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62 Teachers So Infuriating That Their Students Just Had To Shame Them For Everyone To See
Teachers are great. I mean, to dedicate yourself to a lifetime of educating others is wonderful. And some teachers are remembered for inspiring lessons, funny classroom moments, or the homework they somehow made students actually want to do. Others are, however, remembered for humiliating students in front of their classmates, playing favorites, or making a single school day unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.
People recently looked back on the most toxic and downright horrible things teachers did to them, revealing stories that stayed in their memories long after the school bell stopped ringing. From unfair treatment to cruel comments and bizarre power trips, these experiences show just how much an adult in a classroom can affect a student.
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#1
Mrs Frank was my Science and Homeroom teacher in 7th grade. She was mean to the poor kids, except me, because my best friend d**d that year over Christmas break. After that she was saccharine-sweet.
Instead, she got me suspended for a week on the first day back after the funeral. She also refused to let me (and another girl with other issues) sleep in a room w/o a chaperone on our class trip to Boston, because she thought "we might try something".
She described my d**d best friend to our 8:00 am class as "you know, the little girl with the pacemaker?"–which, like, NO ONE knew about, *A*, and *B*, my d**d best friend was not somehow smaller than the rest of us 12 & 13 year-olds.
It will have been 33 years this coming December, and I still hate that fat old b***h. She never, *ever*, got so much as a polite nod from me the second I was no longer under her control. I hated her then, and I hope she was sad and lonely for a very large proportion of the rest of her stupid, heartless life.
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#2
I had this one heath teacher in middle school. She told us that you were ether healthy or overweight/obese and said "just looking around the room most of you are overweight". When I asked about what about people who are underweight she laughed in my face, and said none of us would have to worry about that. Not the best thing to tell to a 11 year old with an eating disorder. I then went on to barely be above 100lbs though out middle school. I'm still underweight, and still don't eat as much as I should. If you are reading this Miss Haralson, F**k you.
#3
I went to private catholic school from 1st grade the middle of 7th grade. I have severe ADHD and various learning disabilities on top of that. I am smart, and very capable, but I do need to learn things in a different way.
I spent all of my elementary school years at a desk in the corner because I talked too much. (Believe it or not, lecturing for hours at 6 year olds doesn't bode well). I would get 3-ish hours of homework every night and that probably took me 6+ hours to do because I was a mental nutcase after spending all of my energy sitting still and being quiet. I would lose my homework constantly, was told I was lazy, and then I'd miss the recess I so desperately needed to function like human being.
5th grade was horrible. My teacher would cover an entire blackboard with tiny cursive print and have paragraphs upon paragraphs we were supposed to copy verbatim into our notebook. It would take me so long to read the d**n thing because I a) needed glasses and b) my eyes don't track smoothly so I often skip lines when I read. I would read the board and not take the notes. We would have tests on this material and could use our notes for the test, but the notes themselves were not graded. I'll never forget being told I was cheating on every single test I ever took that was muilple choice because "I didn't take the notes". I got sent to the principal's office to have him watch me take tests. He couldn't figure it out so they would make me go to the nurse, take off my shoes, socks, jacket, roll up my sleeves, empty my pockets, etc because they couldn't figure out how I was cheating. I was disabled and so I couldn't know the information and that was that. Never mind I just needed to read the information once. My 5th grade teacher failed me on every written assignment because I (to this day mind you) can't spell and I invert my letters when I am tired/over thinking. (e.g. I'll spell the word work "wokr"). Any and all spelling errors resulted in a 0 on that question.
I will never forget that woman sitting there at a parent teacher conference, with me there, telling them they shouldn't be saving money for college because I'll be lucky to make it through high school. That hurt.
There's a lot that happened afterwards, but being told that college would be a waste of money because I couldn't broke me in a lot of ways. I ended up going to public schools, getting the accommodations I needed and did very well. As in, took 9 AP classes and passed all 9 AP test and walked into college with 36 college credits. I finished my bachelor's degree in 3 years, with a 3.9 and went to get my master's at my dream graduate school.
I work in an elementary school now with kids who have disabilities. I walk in those doors everyday determined to make sure no kid I ever work with feels what I felt. I also tell my kids all of my disabilities, every year. They need to know people like them grow up and have happy normal lives. I needed that when I was a kid and I didn't have it.
Trust between teachers and students is one of the less visible parts of education, but Inner Drive describes it as a foundation that allows learning to happen in the first place. When students trust their teachers, they are more willing to ask questions, attempt difficult assignments, admit when they are confused, make mistakes, and accept criticism.
Without that sense of security, students can become more concerned with avoiding embarrassment or protecting themselves than with understanding the material. Trust therefore affects more than whether a student likes a particular teacher; it can determine how willing they are to participate, persevere, and take the intellectual risks that learning requires.
#4
My piano teacher. When I didn't practice, she would scream at me and bang on the keys or hit my hands. If I didn't curve my fingers right, she'd physically take my hand and curl them screaming, "THIS is how they're supposed to be!" She also picked me up/dropped me off because my parents were at work and couldn't take me; she made me walk home many times because she was so pissed off. F**k you, Grace.
#5
Took class in college about fashion & society, so we talked a lot about intersextionality and different life experiences--or we should have.
The professor refused to listen to anyone who disagreed with or brought up counterarguments to what she believed. She'd either interrupt or just completely ignore students, and if you were white she'd basically say your opinion didn't count because of your privilege (she was also white).
She asked for a midyear review, in which I told her all of that, and then she gaslit me in front of the class for "not being brave enough to speak up for my beliefs" by telling a story about how she took a parking ticket to court one time.
#6
Miss Gibbs. She was my Maths teacher for years 9 and 10. She took pleasure in humiliating kids and being cruel to them.
-she was a terrible teacher who woukd sometimes just decide we had been good and could play cards. She would hand out decks of cards to tables and we would think "this is great". Then my friend dropped one of the cards on the floor by accident and she proceeded to then take all.the cards from everyone and resumed teaching maths as punishment.
-she had a magnetic dart board in the room and made each person in the class come up.and have a go. One girl came up and missed the dart board so she then stopped the game and continued teaching maths as punishment. Poor girl was humiliated and people too stupid to see the weird manipulative s**t the teacher was doing blamed her
-me and three others forgot our scientific calculators one lesson, and instead of lending some to us like a normal teacher, she made the 4 of us sit at the back of the class, facing the back wall doing work completely different than the rest of the class.
-generally making students feel uncomfortable to ask questions and making us feel stupid if we did. "What do you mean you don't get it, I've just told you xyz".
-having blatant favourites
When we got to year 11 she had left the school and we got.a new teacher. He could not believe how little of the syllabus we knew and had to go through the whole few years of maths with us in order for us to pass our exams.
She had previously worked in other schools in my town and worked in other schools after. Friends from those schools said the same sort of stories about her.
I struggled with maths much more than I should should because of her.
That trust also changes how students respond when things do not go well. A student who believes a teacher is acting in their interest may be more willing to hear that their work needs improvement or to try again after getting something wrong. Someone who expects ridicule or unfair treatment may instead avoid asking for help, stop participating, or decide that there is little point in trying.
Inner Drive also notes that trust is particularly important because students have to rely on teachers for information and guidance before they can independently verify everything they are taught. When that relationship is damaged, even useful feedback or accurate information can be met with resistance.
#7
I had a professor in grad school that taught local history. The youngest person in the class (of maybe 15) was 23. Most people had established careers and families, so, grown-a*s adults. He constantly treated us like petulant teenagers. He once bragged about getting an adjunct fired for saying something against the US. (I think they had said "wow, you Americans really like to glorify war.") We had an oral history project and he initially approved the person I wanted to interview, and then when I turned in my assignment, said he had never done so.
There is more but suffice to say I wouldn't p**s on him if he was on fire.
#8
Chemistry teacher. Always used to comment like girls should not hang out with boys, girls should not talk loudly, should always look down. The more horrifying fact was that he was a father of two girls....we always wondered how must be treating his girls.
#9
Had a teacher when I was about 10 that was just crazy.
She'd tell all of us kids that we were all going to be k****d by an invasion of k**ler bees in a couple of years, but also any day now the earth was about to suddenly flip upside down and k**l everyone.
This was back in the day of overhead projectors for transparencies with a big glass surface. She got mad at a student and threw hers in the direction of a student, breaking it so she needed a new one.
School did not care at all.
The relationship can go further than improving a student's experience of a particular class. Greater Good explores how one supportive teacher can sometimes change the way a student understands school, themselves, and what might be possible in the future.
Students who have come to see themselves as poor students, troublemakers, or people who simply do not belong in school can develop a different view when an adult consistently treats them as capable and worth investing in. A teacher who combines high expectations with genuine care can give a student a reason to reconsider an identity they may have carried for years.
#10
I went to an elementary school in 2nd grade. My first teacher was pregnant and on maternity leave. We had a sub. On the first day of school I got put on the wrong bus. My parents legit came to the school and there was almost a war going on between them and the principal.
They demanded a new teacher and I got one. My teacher was named Mrs. Wright. She was mean. I had finished my homework in class all the time and even finished my work in 5 minutes. She got so mad at that, In a parent teacher conference, She called me bossy. Just because I had finished my work super early. About 2 weeks of crying and not wanting to go to school, My mom took me out of that school and went to a one that my grandmother recommended (she was a substitute so she like teached at a lot of schools).
I still remember her and I dont think she teaches there anymore.
#11
Not my teacher, but he subbed once for my 5th grade math class. He didn’t talk to me one time when he subbed, but he later told my mom during a school function (knowing who I was) that I would basically not achieve much since I have autism. This guy also had two special needs kids, to make matters worse.
#12
The most sarcastic, passive aggressive teacher I've ever had the displeasure of having.
Her favouritism was so disgusting, she would actively humiliate the quieter, weaker students and make them stand in their place if they didn't know an answer, but would joke and laugh when her favourites didn't know the answer.
Worst part? A good majority of the class loved her because she was sarcastic and quirky. In reality she was a terrible, toxic person who fed off of the misery of the quiet kids and openly mocked them in front of the class.
Like s**t, dude, imagine being a quiet kid who dreads being called on, and someone who's supposed to help you in life just makes you stand up and starts mocking you, and the entire class laughs along. S**t stays with you.
That shift can also affect how students understand authority itself. For a young person who has experienced inconsistent adults, harsh discipline, or relationships in which mistakes were met with anger, a teacher who is both firm and respectful can demonstrate that authority does not have to involve humiliation.
Students can learn that disagreement does not automatically lead to punishment and that criticism can address their behavior or work without attacking their worth. Over time, being treated as someone with potential rather than as a problem to be managed can influence how students approach challenges and whether they can imagine themselves succeeding beyond the classroom.
#13
My 9th and 10th grade English teacher. She hated me, she has told and I quote “I could’ve given you a higher grade but I didn’t feel like it” on more than one occasion. One time she used my essay as a model for what others should do.....but gave me the lowest score in the class (her reason was that she couldn’t remember what was wrong with it). Granted I wasn’t exactly a perfect student, I hate writing and languages were never my subjects. I did procrastinate quite a bit but so did everyone in my class.
Edit: I forgot to mention she now teaches my younger brother, I feel sorry for him.
#14
9th grade history teacher who simply never showed up to 75% of the lessons, then gave us s**tloads of materials before exams, and the the parts she said we "should know by heart even if woken up at 2 am" wasn't even included in the test after all.
One time I forgot the textbook, and she made me (and 2 others) stay after class to copy 15 pages by hand as a punishment.
Yes, that punishment came from a teacher who didn't even come to her own casses.
There is, however, a structural reason why a teacher's behavior can have such a powerful effect. Psychology Today points out that the teacher-student relationship is inherently unequal: teachers assign grades, enforce rules, make recommendations, control classroom privileges, and can initiate disciplinary consequences.
Students generally have far fewer options for challenging those decisions, particularly when they are young or dependent on the school system. That authority becomes problematic when it is used to intimidate, humiliate, silence, or manipulate rather than to support learning and safety.
#16
"Why isn't anyone answering my questions?"
"Bahahahah you're absolutely wrong! Let me degrade you in front of the entire class in a cheap attempt to look cool in front of the students.".
#17
Had a teacher out from a really bad brown recluse bite for like 2 weeks. One of the toxic kids in my class pissed off the substitute teacher so bad that her toxic traits of a***e came out and she beat his a*s. She was arrested that day in front of all of us. We were in 5th grade.
#18
High school maths teacher. Oh someone didn't do their homework? The WHOLE class has to stay behind at break.
The imbalance can become particularly noticeable when students believe rules are being applied differently to different people. A teacher who gives one student repeated chances while punishing another for similar behavior can make fairness itself feel uncertain. The same applies when teachers publicly criticize students, use embarrassment as discipline, or allow personal preferences to influence rewards and consequences.
Favoritism, intimidation, blurred boundaries, and fear-based control are examples of authority being used in harmful ways. Because students cannot simply walk away from the relationship, these experiences can carry more weight than a disagreement between two people with equal power.
#19
Year 7-8 (6th-7th grade for Americans) english teacher in a private school.
She was American and a feminist which doesn’t sound bad at the start of the year until she morphed into a sexist, homophobic terf. She always tried to put down the boys in the class but always treated us girls like we were better. Called a kid a spastic. called people the f-word (f*g) a bit. Made peanut butter chocolate cookies and expected people to think she was nice.
idk what happened to her after because i moved schools but i think someone said that she was moved to a local grammar school.
#20
Spent the night with mom in the hospital for her seizures.
Had to get a bad grade signed.
Apparently that’s a bad excuse. I failed.
When I turned crying, my crush was there looking at me freaked out.
#21
My tenth grade English teacher. She thought she was so great and played favorites, though she had seniority, so what could the district do?
One day, as she passed out an exam, she was like, “Now, let’s not be like Jeff and only score a 65. Okay?”.
A healthier classroom does not require teachers to remove every difficult moment or ensure that students are never corrected. NeuroLaunch describes psychological safety as an environment where students can make mistakes, ask questions, admit confusion, and disagree without expecting humiliation or dismissal.
Clear expectations help establish that environment, but so does the way teachers respond when students inevitably get something wrong. Treating an incorrect answer as something to examine rather than as proof that a student is incapable can make it easier for them to try again. The same principle applies when students need help: asking a basic question should be treated as part of learning rather than as something embarrassing.
#22
Had a Humanities teacher pull up my sleeve in class to look at and draw attention to my s*******m cuts and loudly say that I was desperate for attention and that she "had seen deeper" (like a challenge or something) I dropped out fairly soon after.
#23
Math teacher back in 2002, algebra 2. He tried hard to be "cool" via bullying and ridicule. Cute 15 year old girls got praise and attention, allowed to retake tests, turn in homework late. He'd join in with the popular boys to make fun of the other kids. Nerdy/socially awkward male students had it the worst.
Several times called me up in front of the class to do a problem on the board, then spent several minutes making fun of me, still standing in front of the entire class because I didn't get it right. "Do you even care? This is easy stuff right here, you clearly haven't even cracked open your book. I have kids in my special-ed class that can do this their eyes closed."
Accidentally knocked an unopened water bottle off my desk, another ridicule session. "Can't even keep a water bottle on your desk, no wonder you don't play sports. Clearly you don't have any respect or you'd have paid more attention and not disrupted my class. Everyone, no more drinks allowed in class, you can thank Sanyu85 since he can't be respectful. Shame, one bad apple spoils it for everyone." Because I bumped an unopened deer park water bottle off my desk.
It wasn't just me, there were a couple of us he really targeted hard. I'm 36 years old now, and I know I wasn't a perfect student, but this guy is easily in the top 5 worst people I've ever had to endure in my life.
#24
Maths teacher, also taught Economics. Would tell twelve-year-olds they were going to fail Maths, and then wouldn't go to highschool like all their friends the next year. The kids stopped trying in his classes. They did, in fact, fail and have to repeat their last year of primary school (and rewrite highschool applications).
That kind of environment ultimately depends on whether students believe they can participate without constantly protecting themselves. Teachers can contribute by acknowledging their own mistakes, explaining corrections, giving students room to disagree respectfully, and focusing feedback on how their thinking can improve.
A classroom can still be demanding, and students can still be held accountable, without creating an atmosphere where everyone is afraid of getting something wrong. The difference is that discipline and high expectations are paired with consistency and respect. When students feel secure enough to speak, experiment, fail, and try again, the classroom becomes a place where mistakes provide information rather than becoming memories students carry for years.
#25
Physics teacher. He was a tall bald ginger dude that looking back might have been bullied for the colour of his hair. Doesn't make his behaviour right.
Both classes that he had that year failed and he blamed the students for everything. He sat our class down and announced that both had failed, and how many. He then went on a rant about how stupid we were, how we couldn't study, we wouldn't ask questions and when we did it was obvious we didn't listen, we can't apply ourselves, it's all this generations fault because we are all spoilt little brats that can't study and are rewarded for it. He went off on angry rants very often, would slam the door, shout at us or one student, being with him in a room was like walking on eggshells, one little thing was enough to set him off and ruin the whole lesson. He picked on people and woudnt leave them alone until he was satisfied that they felt worthless enough, he couldn't teach for s**t and he pitted everyone against each other. Throughout the year there were many many complaints against him but it was only when he separated us into grade groups by calling out which student got which grade that something was actually done, which Im assuming is because he broke some kind of a rule.
Long wall of text here but in conclusion, he was a complete a*****e. I'm very proud that I was the one to get him to leave his job as a physics teacher and the last I heard he's just a substitute now. He had a serious anger management problem and could barely control his behaviour, let alone teach. From that experience I despised physics, it was only when I had a new teacher at a different location that I understood and grew my interest in it.
#26
At graduation
Wow [insert name] I'm surprised you made it this far.
I wasn't a bad student, just very average.
#27
Had an English teacher that would drone on endlessly about semicolons. Three days into the class, and we’re still talking about how she could go on and on about semicolons.
Dropped that class hard and fast day five. She was way too into her own brand to actually teach, and the class work that I got from the book was essentially a repeat of high school English.
Teachers may only spend a limited number of hours with each student, but the way they use that time can leave a surprisingly lasting impression. A teacher who makes students feel capable, respected, and safe to learn can become an important source of confidence, while one who repeatedly humiliates, dismisses, or unfairly targets them can become the reason a particular classroom is remembered years later.
The difference is not always found in the lessons themselves, but in how students are treated while they are learning. Of course, most people probably have at least one teacher they remember for reasons that have little to do with the subject they taught. What is the worst thing a teacher ever did to you or someone in your class? Share your experiences in the comments!
#28
I went to a catholic school and a school admin put the one openly gay girl in the entire school on "probation" under the guise that a student had reported her for "harassment". Our school was **tiny.** We knew none of us did that.
#29
I had a teacher in the second grade who was, well, kind of psychotic. He was a*****e and demeaning towards students who were struggling and openly favoured smart kids. Extremely abliest. He either got fired or transfered, since I never saw him again.
#30
I had a English teacher in HS who never got my older brother in trouble for something he did. She was out on medical leave the first semester and I was a B student. When second semester started she was back and decided to short my GPA and quickly turned me into a D- student. I failed that semester.
Some how I ended up in TWO f*****g advanced placement English courses and was an A student.
I had to retake that semester of English my senior year. Even my teacher knew what happened as he was my AP teacher. Sad.
#31
I love in the South of England. Very rural.
There was one black person at my school when I was there & a teacher was fired for banging her head against the table when she wasn't paying attention in class. It's safe to say she was sacked there & then.
#32
PE teacher in kindergarten, I was looking at birds and laughing because my little ADHD brain thought it was funny. All of a sudden, WHAM, I get hit in the head hard by a hoola hoop. I turn around, tears in my eyes, and my PE teacher said that’s what I get for laughing at another student who got hit in the head with a hoola hoop. I wasn’t even laughing at that kid.
Or my second grade teacher, another kid came down the slide and ran into me. I was like why’d you do that, they told me “she told me to go” I thought they were talking about another kid and said “you don’t have to listen to her!” Next thing I know my teacher grabs me and slams me against the fence and yells in my face that I shouldn’t tell students not to listen to her. I got written up, which s***s because I came from an a*****e household so anytime I was written up it meant extreme punishment when I got home.
It was in a weird small foothills town that hated outsiders and I got written up a lot there, so happy we moved shortly after.
#33
My US History teacher, (who bullied me all year long) failed me on a project. She gave us an assignment that we could pick anything in US history that interested us to present on. I presented about Freemasons and conspiracy theories, they fascinated me. She stood up at the end and said she was offended I was talking about the Freemasons because her dad and and husband were a part of it and it was an inappropriate thing to discuss. She then sent me to the principals office because my outfit was “unbecoming” (a flowery shirt and jeans) and humiliated me in front of my 9th grade class.
#34
I'm British Pakistani. When I was a kid, I'd never been to Pakistan, couldn't speak Urdu, most of my friends were white. There was very little of myself that I associated with my heritage.
In high school my English teacher would tell me on multiple occasions that I wasn't English (despite being born in England, and my parents being born in England). This, among other things, gave me such a huge identity crisis. I ended up being a nationalistic, racist anti-immigrant teenaged d******d (the logic being that if I went to the extreme of one side, maybe they'd accept me).
I now know that my identity is unique. I embrace my own personal blend of Pakistani-ness and British-ness, and I'm happy with the person it's made me. I also learnt how ingrained casual racism is in the North of England. I doubt my teacher was being spiteful, it was very matter-of-fact. But he perpetuated an "us and them" mentality, and made me feel like an outcast. F**k that guy.
#35
I was 14 years old and crying about a classmate who'd recently been m******d. My science teacher said to me "get over it, people d*e all the time." Her name was Ms. Williams, I am 40 years old now and I still hate her to this day.
#36
When I was in college I had been struggling in one my classes, the final would determine a large difference in my overall grade. Well, a few days before my best friend passed away in a bad accident and the funeral was the same day during the time for the final. I went to my professors office and broke down crying asking if I could reschedule. He told me that if he gave in to everyone crying for a reschedule everyone would want one. Needless to say I took a zero, but I still think about his response all the time.
#37
The teacher who decided your grade on the basis of how much money she thought your family had. Poor kids got bad grades, kids from wealthy families were all As. There was a kid in that class who wasn't a snob and didn't go out of his way to show that his family had money. He was failing the class. The teacher had a parent-teacher conference, and found out both his parents were doctors. Insta-grade improvement.
#38
My 11th grade math teacher was an annoying, corny, obnoxious Karen. The class moved pretty slow and I would always finish my class work before everyone else and then would finish my homework after that. After I completed all of that she would refuse to let me do work for other classes or relax. Instead, she gave me additional math work that nobody else had to do OR would make me help the other kids in our class. There was one day I finally stood up to her and refused to do either. She then reached into my backpack, took out my math book, and placed it on my desk and demanded I do more work or else she would give me a detention. I refused, again, and then I got written up. At the detention, she asked me if I was ready to apologize to her yet and I said “why would I need to apologize to you?” At that point the principal got involved and I never was forced to do work beyond the class and homework assignments.
#39
Can this be high school too? If so. Geography. 7th grade. I have no clue how this man got a job. The whole year he was late to class, slept during most of it, took cigarette breaks. Finally got fired after calling a black student the N word and physically fighting him, who was obviously a child. Thankful to say I’m 28 now and still happy that guy lost his wife and kids in a divorce several years later. He’s the worst kind of human.
#41
Most people will talk about their math teachers in this post. But I.... Am going to do the same 😂. Anyways, let the post begin
We had a math teacher in 7th standard who had a very funny hairstyle (fully shaved from the centre with hair on the side). He seemed like the type of teacher who didn't want to teach his students. He would make us do 1 question in the class and give the whole 20-question exercise as homework (talk about being lazy, lol).
He would get very angry if someone would enter his class without permission. He did something that would annoy the students a lot. We don't know whether he did it for humour or he was actually serious. When someone would ask "May I come in sir?" He wouldn't reply but he would nod his head. And here is the funny part. When the student would enter, he would ask "Did I tell you to come in?". If the child would go out (which we usually did), he would ask "Did I ask you to go out?". At this point, the student wouldn't know what to do and would stand at the border of the door (neither inside the class nor outside). The whole class would end up laughing.
#42
I had a college professor a few semesters ago who expected doctorate-level papers from people with a student-level understanding of the material.
#43
In middle school i was a part of the s****y little choir that the (very small) school had. i joined in 7th grade, and in the middle of 8th i decided i didn’t want to be a part of it anymore. the music teacher running the whole thing did Not like that and continued on to be extremely rude to me for the rest of the year. she literally would s**t talk about me to other teachers, once while i was in the room. i had two different teachers, on two separate occasions, pull me out of class and ask me why i quit the choir. the entire thing was ridiculous and super humiliating for 13 year old me.
#44
The cool guy english teacher everybody loved told me "no college would want you" after I reached out to him concerning my suddenly bombing grade that was the result of a major depressive episode (and later I'd learn i have add inattentive, which made things harder). I just wanted help and I was refused.
On the other hand though, the strict and less loved history teacher stayed after school with me multiple times, encouraged me and told me I was strong for seeking out help. I'm now in graduate school with a full time job and hopefully looking toward a Ph.D. He is the reason why.
#45
I'm a teacher now, but I'll be honest here: I'm motivated by spite. See, in middle school I had an incompetent b***h for a math teacher. I'm 30 years old and I still hate that woman. I usually try to defend my colleagues, but I hate her and I hope she lost her career.
It was 6th grade. I've never been great at math, but generally I can get it if I have a patient teacher. This woman was not patient. She answered sarcastically and made me an other students feel stupid for not knowing answers. Some days she felt as though we were too talkative and she'd refuse to teach. She'd still give us quizzes on what we were supposed to cover, though. Mind you, we were *twelve.*
The worst thing is that she decided to make a seating chart. Personally, I use seating charts all the time. It's normally not a big deal. But her seating chart wasn't alphabetical, or designed to break up the chatty kids. No, her seating chart was in order, according to our grades in her class. How do I know? Bc I asked if I could sit closer to the board, and she told me no, bc the kids with F's had to sit in the back. Only kids with A's could sit on the front.
She was also the first teacher to ever write me up. I'd come back from the bathroom break last and apparently I must've been goofing off. In reality, there was a line bc only one stall was clean. She didn't listen when I tried to explain. I also missed a lot of school. She tried to blame me and say that I was deliberately skipping. I was 12. My mom was irresponsible and I didn't ride the bus. If my mom didn't take me, I couldn't go. She also wrote me up once for not getting a progress report signed, as if I could somehow force my mother to sign it.
Either way, my mom and grandma came to the school and raised hell until I got switched to another math teacher. I started back getting A's within a week and I hope my old math teacher gets hit by a bus.
But I pride myself on being a better teacher. Every student that feels safe enough to confide in me, or who admits they look up to me is a little piece of revenge. And I owe none of it to her, bc I it for myself. The revenge is just a really delicious bonus.
#46
That's a tough choice.
My Year-11 Trigonometry teacher and I did not get along in class. Great to have for study halls and things, but in class it was "Don't question it, just memorize it" and "Just look it up, there's a log table in the back of the book." When asked what we were supposed to do after the school year was over and no longer had the log tables in the back of the book, her response was a sharp "don't get smart with me".
Year-12 English wasn't any better. She was one of the 'My degree is in literature, therefore I must over-analyze everything, a cigar is *never* just a cigar and if you disagree you're a plebian!' types...who grilled one of my classmates until she cried, demanding to know what the symbolism of some random thing being the color it was, and refusing to take the student's response of "I like that color" for an answer. She and I had a real nasty feud...giving me 0 on an assignment to write a riddle, because she couldn't figure out the answer therefore she claimed it didn't have one. I got a corrected grade when I gave her the answer, but she held a grudge for the rest of the year for 'making her look stupid in front of the class'. No, you're the one who made yourself look stupid by not making 'put the answer on the back of the page' part of the assignment.
#47
I had a subsitute in the 5th grade. This person was something else for sure. We missed 15 minutes of lunch time one day, and 10 minutes of recess. I don't care anymore about the recess now, but 5th grade me was upset. The part I find worse is what im about to list. So, one day, i'm pretty sure my teacher assigned this but apparently our sub wanted to "teach us a lesson" So, she pulls up a video of this reading of a book. Id like to introduce a character, who we will call M. So, M was very sensitive to this book. He hates when characters d*e, and he will cry about it. So this book was about 2 dudes, 1 is poor and gets badly injured or something., and the other dude starts taking care of him. Well, in the story, the guys grandma gets slaughtered by not-so-very-good-racist white dudes. M breaks down in tears. Of course, me being his friend, i know why. So a bunch of other classmates, including me, rush over to calm him down. Yet, our sub yells at us to sit down. I give her a dirty look and stay right beside him. He doesnt stop crying. A couple of kids come up. Our subsitute yells at us "im trying to teach you a lesson!" By that time M had calmed down. Something similar to this process repeated at least 2 more times. And i kid you not, the lesson our subsitute was trying to teach us is to care for and help your friends.
#48
Teachers who purposely pick on student just to embarrass them
I find that simply just cruel and quite immature coming from them, especially if they are teaching minors. Embarrassing students or making examples out of them simply makes you look like a horrible teacher who's just trying to "look better" when in reality they're simply tormenting students in my opinion.
Edit: since there seems to be some confusion, here's further explanation of what I mean when I say teachers who purposely embarrass students. When I say this, I'm talking about all those teachers/professors/TAs/substitutes that take it one step too far, crosses the line and are clearly aware of their intentions and how it could harm a student's well-being. Teachers who pick on students for their wrong behavior, or disrupting the class isn't unfair (IMO those students who do act out in class clearly aren't embarrassed or uncomfortable to be called out upon) - I'm talking about those students struggling with social anxiety and other problems, and clearly have shown that they are not yet comfortable in the classroom environment. When a teacher does pick on them, to me it simply looks like they're picking on students just to act like the "bigger man," or they're showing off when in reality it makes them look quite inconsiderate.
^(while I admit I was one of those kids who were picked on because I wasn't showing my full potential (I didn't feel like answering most of the time) ^(I didn't feel *that* uncomfortable getting called out, my friend was another story and she clearly struggled with social anxiety and hated getting picked on in class. Even when she hung out with us, she was still fairly quiet and it would always take a lot out of her to clearly show her feelings. A lot of our teachers were aware of this, but some continuously picked on her because she would barely talk and only made her self-esteem lower.).
#49
They say you don't have to worry about appointments because everything is "just planned well". And then after a few weeks they change their mind and say "Oh well, let's change some dates. You can do it earlier, because.. f**k I'm the teacher!".
It happens every semester. Pretty annoying.
#51
"Let's go around the room and share something *interesting* about ourselves!"- ABSOLUTELY NOT.
#52
I've had teachers that 'teach' something, no one gets it, but they move on anyways because they already 'taught' it. Then they complain that we didn't do well on the test because we didn't study and then punish us for it.
#53
When you ask if they graded a test, and they say they have other classes to grade, but when you have homework, they don't accept that you have homework for other classes as well.
#55
Upper division university classes with attendance policies. If I want to not show up for class until the exam, it's my decision! 3 missed classes and I lose 10% of my grade? B******t.
#57
Metalworking class f****r called me r******d on multiple occasions like greeting me ah r****d. School didn't take this seriously even another teacher got in on that "joke".
Got my revenge later in life he came in at my job with his car and I took extra long checking stuff that obviously wasn't broken and told my advicer I gotta go home at 5 so his car isn't gonna be ready just yet.
#58
I had a few bad teachers, one of them was openly racist and was fired for throwing a metal disk in a student face but even he wasn’t as toxic as the toad that put me off math forever. That idiot put me in detention my first week because I was writing with a black fountain pen instead instead of blue. I got another detention because my mom didn’t buy the extremely specific, impossible to find notepad. Of course he was the one of person to tell a student they would never be anything better than a hairdresser. The ultimate shame according to that i******e.
#59
My 9th grade English teacher...I asked a question on the assignment and she asked me if I had a learning disability in front of the whole class.
#60
My stats teacher literally shoved me out of his room. I'm terrible at anything related to math and I'm absolutely horrified by stats. So on the day of the mid, I was begging him to arrange a make up for me because I'd fail the exam, and eventually the course. He got mad and asked me to get out. Fair enough. In the next two hours, I went through the whole syllabus and practiced everything I could and then had some queries. I went back to his office to ask for help and before I could say anything, he shouted "I told you to get out" and came to the door to shove me out of his room. 3rd year in University btw. Safe to say he's one of the worst teachers I've ever had.
#61
3rd grade teacher hands down, source of all my depression/anxiety issues.
I was diagnosed with ADHD before it was so commonplace. Actually my kindergarten teacher that realized it and helped my parents. Fast forward to 3rd grade. Teacher felt it was a fancy way of saying I’m lazy. She would write the days home work on the side of the board. Below that she would write my name and another students name who also had ADHD. It was our extra work. I’m not talking like 2 or 3 extra credit questions, I’m talking I would be at the kitchen table from 330 when I got home until 11pm-midnight every night, sometimes not finishing it with my parents help. Plus a stack that all day long sat and sun was homework. My mom was fighting with the school’s administration and school board. They would blow her off “she’s very experienced and knows what she’s doing, she’s just old school” I ended up in therapy after a s*****e attempt. Finally there was a change in the school board and when they found out about my moms complaints they quickly put a stop to it. The new policy was I was sent home with an egg timer after 30 minutes stop doing home work. I’ll admit probably not the best tactic to give a 9yr old.
The teacher “retired” early the following year.
It broke me, when I get overwhelmed it definitely affects me even as an adult.
#62
2nd grade teacher decided to send me to the principals office cause I said a worksheet looked easy. It was basic addition. Principal decided to side with her.
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