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30 People On Reddit Share Things Teachers Told Them That Had A Significant Effect On Them
There are things we memorize on purpose—grammar rules, birthdays of loved ones, important dates, and deadlines. But there are things that get stuck with us even though we never really put any effort into remembering them. Words have far greater power than we may realize, especially when said at the right place and the right time.
Speaking of the right words, one Reddit user invited others on the social media platform to share things that their school teachers said that stuck with them. Some wise words turned out to be powerful teaching moments for students, whereas some get replayed in one's mind because they hit some kind of nerve. All in all, the thread blew up, with thousands of replies to the discussion and almost 50k likes. Scroll down to find the best answers that Bored Panda picked for you and vote for the ones you liked the most. In addition to this, in the comment section, share if you ever heard something from a teacher that stuck with you for life!
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I was several weeks into a course in high school I still hadn't bought the textbook. When the teacher found out I didn't have the book, she took me aside and asked why. Being a dumb teenager, without thinking I gave her some lame excuse about the book being "too expensive." My family was solidly middle class, and, although not rich, my parents definitely would have bought the book for me. The real reason was just that I was lazy.
But my teacher looked sincerely concerned and quietly handed me a $20 bill. I was caught off-guard and mortified. Of course, I did buy the book right away after that. And then later that year returned a $20 to the teacher.
I always struck by the generosity of a teacher who would do that for her students, but I felt awful about how what I thought was an innocent lie turned out. Definitely a valuable lesson in honesty, lol.
I once asked my teacher something about the subject. And she said, "I don't know, but I'll do some research and get back to you tomorrow."
That's the best answer she could give. Teachers do not know everything and she didn't try to make something up. Also later in life you often have to research questions in your own field of expertise.
“Killing yourself is a selfish act. There are people you haven’t met yet who need you.”
She was my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Stone, and I swear to god she saved my life without knowing it.
One of the main things keeping me from suicide is that people DO care about me, and the fact that if i end myself they will suffer because they have lost something that they care about. I know this because my grandma was mentally unstable and when I was about... 9 or 10 she attempted suicide, changed her mind part way through, and ended up in the hospital for a month or two before my mother decided to pull the plug because the machines were the only things keeping her heart pumping. It hurt. I wasn't allowed to come visit her, and there was no funeral, so the last time that I talked to her is my last memory of her. I saw my grandma in the hospital with my Aunt Carolyn after my aunt's checkup. We had been forbidden to see my grandma because my mother didn't know if she had been taking all the medicine that kept her (mostly) sane. I hadn't known how serious her condition was until that night. Everything she told me that day was a lie.
Saying this to suicidal people can drive them deeper into depression due to the extra guilt. Don't do this.
definitely, i have been suicidal on multiple occasions and my mother always pulls this on me
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Killing urself is not a selfish act. It's a complex act with many layers and reason. Some ppl actually want to die cause it gives a better life , living isn't a default choice and option. Forcing ppl to live for others is selfish and moronic and shows how shallow ur. Help ppl if they r suicidal. But understand the beauty and freedom that comes from dying to a person who truly wants it.
I don’t particularly agree with calling it selfish. For many people, if they are that suicidal, then this feels like that only answer, the only hope, and the only way out. Is it the right way out? No, we all have so much more life left to live, but by calling it selfish, you could unknowingly be damaging someone’s mental health even more.
The sad fact of the matter is that mostly, apologies for generalising, but people that sure that suicide is what they want to do usually believe that people are better off without them.
This is a terrible thing to say to someone who is depressed and suicidal. It isn't true and it shows a complete lack of understanding of mental health. Please don't share this with anyone or tell anyone this.
When I was 8 or 9 a kid who was one year older committed suicide at school. We were not allowed out of our classrooms for hours. Then the ambulance and police left and when we went out the first thing I remember seeing was the shape of his body, in chalk, on the ground. I am 45 and I still remember this. I can't even imagine what his parents felt like.
Lovely comment, but was there a rash of 5th graders contemplating suicide?
Well plus, killing your self means a lot of inconvenience for a lot of people. I’d feel bad about making a mess for someone else to clean up.
lara.. You clearly have very limited understanding of suicide, depression and mental illness. You don't know everything about those people's situations or mental states when they committed suicide. And what about lonely old people who might literally have no one in their life anymore, that cares for them. Do you think, that those people have no reason not to kill themselves? In my oppion, suicide is one of the worst things you can do to yourself.
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First day off science class: “Many of the topics I will be teaching you this year will likely be proven false throughout your life”
I wish my high school history teacher said the same thing as he taught me "facts" that he must have known were either completely untrue, or so whitewashed so as to be unrecognizable from what really happened. For example, Columbus did not "discover" America (indeed, he never set foot in North America), he didn't set out to prove that the earth was round (which was already well known and widely accepted at the time), and his ships were almost certainly not named the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. And we laud him as a hero when in truth he was a brutal governor of the Caribbean island where he *did* land. Why do we make up and hide the real history and make kids learn it only to have to unlearn it in college?
"You have an accent, your skin is brown, your whole life will be filled with people who will assume this means you are not as smart or as good as they are at literally anything. That's why I push you. That's why I demand more from you. You have to work harder now so you can prove them all wrong for the rest of your life."
Ms. Johnson 9th grade English teacher
“Have I been respectful to you?”
Me: “well, yeah”
“Are you being respectful to me?”
Simple words. They have guided me so much.
I'm FB friends with several of my old teachers. I once wrote about how I had the recurring nightmare of being in my chemistry teacher's class and having to take an exam but not having studied for it.
He replied saying that his recurring nightmare is my being in his class.
“Once you’re an adult, you choose your own fate. Your mom won’t control you anymore.”
this came from a 9th grade Algebra 1 teacher who took the time to tutor me. My mom was/is a antivaxxing, cult following nut bag who didn’t think school was important because Armageddon is coming. I was terrible at math until I met him.
It’s been 25 years and I think of this teacher still, I am grateful. Don’t talk to mom anymore, she got tired of me asking where Armageddon was...
Try not to downvote Daniel more than he already is. Don't upvote him, but don't downvote him either. I think he meant it as a joke. It's in poor taste, but everyone makes bad choices. Just ignore it.
I had a maths teacher who was an older woman, really strict and nobody particularly liked her. We mocked her way of speaking and were generally mean teenage assholes.
Once, when I was around 15, I hadn't finished my homework so I dropped my book in a puddle and showed it to her in class to say I'd lost the homework so couldn't hand it in. She questioned me a bit on how it had happened, then asked me to stay after class. The whole lesson I was [crapping] myself, expecting to be absolutely bollocked once everyone else had gone, so when the bell rang I sheepishly went up and sat at her desk after everyone had left.
To my surprise, she didn't shout at me but gently asked if I was being bullied and somebody had taken my workbook and ruined it on purpose. I was a little skinny kid with glasses and braces, so I can see why she would have thought that, but in that moment I suddenly saw her as a human being with feelings and empathy and not just a teacher. I felt like [crap] for the way I had treated her, and for lying about what had happened. I never admitted it to her - just reassured her that I was fine - but it did stick with me and I was much less of an [asshole] to teachers after that.
In my Senior year we had a dinner at school. There was a very long queue for the desserts, so I went and asked a history teacher where it started, because I couldn't find it (it was pretty chaotic)
The teacher proceeded to put an arm around me, walk me to the desserts table, and say "Ray my boy, [damn] the queue"
I took Latin all four years of high school. I quickly realized I despised the language, but I stuck with it for the teacher himself. He alone was worth it.
Our Latin class was right above the hallway with classrooms for special needs kids. One day, after it was apparent nobody did their homework, my teacher stopped class and said, “you’re all taking what you have for granted, and it’s inexcusable. There are several dozen kids in the hallway below you who wish they had the mental faculties to do homework.”
I did my Latin homework regularly after he said that.
agreed i have a special needs brother and he can't even do regular school
After being caught smoking pot in high school (1986). My Science teacher (Hi Mr. Fischbein) said to me: "there is a time and place for everything, this is not the time, nor the place". He did not report me to administration. He was a great teacher.
Normally the line is "there's a time and a place for everything, and it's called college" I think.
This came from a teacher who hated my guts (and I his). We never got along - I disliked what he taught and how he taught it. He thought I was pompous and bragged about my grades (maybe pompous, but never bragged about my grades).
Anyway, we had turned in our Ethics final paper, and mine was 20 pages long or so. Sometime later, he asked me to come by his room to pick up my paper. Despite how much he disliked me, he told me, "Sam, I've been teaching this class for over 10 years - this is the best paper I have ever read. Can I use this as an example for future classes?"
I gained a ton of respect for him that day because I knew how hard it had to be for him to admit that.
"You should just join the army because you'll never make it into university and get a good job."
15 years later, I'm a teacher. I'm not going to say that kind of trash to students.
My geometry teacher was super chill. He taught us to play poker and blackjack. On the last day of school he said, “Remember: if you ever need anything or have any questions while you’re at this school, there are about 50 other teachers you should go to before you come to me”.
Catholic school science class, priest teaching says "Physics can teach you what, where, when, and how. For why you need metaphysics, go ask Father Shannahan."
My art teacher told me I couldn't draw. Fast forward 15 years and I've graduated university with a fine art degree and have my own small illustration business as a side gig. It's not a huge thing, but I've had over 150 sales now and have like, actual fans! So, screw you Miss H!
My art teacher couldn't draw, or paint, or sculpt, so we spent the whole year doing cutesy kid crafts until I went absolutely mad. I built a big junk sculpture in the hallway for everyone to write graffiti on, and got the art scholarship award that year. And I can really draw!
(Biology teacher, pointing at student)
"Ugly bag of protein, full of water!"
"Teachers like marking your homework as much as you like doing homework"
"You can be the smartest person who ever lived and still be wrong."
I had a 9th grade Earth Science teacher who actually had a PhD in biology. He told us that he had made his was through school by writing things he had to learn on 3x5 note cards, and would pull them out of his pocket when he had a few minutes to learn/memorize the material he had written on them. I used that technique from then on - all the way through my own PhD - when I had something important to understand or commit to memory.
If anyone's interested in a similar and very effective technique, I used to write stuff I needed to memorize on post-it notes and stick them to my bathroom mirror. That way, I'd scan them every single morning while I brushed my teeth, without even wanting to. Best technique I've ever used.
There's no benefit to being right if you can't make people listen to the answer.
Making people listen to the answer doesn't mean the answer is right.
Had a history teacher who told me that “everything is relative.” You can only be poor if someone next to you is rich. You’re only stupid if someone next to you is smart. It helps to put things into perspective and realize how superficial a lot of things are in life. That being said, he also randomly told me that “wolves are badass dogs that don’t give a [damn]” when we were not talking about wolves or dogs in class so who knows what was really going on in his head.
My anatomy teacher was a cool dude. He'd give us little tidbits of advice before each test, ranging from "always put your shopping cart away" to "you don't have to be 100% okay 100% of the time, and that's 100% okay, 100% of the time."
He's definitely one of the best teachers I've had.
"I finished school with the lowest grades possible. If THIS idiot could do it, all YOU idiots can do it too" the whole class cheered.
sigh...in Texas, all you need is a C- average in any subject to get a teaching degree. It sure shows in the quality of our education.
"I know what it is to be young but you don't know what it is to be old"
I don't know why and how it came up, but our English teacher asked me if I understand that. It was the first year and I was 10, and I definitely did not understand. But it somehow stuck in my mind as the sound of the sentence, until I could decipher the memory in retrospect.
This is so true, kids often don't realize that we do understand how they feel
"What do they call someone who graduated vet school with a 2.0 GPA? Doctor." My first-term anatomy professor (IN vet school) telling us to stop fretting so much about the grades and worry about the knowledge.
“You’re a spoon in a knife block” when asked why most of my friends were high achievers and I was only average.
One time one of my elective classes was just kind of chilling out the day before winter break and the teacher decided to arrange all our desks in a circle. He had everyone anonymously write something that was troubling them at the moment and he would go through and give some advice.
I wrote about my parents constant fighting and how I feared their inevitable divorce and the possibility of moving across country with my mother. I wish I could remember what he said but I vividly remember almost crying because what he said hit so hard but I kept it together. Less than a month later, both things happened lmao
He said with rage, "YOU USE TO BE ONE OF THE GOOD ONES!"
Note: this post originally had 45 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
One that stuck with me was my electronics teacher saying this to me. " you are not stupid, you are just lazy and lack discipline. That's why you are not going to do well unless you get you S*** figured out." That stuck with me till this day.
"You are kind, you are smart, you are important." Dr. B from AVID. She was awesome. (and still is, im still in her class :3)
"Excuses are the monuments of nothingness, those who use them very seldom succeed." "I'm giving you food, you just need to get the tools to eat!" Band Director
My lovely piano professor Dr. Dainius told me, "You can't love your neighbor as yourself if you don't love yourself." I had pretty severe depression at the time and he gave me so much strength. He also gave me this nugget: "Don't give it to them on a silver platter. Make them REEEACH for it!!" He was talking about playing a passage of music, but it's pretty solid life advice, too!xD
"A true mathematician does as much as is necessary, with as little as possible."
My eighth grade social studies teacher was great, I have so many quotes from him that have stuck with me, but the main ones are: “Conspiracy theories are for weak minded people” “There are rules to war, otherwise it becomes anarchy” and “Someday when we’re bored, we’re going to execute some people, just for fun”
“Conspiracy theories are for weak minded people”
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I had a teacher that was hard-arsed, ruled with an iron fist and generally was completely unlikeable. After many years he told all of us that the reason why he'd been like that was because that's how life/people etc will treat you once you've left school. That was my first life lesson.
How is that your first life lesson? What have you been doing all these years of being alive? I was thinking about what you said and what would the first lesson be? Well when a mom is in labour she might be screaming from sheer pain, and yet she still (if she had autonomy) chose to go through that pain for that kid. Second lesson, sometimes people will hit you to help you, e.g. breathing.
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I have a free spirit and I like to share my opinions with others. Within 6 weeks I got expelled for expressing my views. I told the teacher that the Holy Bible is just a collection of stupid stories. My teacher could not deal with pupils like me in her class. (This was the protestant christian kindergarten school, and I was 4 years old).
I have a free spirit and I like to share my opinions to others. I got expelled within 6 weeks from school for saying that the Holy Bible is just a collection of bad fairytails. My teacher could not deal with such a remarks from her pupils. (It was the Protestant Christian Kindergarten School, and I was 4 years old)
One that stuck with me was my electronics teacher saying this to me. " you are not stupid, you are just lazy and lack discipline. That's why you are not going to do well unless you get you S*** figured out." That stuck with me till this day.
"You are kind, you are smart, you are important." Dr. B from AVID. She was awesome. (and still is, im still in her class :3)
"Excuses are the monuments of nothingness, those who use them very seldom succeed." "I'm giving you food, you just need to get the tools to eat!" Band Director
My lovely piano professor Dr. Dainius told me, "You can't love your neighbor as yourself if you don't love yourself." I had pretty severe depression at the time and he gave me so much strength. He also gave me this nugget: "Don't give it to them on a silver platter. Make them REEEACH for it!!" He was talking about playing a passage of music, but it's pretty solid life advice, too!xD
"A true mathematician does as much as is necessary, with as little as possible."
My eighth grade social studies teacher was great, I have so many quotes from him that have stuck with me, but the main ones are: “Conspiracy theories are for weak minded people” “There are rules to war, otherwise it becomes anarchy” and “Someday when we’re bored, we’re going to execute some people, just for fun”
“Conspiracy theories are for weak minded people”
Load More Replies... I had a teacher that was hard-arsed, ruled with an iron fist and generally was completely unlikeable. After many years he told all of us that the reason why he'd been like that was because that's how life/people etc will treat you once you've left school. That was my first life lesson.
How is that your first life lesson? What have you been doing all these years of being alive? I was thinking about what you said and what would the first lesson be? Well when a mom is in labour she might be screaming from sheer pain, and yet she still (if she had autonomy) chose to go through that pain for that kid. Second lesson, sometimes people will hit you to help you, e.g. breathing.
Load More Replies... I have a free spirit and I like to share my opinions with others. Within 6 weeks I got expelled for expressing my views. I told the teacher that the Holy Bible is just a collection of stupid stories. My teacher could not deal with pupils like me in her class. (This was the protestant christian kindergarten school, and I was 4 years old).
I have a free spirit and I like to share my opinions to others. I got expelled within 6 weeks from school for saying that the Holy Bible is just a collection of bad fairytails. My teacher could not deal with such a remarks from her pupils. (It was the Protestant Christian Kindergarten School, and I was 4 years old)
