) at the previous class, because she couldn't find it in her papers. I calmly told her that I did and told her what it was about. I could see from her face that she remembered reading it and then she started panicing, what to do when she has lost my paper. I tried to calm her down and jokingly said that she could give me a 7 like all the previous papers. (I really thought it was funny that I got the same number from her to all my writings through the whole year.) That's when she lost it. She started bawling she can't even grade papers and ran to the teachers lounge to cry. Maybe she had a point, did she really give it any thought if all 10 papers got the same grade and I can't remember getting feedback how to improve. After that incident I remember getting better grades from her. Our grades went from 4-10, 10 being the best number and you could get halfs like 7.5 so teachers really could fine tune the grades.
Note: this post originally had 67 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Having to write up a school trip to an historical castle, I asked my teacher how to spell "oubliette" (a secret dungeon accessed via a trapdoor in the ceiling). I knew the word existed because a) the castle has one and b) any kid born in 1981 should know the word from the movie Labyrinth!! Suffice to say, she said it wasn't a word and I was talking nonsense. Worse still, she was also a French teacher. Clearly didn't know the verb, oublier, "to forget", which is where it's derived from.
Remember that walk-out that the kids did a few years back about gun violence? My art teacher threatened to bring a gun to that.
At my school, if there is a single gun in sight on the property, the police are called. It is a strict safety policy because there was a shooting about 13 years before I started
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My final year of high school the only calculus teacher had taught both my mother and my brother. They had terrible experiences with her and reported her conduct. She got reprimanded, not fired. Unfortunately, for my university program, I needed calculus, but they only averaged my 6 best marks, so just a pass was fine. At the time I was seeing a doctor once a week that made me 10 minutes late for her class on those days. After a few weeks she told the class I was pregnant and having morning sickness. I am male btw. She had many insults for me, but her favorite became asking when my baby was due. To make the situation worse I forgot the date our independent study was to be handed in. I had almost nothing done. Expecting nothing I went to ask for an extension, and was told not only was there no extensions, it was a course requirement and I would fail if I didn’t hand it in. So, I got what little I had and wrote my name and handed it in. I expected 0 but I got a negative grade, -13%.
In high school I had dyslexia. The guidance counselor went through my grades and tole me I was "Functionally Illiterate" and that I should find a job that didn't require reading or writing.
When I was in kindergarten, c. 1993, my very old teacher refused to accept that I was left handed. She would take any work I had done with my left hand, throw it away and make me start over. I couldn't figure out how to hold scissors in my right hand so I very gently ripped along the edges of the shape we were supposed to cut out...thought it would be ok since I didn't use my left hand. I was also a very shy kid, and she would berate me in front of the class constantly for being stupid. Parent teacher conferences come around and she tells my parents I'm incapable of learning and need to be in Special Ed...I didn't know my shapes, letters, number, etc. My parents were baffled. I finally told them that day how she wouldn't let me use my left hand.Next day my dad comes to school with me and takes me to class...asks me to write some stuff on the board, so I did, with my left hand. Takes the chalk from me and hands it to the teacher, 'She's not stupid, she's left handed'
He should have added: your case is just the opposite, you are not left-handed, you are stupid.
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Once, I was asked to leave class because "I talked". I said it was not me and the teacher said "I know but I still want you to leave" ...
My mother in law had to deal with just the worst teacher when it came to my brother in law. It was a photography class and the teacher had insisted at the end of the semester that my bro didn't turn in a single assignment and that he was stupid and deserved to fail. Well, little did he know that for the entire semester, he had not only been turning them into that teacher, but also a copy into his counselor as well keeping one at home since he'd been having problems with the teacher from the start. So when this end of the year BS came up, my mother in law went ballistic. She and the counselor cornered the teacher, made him explain everything, then made him go through his mess of a classroom and find every single assignment that my bro had turned in. As well as assignments from other students he claimed weren't turned in. I believe he lost his job the next year. A*****e deserved it. Pretty sure he hated kids to begin with.
One of those who picked the profession because they wanted to bully children.
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Someone write a really positive teacher story here. These are making me depressed
umm, does being told by a teacher that I cant play with my friend count? its all I got from 4th grade and I cant remember much other stuff.
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Drawing was never my thing. Got shamed by highschool art teacher for not using colors (later turns out I have poor color vision ). Started drawing again only 4 years ago plague-5ec...dc9554.jpg 
Rather than bad, my story is pretty funny. My history teacher told us to make brochures on greek mythology gods and goddess. I chose Artemis. When I decorated the border, I used a leaf template. Submitted it in. Got called after class by him only to get scolded. He kept saying "Did you think I didn't know what this is???" "Did you think this was funny???" I had no idea what was going on... Ladies and gentlemen, the leaf border were weed leaves. I didn't know how weed looked like. My teacher and I laughed our asses off once we realized how ridiculous this situation was. I still visit him since I graduated and he still brings it up. At least he knew I didn't do drugs 😂😂😂
Man, I have a whole bunch of stories. At 12 a Physics teacher gave me a verbal flogging in front of 40 students because I hadn't done my homework right (not true). Turned out my father had confronted her about not helping struggling students, after I had mentioned it to him, and she took it out on me. At 13 a substitute gave me several failing grades in math and told my parents it was because I didn't like her (I was quiet and respectful). F****d up my learning progress and my year-end grade over vanity. At 14 an English teacher scolded me for using language too advanced for my classmates in my essays, she would constantly correct anything I did too. I had previously attended and aced an advanced English course, that took me several years, so I knew she was full of s**t. Some years later I went over my workbooks again and I was shocked at the number of mistakes in there.
A lot of teachers are people who should never be teachers. The examples here show lazy ones, who if anything goes outside the narrow way they teach it, they cannot cope. Then there are the bully teachers and more. The real issue is how hard it is to fire bad teachers. I live in NYC and because of the protection rules, we have multiple convicted sex offenders, in prison, on the public school pay roll because they cannot be fired. We still have the rubber rooms for abusive teachers who are unconvicted, and much more. We need to purge bad teachers from the system and get new blood who want and love to teach to take their place
I was reading at the 7th grade level in 3rd grade. I picked a book about the discovery of the coelacanth for my book report, but the teacher made me do the report on Peter Rabbit instead. The same teacher said that I was "r******d" when I couldn't see the blackboard, and had me put in the back of the room. Turned out that I needed glasses.
These made me so upset I couldn't even finish reading them. How on earth are some (most?) of those people TEACHERS???
In 10th grade biology class, we had an assignment that required us to dissect pig fetuses. I was against this and chose to sit in the hallway the day of the assignment. A few weeks later, we were learning about plants and how every kernel of corn is actually a seed. My teacher went on a heated rant, saying "Can you believe it?! Every time you eat an ear of corn, you're killing literally hundreds of baby corn embryos?!" I spoke up and said, "How does that bother you, but dissecting baby pigs doesn't?" He had me stand in front of the class while he berated me, saying "Trying to get through to you is like trying to communicate with my dog." A few years later, I got into Mensa.
My then-daughter (now my son) was reading at an adult level in first grade. The teacher insisted that they must just be sounding out the words but couldn't possibly understand the content. It wasn't true -- you could ask what the story or topic was and they could explain it in great detail. Still, the school insisted that only approved books could be read in class or for homework. I argued, but to no avail, so they were reduced to reading books that literally went "Snow." (turn page) "Snow is cold." (turn page), etc. Drove the poor kid insane with boredom and resentment but there was nothing we could do about it. [note: I mention gender just in case it was an issue of thinking girls couldn't possibly be that smart..]
In kindergarten, my pencil was ripped out of my left hand and forced into my right. "Only bad people use their left hand". My grandmother was left handed. So is Obama.
I am no longer left handed 30 years later.
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Okay, as a teacher myself (and a good one I'm pretty certain), yes, there are insecure, rigid, unsympathetic people out there who should have never become teachers. Some of these posts depict an unarguably horrible teacher. BUT some of these stories need more context, may have been remembered wrong, or are missing some of the conversation and should not be the reason the student was "radicalized" against education. For example, I had a student telling his parents that I sent him out of class because he was "just sharpening a pencil!" (cue injustice). No, you were asked twice to politely sit down during my lecture and still continued to meander in the back of the room poking your friends after sharpening your pencil. Another one I remember, I personally got in trouble for "reading outside books in class" too, but in actuality, it was because I didn't put the book away when asked and had an attitude about it.
I'm amazed at how many of these teachers are incapable of dealing with overprepared kids. Every time I have a student who is clearly above the class level, I give them extra work according to their needs. Nothing too crazy. It keeps them motivated and busy while the rest of the class catches up
I owe my actual life to teachers ---- and I also had a few who made me wish I never heard of school. I choose to focus on the ones who were "meh" to "wonderful", b/c even the "meh" outnumber the "crapfest" teachers in my life. Crapfest, btw, means teachers who punished you for something like, oh, working ahead in the book... (I was bored in class, hint hint).. made you write "the definition of quiet is..." 5,000 times in one night b/c *two* kids of 30 in the class acted up... (and that teacher was fired at semester's end b/c so many parents went ballistic about it).... MOTIVATE AND INTEREST KIDS. Curiosity is the best teacher.
I wrote an excellent essay which was published in magazines and literature studying help guides. It won an award for my school competing with the best essays from 11 countries. When my teacher called me to stand in front of the whole school I thought I will be praised for it. Instead I was shamed for wearing pants and short hair because looks is more important for girls than brains and girls must wear dresses and have a stylish hairdo. Same teacher bullied me since first grade for being left handed because only retarted people are left handed.
First day of kindergarten. Teacher gave us a reading booklet and a math worksheet, then told us to organise our desks. I did the read my book and completed the work sheet . Then had to stand in front of the class and say Oink Oink.
My 7th grade English teacher, Mrs. Flynn, told my parents that I was "flighty" and "too theatrical" because my report/project on Poe's "Cask of the Amontillado" included building a "wall" out of cardboard and "bricking" another student up. I now design and build theatre sets & just got my PhD. In theatre. F*uck you Mrs. Flynn.
When I was 13, my music class told us to make instruments. My dad informed me I was NOT allowed to make a drum, and had to pick something harder and he would help me with any tools needed. I picked a simple flute, did the research and then marked on the bamboo where he was to cut. I brought it in, but couldn't play it. Handed it to a classmate who COULD play the flute and they were able to pick out a basic tune. Teacher failed me bc I couldn't get the embouchure right and I couldn't join in on the "band". Told me that I should have just made a drum. (This is the dad who also made me memorize William Blake at age 8 and not a poem from my Dinosaur poetry book I wanted bc if I was going to do useless homework, he'd make sure it was at least worthwhile)
Hoo boy hold on I have my own list of these. British public schools if anyone is confused. Year 6 I was put on the table with the disabled students as I "wasn't as smart as the others but smart enough to help them" so I did but whenever I couldn't understand something I would be completely ignored for everyone else. Same teacher also shamed me in front of the class for having trouble with my English work. Year 7 a teacher accused me of losing my art book when a few other students were also sick the same day as me also didn't get their books back, had to pay for a new one. Year 10 teacher had to leave for maternity so had substitute who just made us colour in maths colour worksheets for the time. And those are only a few I can think of right now :/
I suffer from many disabilities and my 4th grade teacher was not happy about that... she threatened me many times a week saying she would wash my mouth with soap or hand sanitizer. 7 years later and I still say she is the worst teacher I have had yet.
When I was in 1st grade the teacher asked the class "who is Rumpelstiltskin." I raised my hand to answer the question....she called me Rumpelstiltskin for the duration of my time in elementary school whenever she saw me.
1. Used to read ahead when class took turns reading from the book and get yelled at trying to go back and find where class was when it was my turn. 2. Had a 2nd grade teacher that would "ban" jewelry in her class. She would take necklaces and brackets from the girls. "Ban" was her tossing in her desk and pawning after school. Never gave anything back but would only "ban" gold an silver she knew was real. 3. Kids would always pick on me. So I stayed quiet. In 3/5 grade (can't remember) I walked to the front of the class and sat on the floor with a pencil. That had a staple in it. And a paper clip. Put paper clip through staple. Held pencil. Jammed it into a socket. Made sparks and set carpet on fire. Teacher didn't even see me because she was busy with the cool kids. 4. Had a high school history teacher that would only talk about sex or religion parts of history. Not history stuff. Creepy.
My 4th grade math teacher had a bad attitude towards me. I struggled a bit with math, in other subjects I had it easy and I rarely needed help, but with math I never had that way of thinking. Not naturally anyway. So I needed a little help from the teacher but after she tried for like maybe 10 minutes, she stopped explaining and said that there was no point in her helping me with math because if I didn't already understand it on my own, there was nothing she could do. I failed math every year after that, up til HS too, but I eventually got it as an adult when I was like 29-30. Math still made me cry but I did it! That teacher I had is probably dead by now.
I need blood pressure medication from reading about these horrible so-called educators. My daughter thinks outside the box. She was constantly graded down because she didn't show her work. She'd just know the answers. Teachers accused her of having her parents do her homework.
Some of these people should NOT be teachers. The worst I got was uniform detention coz half an inch of pink was sticking above my school jumper. It was a cold day and my blue skivvy was in the laundry so I only had a pink one. I wore my school top and jumper ALL day so you couldn’t see the sleeves etc, only the turtle neck part. I didn’t go to detention coz my mum wrote a note telling the teacher how petty they are.
One of the teachers at my first high school gave a kid detention for tying his tie during lunch because "it isn't on"
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I got RADICALISED in Grade One... I had a hateful psychotic B***H who was polish... And her last name was April. Go Figure... The c**t used to accuse me of being responsible for the Jewish Holocaust leading up to and during WWII... and then I had the Vice-Principal when I was in Grade 7 and 8 do that same damn thing... That was decades ago, and I've been RADICAL ever since... No criminal record or incarceration, though...
In my 10th grade biology class, we had a lab assignment where we had to dissect pig fetuses. I was against this and sat in the hallway the day of the assignment. A few weeks later, we were learning about how every kernel of corn is a seed. My teacher got all heated and said "Can you believe it?! Every time you eat an ear of corn, you are killing hundreds of baby corn embryos!! I chimed in and said, "How does that bother you, but dissecting fetal pigs is fine?" He had me stand up in front of the class while he berated me, saying that trying to get through to me was like trying to communicate with his dog. I later got into Mensa.
when I was 12, a teacher who was actually a certified psychologist told me that no one liked me cause I showed emotions and if I wanted to have friends I should always pretend to be happy as no one cares if im sad. she once snapped when I asked how her daughter was (childhood friend of mine), and said that I better shut up and mind my own business. lovely woman, she now is a published author of books on psychology that are pretty successful.
My son's 6th grade homeroom teacher would kick him out of the classroom for fidgeting, sometimes before class even started.
For the one at the top: it's quite normal for marks to be taken off for doodling on your test paper, or at least when I went to school which wasn't long ago. We were warned that the whole thing would be invalidated if we did that. It's not about "terrible" teachers, it's about standards. It's a test paper, not your artbook.
Whoops, lucky my school didnt't penalise that otherwise all my exams would be 0. They gave us too much time so I always had like 40 mins left
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Teachers just need to remember one maxim to be good at their job: Good teachers students make.
I was in 9th grade. We were doing an assessment to see what type of courses I would take in high school. I was a quick learner but the teacher (who was older and likes the boys my age) asked which courses I wanted to take. I told her I was interested in computers and data programming. She blatantly said " You are too stupid to do things like that". It damaged me and to the point where I have such bad self confidence (among other abuses I suffered from my parents).
when i was in sixth grade i had learend french for 10 years one day a sub came into the room and she was saying things in french that was very incorect, and i said " miss i believe your grammar is wrong, I take a french class and this is how you say it" Long story short i got called to the office and my parents got called, but they lit up the sub for being mean to all of the students
I had a teacher-let's call her Mrs. F. I was one of the smartest kids in science, and knew a lot of the material due to participating in many science bees. She always used to mark me down for the pettiest things, like shading in organelles, spelling ONE word incorrectly and, my favorite, spelling my name with a K (correct) instead of a C (not correct). B*tch I know how to spell my own name.
i was in grade 4. my bested friend was playing with someone who is rude to me so I made a decision to play with someone else. when I make a decision, I always stick to it. the girl who I decided to play with instead was my friend. she did not want to play with me. I wanted to play with her. my teacher said I cant play with her. also got told of for telling someone to shut up. I said shut up to the person cos they said it to me first. got ignored and called the wind and that the wind is a stinky turd the whole recess and got ditched at lunch by friend who thinks staying in the bathroom all lunch is better then hanging out with me. grade 4 was hard. parents sent the school emails because they were not helping with my problems. teacher said that I need to tell my parents to stop sending emails bcause they are helping and that things don't change overnight. fights including me have been going on for years and I have always been the target of them. mostly exluded.
When I was in sixth grade we were learning about Greek mythology, and me being the big nerd I am was so excited. Well we had this large packet we had to fill out and one of the questions were the “match the description to the names of the Greek gods/goddess. Well I was so excited to do it I missed something the directions and instead of writing the first letter of the god/goddess’s name, I wrote the full name. Teacher got mad and took off ten points (only nine questions), and I ended up getting a F or D on the packet. Parents were pissed.
That habit of making you write out lines refers - I had polio at age of 6, in my first year of school. I had learned to read in Kindergarden at 5, so just carried on in hospital. When I went back to school after a year, I of course had a problem with tidy writing, so the teacher made me write 100 lines - can't remember what. So I was late getting home. My mom was livid, went to see the Head next day, to complain, he said he'd had other complaints, as writing lines messes up your handwriting - she was dismissed!
Mine started in kindergarten the Principal didn't like me at all. I got into an argument with another student. She dragged me down flights of stairs. Ended up giving me PTSD...
I became radicalized in 8th grade. The Algebra teacher took a dislike to me and would never pronounce my name correctly when he would do roll call or call on me in class. He would downgrade my papers and just generally be a d*ck to me. My parents thought I was overreacting until they had a meeting with the principal. They said this teacher has a history of things like that (why was he still teaching, damn tenure), and that I could transfer out of the class if I wanted. I ended up not doing it because the year was almost over, but it was good to be vindicated.
very thankful i had mostly awesome teachers in school after reading this! my only contribution (comment under the one about using "wed" instead of "married") came as an adult, long after my love of learning had been instilled
One time in 2nd grade my teacher pulled me out of class and made me sit in the hall for half an hour to practice drawing my ‘e’s “the right way.” Apparently I drew them from the tail to the loop instead of the loop to the tail, and this serious deficit (/s) had to be corrected.
7th grade teacher thought I was stupid because I didn't do his spelling assignments. I didn't do them because they were, frankly, remedial (words like cat and s**t like that). So I made my own lists with the help of my parents, complete with using the words in sentences (I don't remember all the words, but I clearly remember using sadomasochism on one set XD). I passed the class of course, now that I wasn't being dumbed down. Same year I also ended up winning the school's geography bee. Ended up going to the state competition, but I was the only one without their teacher as a sponsor (guess who the geography teacher was). Didn't end up winning , but I felt like that alone vindicated me. This guy, by the way, was one of the school's sports coaches (don't remember the sport, probably football), but he's a primary reason I hate jocks.
My geometry teacher in 10th grade. She was a cross country coach who loved the athletes and it showed. For some reason she hated the marching band kids. I had a lot of problems with geometry but when I'd raise my hand or go to her desk to ask a question she'd either make me feel and look stupid or tell me she didn't have time to help me. During football season we were also getting ready for UIL marching contest and sometimes we'd have an extra practice in the evening that would end up running late. All of my other teachers would give breaks on homework those nights. Not her. She'd make sure we had extra and tell the whole class that if even one kid didn't have it done we'd all be punished. The next day invariably us band kids wouldn't have it done and she'd tell everyone "well thanks to the band kids you all get a pop quiz and extra homework". I hated that class.
1st day of kindergarten(Catholic school) I was crying for my mom. The teacher said no one wants to look at a baby and made me stand in the cold coat room facing the wall without my coat on for ages. She ended up doing a lot of violent and mean things to kids b/c she couldn't have kids of her own and was losing her s**t. I managed two years in that school, begging the whole time, before begging my parents put me in public school. I went from crying that I didn't want to go to crying that I couldn't go on saturday.
In first grade my teacher was extremely mean, especially to me. I cried one morning because I didn't want to be in her class. She stood me in front of the class and called me a cry baby who needed a pacifier. She told the whole class to call me a cry baby (she called another kid dummy and told us to call him that). When I got home that day, I told my mom. I don't know what happened in that meeting, but she stopped being so nasty to all of the class.
It's not as dramatic as the ones above, but mine was in my senior year. My French teacher had a very, very obvious favorite student (the whole class was upset about it after 4 years). One day I made kind of a smart aleck comment about it and he came up and sat in the desk behind me and said quietly and in a very mean tone, "I don't know what the f*#k your problem is but I don't get paid to take s#*t from you. Shut your f#*$ing mouth from now on." He's the reason I didn't continue taking French in college; he ruined the whole language for me.
Forget TNTL, a real challenge is try to read this without letting your jaw touch the floor. Makes me glad I had nice teachers. The only thing I can think of is that I once got a 20-something on a book report because I forgot to do it in cursive, but we were learning cursive in that class, so I guess that's fair. Oh, I guess there was this one time, I made a promise to a kid, but instead of "I promise" I said "I swear". Cut to an adult sitting down with me talking about how it's bad to swear. Since then it's been my instinct to say "don't swear" when people say stuff like that. Probably think I'm being smart-aleck or something.
Oh, I did have a teacher who yelled at me for not knowing what I want to do with my life yet... fully aware that I was an 18 year old autistic. So maybe I had my share?
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Lessee... the 'career guidance' test that said I (girl, top of class in science and maths) would be a great lab assistant while the boys below me were told they should become doctors and scientists. Plus that time a teacher took a dislike to me because we had the same birthday and pinched my legs blue every time I stood near her desk. And lets not forget the maths teacher who liked to talk about her army days so much that most of the class failed maths that year.
When I was 13 in high school, I was in a small class for French, with one other girl and I think four boys. The teacher, a woman, used to make me and the other girl go out and spend the whole lesson making the tea for the teachers' break. But we were still expected to do the homework and exams. She said that as we were girls there was no point in educating us. This was in 1974.
In 3rd grade my english teacher deducted marks on a class test citing spelling mistake. After my mom brought it to her attention that the spellings were correct she accused me in front of other kids and their parents of having changed the answers after she has graded them. My mom took none of her s**t and just marched off to the Principal's cabin. Though the teacher accepted her mistake then, she continued belittling me for even the smallest blunder for the rest of the year. Even one other teacher who was her friend did the same. I was really happy when she had to quit her job the next year.
I had my fair share of horrible teachers, only 2 were nice and good, but got bullied out of their respective schools and kindergarden by their fellow teachers... I had a horrible school time as I was shy and cal and ostly ahead of my grade bcs my mum is a professor and teacher and taught me well and a lot of things at home... I always envied the kids who were her students to have a great teacher while I was stuck with the scumbags... (making light of bullying by peers, bullying me themselves, making light of sexual harassment...)
I just wonder if some people become teachers because they think they want to make the kids of the newer generations "correct", or are just power-hungry or something, and don't even like kids.
I couln't even finish these omfg. My short story is something that happened this year, actually! Not really something that made us hate her, but pity her. We had a substitute teacher that was well-known, as she subbed a lot and was kind of a nut-job sometimes lol. Well, one day someone noticed she hadn't been subbing for a while; about a month or two. So, us 14 year olds being the apparent sleuths we are because we liked her, did some research and managed to dig up some dirt. Turns out, she was kind of a nut sometimes because she had been doing meth. At school, in the teachers lounge/bathrooms, and at home, where she had been buying and selling it, too, and she'd been arrested for it. Checks out, though because we're kind of a hood-type of town, that's kind of sketchy in some areas, like where are school is/was located, and there is a good drug-community thing going on. Fun times.
I live in Europe and we leart to write cursive, print is not taught, generally. For years my cursive has served me well, and actually it is still quite legible provided I don't do a rush-job. Que me going to uni and once again cursive works fine, untill we get one bloody f*****g annoying American lecturer (not(!) a professor mind you!). Our tests were essay questions and had to be hand-written. Most of us wrote in cursive (European university, European students whom learnt cursive), and all of us whom wrote in cursive had failed, we'd got a 1/10. Reason? The lecturer (whom was also the corrector) couldn't read cursive because he was American and had never been taught such "nonsense".
I remember one day in class a teacher threatened to stab me in the eye with a pen. I was told by the department that because he was "special", it was ok. Oh wait.....I've got it wrong. I was the teacher and the "special" student threatened to stab me in the eye and nothing was done about it.
4th grade. Teacher believed in one hour of homework every night per year of grade. So 4 hours for us. Then she told a severely abused kid, in front of the class, that he was worthless and hopeless, and would never amount to anything, before ripping up his 4 hours worth of homework. I started pushing pencil leads under my nails to get sent to the nurse so I could escape. Mom found out, started homeschooling. This was the last straw in a long line of teachers who'd been abusive. Homeschooling was the best time of my life.
On first day kindergarten, my teacher borrow me color pencil from other kid by asking politely. That memory is stick with me.. that sharing is cool.. Thanks Maam
Throughout my entire education I cannot recall a single teacher who I would regard as decent. One or two were barely passable, but most were dreadful. I remember having a stand up argument with the physics master who stated that riding a bicycle was less efficient than walking because of the friction of the mechanical parts... moron!
During kindergarten, I got "marked down" because I could not cut perfectly straight with a pair of scissors... As a left-hander, the scissors cut into the side of my hand.
Most of these teachers didn't need to be teaching in a school, they needed to be in a psych ward. If you can't teach without being insane and mean then you don't need to be teaching.
Sliced the bottom of my big toe off (slipped off the metal strip on the top of the vault spring board) in P. E. After missing 4 days of school due to bleeding (I have a clotting disorder) the teacher made me participate even tho I had doctors note not to. Toe broke open, blood soaked my sock and shoe. Teacher sent me to nurse. Nurse called my mom to come get me. Mom was livid! Talked to teacher then principal. No results so mom went to School Board meeting with Doctor that treated me and who provided the no participation note. Final result, teacher fired and principal demoted back to teacher. I hated P. E. and school for a few years.
Public school, 2009. Couldn't do a program where 3rd graders practice reading to you because i had a septum piercing. None of the kids found it distracting, trust me.
Reading this article reminds me of my fifth grade teacher. I was being bullied by 1/4 of my class, and she would get really mad whenever I went to the school counselor to talk about it. It was her first year teaching fifth grade and the year after that she stopped teaching. I remember one specific day when I was late to class because of traffic. She gave me a lunch detention. I went but did not realize we weren’t allowed to talk, this being my first detention. I ended up being punished by being sat next to the kid who bullied me most the rest of detention. When he was talking with his friends in front of the teacher, I told him to please be quiet. My teacher yelled at me for telling other kids what to do and let the other kid leave detention. Side note, he was there for punching a kid in the face so hard the kids nose started bleeding.
Going into junior year, I had to transfer to a new high school. Now, no matter how many times my mom told the school, they still put me in ESL because I speak Spanish. Two days into being in the ESL English class, the teacher had me go to regular English because I didn't need to be in her class. Cut to my first day in the regular class, the teacher mean mugs me and tells me that the class was taking a test based on the book they were reading and asked if I'd read the book. I told her I hadn't but I'll take the test. Five minutes later, I turned my test in and the teacher looks at it and flat out tells me I either cheated or lied about reading the book. The test was literally common sense. From that moment on, I just sat in the back reading my books and block her out entirely. She would call me out loud to see if I was paying attention, I'd tell her exactly what she'd been talking about and go back to reading..
I remember in 1st grade I almost had my behavioral mark (color coded green = good, yellow = middle, and red = bad) switched from green to yellow because a classmate told the teacher I had given one of my pencils to a friend (who didn't have a pencil at the time). My teacher ended up making my friend give the pencil back to me and told my friend that if she needed a pencil then she should've asked her.
I had an experience similar to Justin’s in an early year of elementary school. I think it was a substitute teacher. I would have gotten a perfect grade on a quiz, but she marked me down because I drew a cartoon of “Ming the Merciless” from the old Flash Gordon serial on the paper. But something that happened to me in kindergarten was much worse. We were learning how to tie shoelaces using construction paper “shoes” with yarn laces. I couldn’t get the hang of it, because I had only worn shoes with buckled straps. All the other kids had learned how to do it except for me, so the teacher made me sit all alone in a room and practice with the “shoes” while the other kids were in another room, in a music class. About 40 years later I had a secretarial job in my old school district and told this experience to a young teacher. She said, “They couldn’t do that today – kids have rights.”
In 5th grade, my dad taught me how to do math in my head. It always worked and I began to naturally do math problems in my head. When I had a test on mental math, I got all the answers right. BUT. My teacher insisted we show our thought process, so I got a D.
Another story: 2nd grade, I was way ahead of everyone in my class. I knew how negatives worked. My teacher gave us those problems where you subtract big numbers from small numbers, so I put negative answers. My teacher kept me inside from recess for a week for using knowledge other than what he taught me. Also, a boy who also knew negatives was praised for being smarter than everyone else.
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Maybe if we paid teachers more, we'd have more competent, smart people take the job?
So, basically these people say (acording to the headline anyway), that it is not their own fault they are radical, it is somenody elses.... While there is no excuse for teachers to treat their pupils / students badly, neither is somebody having been treated badly by a teacher an excuse for them behaving badly themselves later in life....People REALLY need to stop blaming their behaviour on a "difficult childhood". Sure it can make life miserable, but then it is all the more important that you don't do the same to other people.
To be radical doesn't mean to be bad. It means bad teachers made people question the status quo. It means bad teaching made people critically thinking. Doesn't mean they became criminals. For example bad teacher made me realize the grown ups are not always right and they don't know everything. It made me think on my own, did not made me a bad person. This is what radicalized means.
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What kind of schools did you guys went?? Is it always like this in Murica - vendictive teachers and lots of bullies??
Not just Murica. I went to school in Russia and have my own share of stories. My "favorite" one was when I was doing fractions in elementary school. We had to reduce the fraction, which involved crossing out the numbers and writing in new ones. I got the right answer and was marked wrong. Why? I crossed out the numbers from lower left to upper right instead of the other way. And bullies? Just try being the only Jewish kid in an antisemitic environment and see what happens.
Load More Replies... Having to write up a school trip to an historical castle, I asked my teacher how to spell "oubliette" (a secret dungeon accessed via a trapdoor in the ceiling). I knew the word existed because a) the castle has one and b) any kid born in 1981 should know the word from the movie Labyrinth!! Suffice to say, she said it wasn't a word and I was talking nonsense. Worse still, she was also a French teacher. Clearly didn't know the verb, oublier, "to forget", which is where it's derived from.
Remember that walk-out that the kids did a few years back about gun violence? My art teacher threatened to bring a gun to that.
At my school, if there is a single gun in sight on the property, the police are called. It is a strict safety policy because there was a shooting about 13 years before I started
Load More Replies... My final year of high school the only calculus teacher had taught both my mother and my brother. They had terrible experiences with her and reported her conduct. She got reprimanded, not fired. Unfortunately, for my university program, I needed calculus, but they only averaged my 6 best marks, so just a pass was fine. At the time I was seeing a doctor once a week that made me 10 minutes late for her class on those days. After a few weeks she told the class I was pregnant and having morning sickness. I am male btw. She had many insults for me, but her favorite became asking when my baby was due. To make the situation worse I forgot the date our independent study was to be handed in. I had almost nothing done. Expecting nothing I went to ask for an extension, and was told not only was there no extensions, it was a course requirement and I would fail if I didn’t hand it in. So, I got what little I had and wrote my name and handed it in. I expected 0 but I got a negative grade, -13%.
In high school I had dyslexia. The guidance counselor went through my grades and tole me I was "Functionally Illiterate" and that I should find a job that didn't require reading or writing.
When I was in kindergarten, c. 1993, my very old teacher refused to accept that I was left handed. She would take any work I had done with my left hand, throw it away and make me start over. I couldn't figure out how to hold scissors in my right hand so I very gently ripped along the edges of the shape we were supposed to cut out...thought it would be ok since I didn't use my left hand. I was also a very shy kid, and she would berate me in front of the class constantly for being stupid. Parent teacher conferences come around and she tells my parents I'm incapable of learning and need to be in Special Ed...I didn't know my shapes, letters, number, etc. My parents were baffled. I finally told them that day how she wouldn't let me use my left hand.Next day my dad comes to school with me and takes me to class...asks me to write some stuff on the board, so I did, with my left hand. Takes the chalk from me and hands it to the teacher, 'She's not stupid, she's left handed'
He should have added: your case is just the opposite, you are not left-handed, you are stupid.
Load More Replies... Once, I was asked to leave class because "I talked". I said it was not me and the teacher said "I know but I still want you to leave" ...
My mother in law had to deal with just the worst teacher when it came to my brother in law. It was a photography class and the teacher had insisted at the end of the semester that my bro didn't turn in a single assignment and that he was stupid and deserved to fail. Well, little did he know that for the entire semester, he had not only been turning them into that teacher, but also a copy into his counselor as well keeping one at home since he'd been having problems with the teacher from the start. So when this end of the year BS came up, my mother in law went ballistic. She and the counselor cornered the teacher, made him explain everything, then made him go through his mess of a classroom and find every single assignment that my bro had turned in. As well as assignments from other students he claimed weren't turned in. I believe he lost his job the next year. A*****e deserved it. Pretty sure he hated kids to begin with.
One of those who picked the profession because they wanted to bully children.
Load More Replies... Someone write a really positive teacher story here. These are making me depressed
umm, does being told by a teacher that I cant play with my friend count? its all I got from 4th grade and I cant remember much other stuff.
Load More Replies... Drawing was never my thing. Got shamed by highschool art teacher for not using colors (later turns out I have poor color vision ). Started drawing again only 4 years ago plague-5ec...dc9554.jpg
Rather than bad, my story is pretty funny. My history teacher told us to make brochures on greek mythology gods and goddess. I chose Artemis. When I decorated the border, I used a leaf template. Submitted it in. Got called after class by him only to get scolded. He kept saying "Did you think I didn't know what this is???" "Did you think this was funny???" I had no idea what was going on... Ladies and gentlemen, the leaf border were weed leaves. I didn't know how weed looked like. My teacher and I laughed our asses off once we realized how ridiculous this situation was. I still visit him since I graduated and he still brings it up. At least he knew I didn't do drugs 😂😂😂
Man, I have a whole bunch of stories. At 12 a Physics teacher gave me a verbal flogging in front of 40 students because I hadn't done my homework right (not true). Turned out my father had confronted her about not helping struggling students, after I had mentioned it to him, and she took it out on me. At 13 a substitute gave me several failing grades in math and told my parents it was because I didn't like her (I was quiet and respectful). F****d up my learning progress and my year-end grade over vanity. At 14 an English teacher scolded me for using language too advanced for my classmates in my essays, she would constantly correct anything I did too. I had previously attended and aced an advanced English course, that took me several years, so I knew she was full of s**t. Some years later I went over my workbooks again and I was shocked at the number of mistakes in there.
A lot of teachers are people who should never be teachers. The examples here show lazy ones, who if anything goes outside the narrow way they teach it, they cannot cope. Then there are the bully teachers and more. The real issue is how hard it is to fire bad teachers. I live in NYC and because of the protection rules, we have multiple convicted sex offenders, in prison, on the public school pay roll because they cannot be fired. We still have the rubber rooms for abusive teachers who are unconvicted, and much more. We need to purge bad teachers from the system and get new blood who want and love to teach to take their place
I was reading at the 7th grade level in 3rd grade. I picked a book about the discovery of the coelacanth for my book report, but the teacher made me do the report on Peter Rabbit instead. The same teacher said that I was "r******d" when I couldn't see the blackboard, and had me put in the back of the room. Turned out that I needed glasses.
These made me so upset I couldn't even finish reading them. How on earth are some (most?) of those people TEACHERS???
In 10th grade biology class, we had an assignment that required us to dissect pig fetuses. I was against this and chose to sit in the hallway the day of the assignment. A few weeks later, we were learning about plants and how every kernel of corn is actually a seed. My teacher went on a heated rant, saying "Can you believe it?! Every time you eat an ear of corn, you're killing literally hundreds of baby corn embryos?!" I spoke up and said, "How does that bother you, but dissecting baby pigs doesn't?" He had me stand in front of the class while he berated me, saying "Trying to get through to you is like trying to communicate with my dog." A few years later, I got into Mensa.
My then-daughter (now my son) was reading at an adult level in first grade. The teacher insisted that they must just be sounding out the words but couldn't possibly understand the content. It wasn't true -- you could ask what the story or topic was and they could explain it in great detail. Still, the school insisted that only approved books could be read in class or for homework. I argued, but to no avail, so they were reduced to reading books that literally went "Snow." (turn page) "Snow is cold." (turn page), etc. Drove the poor kid insane with boredom and resentment but there was nothing we could do about it. [note: I mention gender just in case it was an issue of thinking girls couldn't possibly be that smart..]
In kindergarten, my pencil was ripped out of my left hand and forced into my right. "Only bad people use their left hand". My grandmother was left handed. So is Obama.
I am no longer left handed 30 years later.
Load More Replies... Okay, as a teacher myself (and a good one I'm pretty certain), yes, there are insecure, rigid, unsympathetic people out there who should have never become teachers. Some of these posts depict an unarguably horrible teacher. BUT some of these stories need more context, may have been remembered wrong, or are missing some of the conversation and should not be the reason the student was "radicalized" against education. For example, I had a student telling his parents that I sent him out of class because he was "just sharpening a pencil!" (cue injustice). No, you were asked twice to politely sit down during my lecture and still continued to meander in the back of the room poking your friends after sharpening your pencil. Another one I remember, I personally got in trouble for "reading outside books in class" too, but in actuality, it was because I didn't put the book away when asked and had an attitude about it.
I'm amazed at how many of these teachers are incapable of dealing with overprepared kids. Every time I have a student who is clearly above the class level, I give them extra work according to their needs. Nothing too crazy. It keeps them motivated and busy while the rest of the class catches up
I owe my actual life to teachers ---- and I also had a few who made me wish I never heard of school. I choose to focus on the ones who were "meh" to "wonderful", b/c even the "meh" outnumber the "crapfest" teachers in my life. Crapfest, btw, means teachers who punished you for something like, oh, working ahead in the book... (I was bored in class, hint hint).. made you write "the definition of quiet is..." 5,000 times in one night b/c *two* kids of 30 in the class acted up... (and that teacher was fired at semester's end b/c so many parents went ballistic about it).... MOTIVATE AND INTEREST KIDS. Curiosity is the best teacher.
I wrote an excellent essay which was published in magazines and literature studying help guides. It won an award for my school competing with the best essays from 11 countries. When my teacher called me to stand in front of the whole school I thought I will be praised for it. Instead I was shamed for wearing pants and short hair because looks is more important for girls than brains and girls must wear dresses and have a stylish hairdo. Same teacher bullied me since first grade for being left handed because only retarted people are left handed.
First day of kindergarten. Teacher gave us a reading booklet and a math worksheet, then told us to organise our desks. I did the read my book and completed the work sheet . Then had to stand in front of the class and say Oink Oink.
My 7th grade English teacher, Mrs. Flynn, told my parents that I was "flighty" and "too theatrical" because my report/project on Poe's "Cask of the Amontillado" included building a "wall" out of cardboard and "bricking" another student up. I now design and build theatre sets & just got my PhD. In theatre. F*uck you Mrs. Flynn.
When I was 13, my music class told us to make instruments. My dad informed me I was NOT allowed to make a drum, and had to pick something harder and he would help me with any tools needed. I picked a simple flute, did the research and then marked on the bamboo where he was to cut. I brought it in, but couldn't play it. Handed it to a classmate who COULD play the flute and they were able to pick out a basic tune. Teacher failed me bc I couldn't get the embouchure right and I couldn't join in on the "band". Told me that I should have just made a drum. (This is the dad who also made me memorize William Blake at age 8 and not a poem from my Dinosaur poetry book I wanted bc if I was going to do useless homework, he'd make sure it was at least worthwhile)
Hoo boy hold on I have my own list of these. British public schools if anyone is confused. Year 6 I was put on the table with the disabled students as I "wasn't as smart as the others but smart enough to help them" so I did but whenever I couldn't understand something I would be completely ignored for everyone else. Same teacher also shamed me in front of the class for having trouble with my English work. Year 7 a teacher accused me of losing my art book when a few other students were also sick the same day as me also didn't get their books back, had to pay for a new one. Year 10 teacher had to leave for maternity so had substitute who just made us colour in maths colour worksheets for the time. And those are only a few I can think of right now :/
I suffer from many disabilities and my 4th grade teacher was not happy about that... she threatened me many times a week saying she would wash my mouth with soap or hand sanitizer. 7 years later and I still say she is the worst teacher I have had yet.
When I was in 1st grade the teacher asked the class "who is Rumpelstiltskin." I raised my hand to answer the question....she called me Rumpelstiltskin for the duration of my time in elementary school whenever she saw me.
1. Used to read ahead when class took turns reading from the book and get yelled at trying to go back and find where class was when it was my turn. 2. Had a 2nd grade teacher that would "ban" jewelry in her class. She would take necklaces and brackets from the girls. "Ban" was her tossing in her desk and pawning after school. Never gave anything back but would only "ban" gold an silver she knew was real. 3. Kids would always pick on me. So I stayed quiet. In 3/5 grade (can't remember) I walked to the front of the class and sat on the floor with a pencil. That had a staple in it. And a paper clip. Put paper clip through staple. Held pencil. Jammed it into a socket. Made sparks and set carpet on fire. Teacher didn't even see me because she was busy with the cool kids. 4. Had a high school history teacher that would only talk about sex or religion parts of history. Not history stuff. Creepy.
My 4th grade math teacher had a bad attitude towards me. I struggled a bit with math, in other subjects I had it easy and I rarely needed help, but with math I never had that way of thinking. Not naturally anyway. So I needed a little help from the teacher but after she tried for like maybe 10 minutes, she stopped explaining and said that there was no point in her helping me with math because if I didn't already understand it on my own, there was nothing she could do. I failed math every year after that, up til HS too, but I eventually got it as an adult when I was like 29-30. Math still made me cry but I did it! That teacher I had is probably dead by now.
I need blood pressure medication from reading about these horrible so-called educators. My daughter thinks outside the box. She was constantly graded down because she didn't show her work. She'd just know the answers. Teachers accused her of having her parents do her homework.
Some of these people should NOT be teachers. The worst I got was uniform detention coz half an inch of pink was sticking above my school jumper. It was a cold day and my blue skivvy was in the laundry so I only had a pink one. I wore my school top and jumper ALL day so you couldn’t see the sleeves etc, only the turtle neck part. I didn’t go to detention coz my mum wrote a note telling the teacher how petty they are.
One of the teachers at my first high school gave a kid detention for tying his tie during lunch because "it isn't on"
Load More Replies... I got RADICALISED in Grade One... I had a hateful psychotic B***H who was polish... And her last name was April. Go Figure... The c**t used to accuse me of being responsible for the Jewish Holocaust leading up to and during WWII... and then I had the Vice-Principal when I was in Grade 7 and 8 do that same damn thing... That was decades ago, and I've been RADICAL ever since... No criminal record or incarceration, though...
In my 10th grade biology class, we had a lab assignment where we had to dissect pig fetuses. I was against this and sat in the hallway the day of the assignment. A few weeks later, we were learning about how every kernel of corn is a seed. My teacher got all heated and said "Can you believe it?! Every time you eat an ear of corn, you are killing hundreds of baby corn embryos!! I chimed in and said, "How does that bother you, but dissecting fetal pigs is fine?" He had me stand up in front of the class while he berated me, saying that trying to get through to me was like trying to communicate with his dog. I later got into Mensa.
when I was 12, a teacher who was actually a certified psychologist told me that no one liked me cause I showed emotions and if I wanted to have friends I should always pretend to be happy as no one cares if im sad. she once snapped when I asked how her daughter was (childhood friend of mine), and said that I better shut up and mind my own business. lovely woman, she now is a published author of books on psychology that are pretty successful.
My son's 6th grade homeroom teacher would kick him out of the classroom for fidgeting, sometimes before class even started.
For the one at the top: it's quite normal for marks to be taken off for doodling on your test paper, or at least when I went to school which wasn't long ago. We were warned that the whole thing would be invalidated if we did that. It's not about "terrible" teachers, it's about standards. It's a test paper, not your artbook.
Whoops, lucky my school didnt't penalise that otherwise all my exams would be 0. They gave us too much time so I always had like 40 mins left
Load More Replies... Teachers just need to remember one maxim to be good at their job: Good teachers students make.
I was in 9th grade. We were doing an assessment to see what type of courses I would take in high school. I was a quick learner but the teacher (who was older and likes the boys my age) asked which courses I wanted to take. I told her I was interested in computers and data programming. She blatantly said " You are too stupid to do things like that". It damaged me and to the point where I have such bad self confidence (among other abuses I suffered from my parents).
when i was in sixth grade i had learend french for 10 years one day a sub came into the room and she was saying things in french that was very incorect, and i said " miss i believe your grammar is wrong, I take a french class and this is how you say it" Long story short i got called to the office and my parents got called, but they lit up the sub for being mean to all of the students
I had a teacher-let's call her Mrs. F. I was one of the smartest kids in science, and knew a lot of the material due to participating in many science bees. She always used to mark me down for the pettiest things, like shading in organelles, spelling ONE word incorrectly and, my favorite, spelling my name with a K (correct) instead of a C (not correct). B*tch I know how to spell my own name.
i was in grade 4. my bested friend was playing with someone who is rude to me so I made a decision to play with someone else. when I make a decision, I always stick to it. the girl who I decided to play with instead was my friend. she did not want to play with me. I wanted to play with her. my teacher said I cant play with her. also got told of for telling someone to shut up. I said shut up to the person cos they said it to me first. got ignored and called the wind and that the wind is a stinky turd the whole recess and got ditched at lunch by friend who thinks staying in the bathroom all lunch is better then hanging out with me. grade 4 was hard. parents sent the school emails because they were not helping with my problems. teacher said that I need to tell my parents to stop sending emails bcause they are helping and that things don't change overnight. fights including me have been going on for years and I have always been the target of them. mostly exluded.
When I was in sixth grade we were learning about Greek mythology, and me being the big nerd I am was so excited. Well we had this large packet we had to fill out and one of the questions were the “match the description to the names of the Greek gods/goddess. Well I was so excited to do it I missed something the directions and instead of writing the first letter of the god/goddess’s name, I wrote the full name. Teacher got mad and took off ten points (only nine questions), and I ended up getting a F or D on the packet. Parents were pissed.
That habit of making you write out lines refers - I had polio at age of 6, in my first year of school. I had learned to read in Kindergarden at 5, so just carried on in hospital. When I went back to school after a year, I of course had a problem with tidy writing, so the teacher made me write 100 lines - can't remember what. So I was late getting home. My mom was livid, went to see the Head next day, to complain, he said he'd had other complaints, as writing lines messes up your handwriting - she was dismissed!
Mine started in kindergarten the Principal didn't like me at all. I got into an argument with another student. She dragged me down flights of stairs. Ended up giving me PTSD...
I became radicalized in 8th grade. The Algebra teacher took a dislike to me and would never pronounce my name correctly when he would do roll call or call on me in class. He would downgrade my papers and just generally be a d*ck to me. My parents thought I was overreacting until they had a meeting with the principal. They said this teacher has a history of things like that (why was he still teaching, damn tenure), and that I could transfer out of the class if I wanted. I ended up not doing it because the year was almost over, but it was good to be vindicated.
very thankful i had mostly awesome teachers in school after reading this! my only contribution (comment under the one about using "wed" instead of "married") came as an adult, long after my love of learning had been instilled
One time in 2nd grade my teacher pulled me out of class and made me sit in the hall for half an hour to practice drawing my ‘e’s “the right way.” Apparently I drew them from the tail to the loop instead of the loop to the tail, and this serious deficit (/s) had to be corrected.
7th grade teacher thought I was stupid because I didn't do his spelling assignments. I didn't do them because they were, frankly, remedial (words like cat and s**t like that). So I made my own lists with the help of my parents, complete with using the words in sentences (I don't remember all the words, but I clearly remember using sadomasochism on one set XD). I passed the class of course, now that I wasn't being dumbed down. Same year I also ended up winning the school's geography bee. Ended up going to the state competition, but I was the only one without their teacher as a sponsor (guess who the geography teacher was). Didn't end up winning , but I felt like that alone vindicated me. This guy, by the way, was one of the school's sports coaches (don't remember the sport, probably football), but he's a primary reason I hate jocks.
My geometry teacher in 10th grade. She was a cross country coach who loved the athletes and it showed. For some reason she hated the marching band kids. I had a lot of problems with geometry but when I'd raise my hand or go to her desk to ask a question she'd either make me feel and look stupid or tell me she didn't have time to help me. During football season we were also getting ready for UIL marching contest and sometimes we'd have an extra practice in the evening that would end up running late. All of my other teachers would give breaks on homework those nights. Not her. She'd make sure we had extra and tell the whole class that if even one kid didn't have it done we'd all be punished. The next day invariably us band kids wouldn't have it done and she'd tell everyone "well thanks to the band kids you all get a pop quiz and extra homework". I hated that class.
1st day of kindergarten(Catholic school) I was crying for my mom. The teacher said no one wants to look at a baby and made me stand in the cold coat room facing the wall without my coat on for ages. She ended up doing a lot of violent and mean things to kids b/c she couldn't have kids of her own and was losing her s**t. I managed two years in that school, begging the whole time, before begging my parents put me in public school. I went from crying that I didn't want to go to crying that I couldn't go on saturday.
In first grade my teacher was extremely mean, especially to me. I cried one morning because I didn't want to be in her class. She stood me in front of the class and called me a cry baby who needed a pacifier. She told the whole class to call me a cry baby (she called another kid dummy and told us to call him that). When I got home that day, I told my mom. I don't know what happened in that meeting, but she stopped being so nasty to all of the class.
It's not as dramatic as the ones above, but mine was in my senior year. My French teacher had a very, very obvious favorite student (the whole class was upset about it after 4 years). One day I made kind of a smart aleck comment about it and he came up and sat in the desk behind me and said quietly and in a very mean tone, "I don't know what the f*#k your problem is but I don't get paid to take s#*t from you. Shut your f#*$ing mouth from now on." He's the reason I didn't continue taking French in college; he ruined the whole language for me.
Forget TNTL, a real challenge is try to read this without letting your jaw touch the floor. Makes me glad I had nice teachers. The only thing I can think of is that I once got a 20-something on a book report because I forgot to do it in cursive, but we were learning cursive in that class, so I guess that's fair. Oh, I guess there was this one time, I made a promise to a kid, but instead of "I promise" I said "I swear". Cut to an adult sitting down with me talking about how it's bad to swear. Since then it's been my instinct to say "don't swear" when people say stuff like that. Probably think I'm being smart-aleck or something.
Oh, I did have a teacher who yelled at me for not knowing what I want to do with my life yet... fully aware that I was an 18 year old autistic. So maybe I had my share?
Load More Replies... Lessee... the 'career guidance' test that said I (girl, top of class in science and maths) would be a great lab assistant while the boys below me were told they should become doctors and scientists. Plus that time a teacher took a dislike to me because we had the same birthday and pinched my legs blue every time I stood near her desk. And lets not forget the maths teacher who liked to talk about her army days so much that most of the class failed maths that year.
When I was 13 in high school, I was in a small class for French, with one other girl and I think four boys. The teacher, a woman, used to make me and the other girl go out and spend the whole lesson making the tea for the teachers' break. But we were still expected to do the homework and exams. She said that as we were girls there was no point in educating us. This was in 1974.
In 3rd grade my english teacher deducted marks on a class test citing spelling mistake. After my mom brought it to her attention that the spellings were correct she accused me in front of other kids and their parents of having changed the answers after she has graded them. My mom took none of her s**t and just marched off to the Principal's cabin. Though the teacher accepted her mistake then, she continued belittling me for even the smallest blunder for the rest of the year. Even one other teacher who was her friend did the same. I was really happy when she had to quit her job the next year.
I had my fair share of horrible teachers, only 2 were nice and good, but got bullied out of their respective schools and kindergarden by their fellow teachers... I had a horrible school time as I was shy and cal and ostly ahead of my grade bcs my mum is a professor and teacher and taught me well and a lot of things at home... I always envied the kids who were her students to have a great teacher while I was stuck with the scumbags... (making light of bullying by peers, bullying me themselves, making light of sexual harassment...)
I just wonder if some people become teachers because they think they want to make the kids of the newer generations "correct", or are just power-hungry or something, and don't even like kids.
I couln't even finish these omfg. My short story is something that happened this year, actually! Not really something that made us hate her, but pity her. We had a substitute teacher that was well-known, as she subbed a lot and was kind of a nut-job sometimes lol. Well, one day someone noticed she hadn't been subbing for a while; about a month or two. So, us 14 year olds being the apparent sleuths we are because we liked her, did some research and managed to dig up some dirt. Turns out, she was kind of a nut sometimes because she had been doing meth. At school, in the teachers lounge/bathrooms, and at home, where she had been buying and selling it, too, and she'd been arrested for it. Checks out, though because we're kind of a hood-type of town, that's kind of sketchy in some areas, like where are school is/was located, and there is a good drug-community thing going on. Fun times.
I live in Europe and we leart to write cursive, print is not taught, generally. For years my cursive has served me well, and actually it is still quite legible provided I don't do a rush-job. Que me going to uni and once again cursive works fine, untill we get one bloody f*****g annoying American lecturer (not(!) a professor mind you!). Our tests were essay questions and had to be hand-written. Most of us wrote in cursive (European university, European students whom learnt cursive), and all of us whom wrote in cursive had failed, we'd got a 1/10. Reason? The lecturer (whom was also the corrector) couldn't read cursive because he was American and had never been taught such "nonsense".
I remember one day in class a teacher threatened to stab me in the eye with a pen. I was told by the department that because he was "special", it was ok. Oh wait.....I've got it wrong. I was the teacher and the "special" student threatened to stab me in the eye and nothing was done about it.
4th grade. Teacher believed in one hour of homework every night per year of grade. So 4 hours for us. Then she told a severely abused kid, in front of the class, that he was worthless and hopeless, and would never amount to anything, before ripping up his 4 hours worth of homework. I started pushing pencil leads under my nails to get sent to the nurse so I could escape. Mom found out, started homeschooling. This was the last straw in a long line of teachers who'd been abusive. Homeschooling was the best time of my life.
On first day kindergarten, my teacher borrow me color pencil from other kid by asking politely. That memory is stick with me.. that sharing is cool.. Thanks Maam
Throughout my entire education I cannot recall a single teacher who I would regard as decent. One or two were barely passable, but most were dreadful. I remember having a stand up argument with the physics master who stated that riding a bicycle was less efficient than walking because of the friction of the mechanical parts... moron!
During kindergarten, I got "marked down" because I could not cut perfectly straight with a pair of scissors... As a left-hander, the scissors cut into the side of my hand.
Most of these teachers didn't need to be teaching in a school, they needed to be in a psych ward. If you can't teach without being insane and mean then you don't need to be teaching.
Sliced the bottom of my big toe off (slipped off the metal strip on the top of the vault spring board) in P. E. After missing 4 days of school due to bleeding (I have a clotting disorder) the teacher made me participate even tho I had doctors note not to. Toe broke open, blood soaked my sock and shoe. Teacher sent me to nurse. Nurse called my mom to come get me. Mom was livid! Talked to teacher then principal. No results so mom went to School Board meeting with Doctor that treated me and who provided the no participation note. Final result, teacher fired and principal demoted back to teacher. I hated P. E. and school for a few years.
Public school, 2009. Couldn't do a program where 3rd graders practice reading to you because i had a septum piercing. None of the kids found it distracting, trust me.
Reading this article reminds me of my fifth grade teacher. I was being bullied by 1/4 of my class, and she would get really mad whenever I went to the school counselor to talk about it. It was her first year teaching fifth grade and the year after that she stopped teaching. I remember one specific day when I was late to class because of traffic. She gave me a lunch detention. I went but did not realize we weren’t allowed to talk, this being my first detention. I ended up being punished by being sat next to the kid who bullied me most the rest of detention. When he was talking with his friends in front of the teacher, I told him to please be quiet. My teacher yelled at me for telling other kids what to do and let the other kid leave detention. Side note, he was there for punching a kid in the face so hard the kids nose started bleeding.
Going into junior year, I had to transfer to a new high school. Now, no matter how many times my mom told the school, they still put me in ESL because I speak Spanish. Two days into being in the ESL English class, the teacher had me go to regular English because I didn't need to be in her class. Cut to my first day in the regular class, the teacher mean mugs me and tells me that the class was taking a test based on the book they were reading and asked if I'd read the book. I told her I hadn't but I'll take the test. Five minutes later, I turned my test in and the teacher looks at it and flat out tells me I either cheated or lied about reading the book. The test was literally common sense. From that moment on, I just sat in the back reading my books and block her out entirely. She would call me out loud to see if I was paying attention, I'd tell her exactly what she'd been talking about and go back to reading..
I remember in 1st grade I almost had my behavioral mark (color coded green = good, yellow = middle, and red = bad) switched from green to yellow because a classmate told the teacher I had given one of my pencils to a friend (who didn't have a pencil at the time). My teacher ended up making my friend give the pencil back to me and told my friend that if she needed a pencil then she should've asked her.
I had an experience similar to Justin’s in an early year of elementary school. I think it was a substitute teacher. I would have gotten a perfect grade on a quiz, but she marked me down because I drew a cartoon of “Ming the Merciless” from the old Flash Gordon serial on the paper. But something that happened to me in kindergarten was much worse. We were learning how to tie shoelaces using construction paper “shoes” with yarn laces. I couldn’t get the hang of it, because I had only worn shoes with buckled straps. All the other kids had learned how to do it except for me, so the teacher made me sit all alone in a room and practice with the “shoes” while the other kids were in another room, in a music class. About 40 years later I had a secretarial job in my old school district and told this experience to a young teacher. She said, “They couldn’t do that today – kids have rights.”
In 5th grade, my dad taught me how to do math in my head. It always worked and I began to naturally do math problems in my head. When I had a test on mental math, I got all the answers right. BUT. My teacher insisted we show our thought process, so I got a D.
Another story: 2nd grade, I was way ahead of everyone in my class. I knew how negatives worked. My teacher gave us those problems where you subtract big numbers from small numbers, so I put negative answers. My teacher kept me inside from recess for a week for using knowledge other than what he taught me. Also, a boy who also knew negatives was praised for being smarter than everyone else.
Load More Replies... Maybe if we paid teachers more, we'd have more competent, smart people take the job?
So, basically these people say (acording to the headline anyway), that it is not their own fault they are radical, it is somenody elses.... While there is no excuse for teachers to treat their pupils / students badly, neither is somebody having been treated badly by a teacher an excuse for them behaving badly themselves later in life....People REALLY need to stop blaming their behaviour on a "difficult childhood". Sure it can make life miserable, but then it is all the more important that you don't do the same to other people.
To be radical doesn't mean to be bad. It means bad teachers made people question the status quo. It means bad teaching made people critically thinking. Doesn't mean they became criminals. For example bad teacher made me realize the grown ups are not always right and they don't know everything. It made me think on my own, did not made me a bad person. This is what radicalized means.
Load More Replies... What kind of schools did you guys went?? Is it always like this in Murica - vendictive teachers and lots of bullies??
Not just Murica. I went to school in Russia and have my own share of stories. My "favorite" one was when I was doing fractions in elementary school. We had to reduce the fraction, which involved crossing out the numbers and writing in new ones. I got the right answer and was marked wrong. Why? I crossed out the numbers from lower left to upper right instead of the other way. And bullies? Just try being the only Jewish kid in an antisemitic environment and see what happens.
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