[Noiz]

I'm sure we all had one of those bad teacher years.

Second grade was my worst year. My teacher was Mrs. S (Lets call her by that to avoid actual names)

She is one of those teachers you don't want to be near at. I don't know why she became a teacher but she treated us like dirt and didn't care about our personal life. Like for example, she thought I was a problem child because I got into a lot of fights when I was little and she thought I had an issue of dressing up like a boy since I had boyish hair and hanging out with a lot of guys. (I've grown up acting kinda like a boy for numerous reasons, but lets not get into that).

In second grade Mrs. S came over to my friend's desk because he didn't have his reading book (It was a book about pandas. How cute). She literally flipped his desk and everything fell out and he was crying since one of the books hit his head. We had these kind of desk. She yelled at him and I told her that wasn't nice. She later yelled at me telling me that it doesn't have to do with me. Also, one time, I had the flu and I was out for a week. She yelled at me when I was copying down some math notes I missed.

Did you do the 100 days in school thing? I did. We had a party for it and we all had to bring in food. (Example: 100 sliced apples). I dislike bananas. She gave me bananas when I told her I don't like it and I get extreme stomach pains when I eat fruit in the morning. She told me to shut up and eat it. Oh an it gets worse. I had dried lips and I brought this cream medicine for my lips. My mom even wrote a note to Mrs. S because my mom actually knew how terrible my teacher was (Yay Mom!). She yelled at me even when it was break time. Told me to put it away or else she was going to call my mom. WTF?! She even read the note?! D:<

One day in Reading, she told me to stop reading because I didn't know how to read and she couldn't stand hearing my voice. It isn't my fault. I first spoke in Korean and I learned how to speak easy English when I was only 6. She asked me if Korean was my first language and I said yes. She later told me "You're not in Korea. So you better stop speaking in that language when you're here".

Good thing that she got pregnant and left the school.

This post has been edited by Noiz: 17 August 2012 - 08:04 AM

[sentinel28a]

Noiz, on 11 July 2012 - 11:36 PM, said:

I'm sure we all had one of those bad teacher years.

In second grade my teacher came over to my friend's desk because he didn't have his reading book (It was a book about pandas. How cute). She literally flipped his desk and everything fell out and he was crying since one of the books hit his head. We had these kind of desk. She yelled at him and I told her that wasn't nice. She later yelled at me telling me that it doesn't have to do with me. Also, one time, I had the flu and I was out for a week. She yelled at me when I was copying down some math notes I missed.

Did you do the 100 days in school thing? I did. We had a party for it and we all had to bring in food. (Example: 100 sliced apples). I hate bananas. She gave me bananas when I told her I don't like it. She told me to shut up and eat it.

One day in Reading, she told me to stop reading because I didn't know how to read and she couldn't stand hearing my voice. It isn't my fault. I first spoke in Korean and I learned how to speak easy English when I was only 6. She asked me if Korean was my first language and I said yes. She later told me "You're not in Korea. So you better stop speaking in that language when you're here".

Wow. There's a word to describe her, but the filter won't let me use it. Suffice to say it rhymes with "witch."

Sadly, you get a few of these in college, too. I had the misfortune of taking a course on Native American History as a grad student. There's nothing wrong with that, but there was everything wrong with the teacher.

First day in class: we're talking about how the Oklahoma Cherokees were "forced" to side with the Confederacy in 1861, because Lincoln pulled troops that supplied the Cherokees with food back to Washington DC. The professor used this as "proof" Lincoln was racist. I pointed out that Lincoln pulled those troops back because he was desperate not to lose Washington to the South--he couldn't win the Civil War in Oklahoma, but he could damn sure lose it in Virginia.

You'd have thought I insulted the guy's mother. "Lincoln was a racist!" he shouted, literally frothing at the mouth. "He forced the Cherokees to join the South, and punished them after the war for it!" Of course, there's two problems with that answer: 1) Lincoln was a bit busy being shot dead to punish the Cherokee after the war and 2) the Cherokees joined the South because the Cherokees owned slaves...something Prof. Anger neglected to mention.

He then went on to scream at me for voting for Bush in 2000 (I voted for Gore, actually), about how evil Republicans killed all the Indians in California (which doesn't explain why there's quite a few who still live there), and how Bush was screwing the Chinooks out of the salmon rights (a debate which began in the 1970s). By the time it was over, he was so worked up I hoped thought he would have a heart attack.

Dropped the class the next day, then retook it the next semester with another professor, who was awesome. (In case you're curious, the first professor was Sioux; the second, Naragansett.)

Thankfully, people like that are rare in college, but there were a few others like him. He did teach me one valuable lesson, though: never teach like him.

Ben Da Mad Irishman
"I suppose I should thank the bastard"

[The Fujoshi]

I haven't had bad teachers per say but I had teachers who sat around and did nothing and were general lames.

We used to have this whole honors thing that awarded students down in the hall for being the top. My whole junior class at the time was the top of the class so everyone there won a prize. The teacher refused to let the whole class go down and pick up stuff, so we missed out on PS3s, wiis, Go karts, bikes, etc. They had to give it away to someone else because the teacher wouldn't let us go and we couldn't pick it up without having a teacher go down there.

The only reason why he kept us was because he felt that we didn't deserve it, even though we didn't have any assignments. He started pulling work out of his butt just to keep us there and said we would be suspended if we sunk out and attempted to get anything. Sad to say nobody in our class got nothing but I managed to get Pokemon Red :3

Also when I was bullied in elementary school the teachers refused to help me, even when they did stuff in front of them.

But yeah nothing like you OP; you should of totally got that woman fired. That's inhumane and wrong; if you were allergic to bananas and died and/or went to the hospital then what?

This post has been edited by The Fujoshi: 12 July 2012 - 12:34 PM

[Rori]

Sorry to hear that the OP had such trying experiences. I don't really remember my own teachers in high school being jerks, but there were some I came across who did or said not very nice things.

One was known to suddenly have meltdowns/start yelling for the smallest reason--one time he even threw a stapler at a kid in my friend's class. He always yelled at me and some classmates when we would walk to study hall to finish our homework... he always accused us of having a forged hall pass. We would try walking in the hall as quiet as possible so he didn't hear us pass his room, but he was always there, like he was waiting for us. O.o

Another teacher (male) would just say generally not nice things... when I was walking to the locker room to get ready for practice one day, he told me I probably shouldn't go because I looked really pale and that I was probably sick. For reference, I am probably one of the palest people you will ever meet (yay genetics). I told him, "I just look this way," and he still muttered about how I was probably sick.

[Dark Stranger]

Mean teachers? No haven't had those. Incompetent, lazy teachers that couldn't get fired because of our bogus teachers unions? Hell yes. Had at least 4 of those in one building.

[NinjaJedi007]

I remember seeing this story about how a teacher wouldn't let a kid use the bathroom. Not every situation is that severe but I remember my teachers (elementary, middle school , high school) asking if you could wait until the end of class. Passing periods between classes were the encouraged time to go.

Then everything changed when I got to college. Teachers were asking you to call them by their first names and you could just get up and go to the bathroom without asking for permission. MADNESS!

[YoungBirdcall]

NinjaJedi007, on 13 July 2012 - 05:59 AM, said:

I remember seeing this story about how a teacher wouldn't let a kid use the bathroom. Not every situation is that severe but I remember my teachers (elementary, middle school , high school) asking if you could wait until the end of class. Passing periods between classes were the encouraged time to go.

Then everything changed when I got to college. Teachers were asking you to call them by their first names and you could just get up and go to the bathroom without asking for permission. MADNESS!

Haha right? It was like: "MY WORLD HAS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN!"

[Valkyrie]

I think the worst teachers I had were all gym teachers - three, to be precise.

First one was in middle school. She had tenure, so she believed she'd get away with stealing the moon. She was mainly known for insulting the students. (This more or less stopped when one student told her grandmother, who - as an alumni - went to the school and reamed said teacher out herself. Ever see a teacher have to go to the guidance counselor in tears?)

The second one was in early high school. Now, this teacher used to be a knockout back in the 70's - she even had a penchant for, ah, giving "special treatment" to the football players. She hates one of my friends because her dad was among the few who actually refused her advances. On top of that, this teacher wasn't exactly subtle. When doing swimming, we were tod to go in the deep end. Now, I not only swim as well as a rock, but I have this thing about jumping into water deeper than my knees. I simply can't do it. This teacher came up behind me, and pushed me right in without warning. Now, I was wearing a life vest, but I was utterly humiliated - namely because I was coughing up water for the next couple minutes.

The third teacher was during my junior year in high school. Now, this guy wasn't ALL bad...if anything, I was probably at my most fit during my time in his classes. There were just two problems. First, he had a very bad temper. At one point, when Teacher #2 came into the gym with her class to use the track for their mile run, he literally flipped a table because he'd intended for the girls in our class to walk the track while the boys played. That was the second problem - the guy was sexist. In our case, the school had decided to not only give him a huge class (I think it was upwards of 30), but 10 of those students would be girls. Unfortunately, a friend and colleague of his had been sued into the ground for having a girl play with guys and subsequently get hurt, so he decided to not only keep us separate, but our play time would be minimal. Even the guys had compunctions about this - not only did us girls argue that we wanted equal play time, but the guys felt like they couldn't be trusted, and promised to be careful. That fell on deaf ears. The last straw came when he was out, and his instructions for the sub read, "Have the boys play basketball, and figure out something for the girls to do." That led to a few of us going straight to the Phys. Ed. Dept. Head to complain. Wouldn't you know it, but the next day the teacher grudgingly rearranged the teams so that they were all coed, and we all got equal playing time.

I think I only had one college professor to complain about, but she was more incompetent than anything.

[Noiz]

Valkyrie, on 13 July 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

I think the worst teachers I had were all gym teachers - three, to be precise.

First one was in middle school. She had tenure, so she believed she'd get away with stealing the moon. She was mainly known for insulting the students. (This more or less stopped when one student told her grandmother, who - as an alumni - went to the school and reamed said teacher out herself. Ever see a teacher have to go to the guidance counselor in tears?)

The second one was in early high school. Now, this teacher used to be a knockout back in the 70's - she even had a penchant for, ah, giving "special treatment" to the football players. She hates one of my friends because her dad was among the few who actually refused her advances. On top of that, this teacher wasn't exactly subtle. When doing swimming, we were tod to go in the deep end. Now, I not only swim as well as a rock, but I have this thing about jumping into water deeper than my knees. I simply can't do it. This teacher came up behind me, and pushed me right in without warning. Now, I was wearing a life vest, but I was utterly humiliated - namely because I was coughing up water for the next couple minutes.

The third teacher was during my junior year in high school. Now, this guy wasn't ALL bad...if anything, I was probably at my most fit during my time in his classes. There were just two problems. First, he had a very bad temper. At one point, when Teacher #2 came into the gym with her class to use the track for their mile run, he literally flipped a table because he'd intended for the girls in our class to walk the track while the boys played. That was the second problem - the guy was sexist. In our case, the school had decided to not only give him a huge class (I think it was upwards of 30), but 10 of those students would be girls. Unfortunately, a friend and colleague of his had been sued into the ground for having a girl play with guys and subsequently get hurt, so he decided to not only keep us separate, but our play time would be minimal. Even the guys had compunctions about this - not only did us girls argue that we wanted equal play time, but the guys felt like they couldn't be trusted, and promised to be careful. That fell on deaf ears. The last straw came when he was out, and his instructions for the sub read, "Have the boys play basketball, and figure out something for the girls to do." That led to a few of us going straight to the Phys. Ed. Dept. Head to complain. Wouldn't you know it, but the next day the teacher grudgingly rearranged the teams so that they were all coed, and we all got equal playing time.

I think I only had one college professor to complain about, but she was more incompetent than anything.

I'm so sorry for what happened with you and swimming. D:
My friend had almost the same kind of problem. She's not a strong swimmer and she's afraid of the deep end. The diving coach forced her to jump off the diving board and yelled at her for not doing a perfect dive in front of everyone. Oh man she was happy when we had stress relaxation day in the pool since we were allow to free swim where ever we wanted. Of course we both swam at the shallow end.

[proxy]

I have a learning disability and sometimes it takes me awhile to understand certain things. In the 8th grade my teacher lost patience with me not being able to grasp things quickly. So in front of the whole class she said, "Mel, you're an embarrasment to your family and women everywhere because you're so f*cking dumb!"

After that I stopped talking in school for 4 or more years until I felt confident with who I am. I honestly don't know what I'd do or say if I ever met her again. I kinda think I would tear from the memory. Though, I also think I would tell her what a nasty person she was. I don't hate her but I pity her because anyone that would put a child down seriously have their own demons they need to get under control.

[Agatha]

I had a lot of difficulty in elementary/middle school. It was a tiny parochial school with no budget, so they couldn't afford good teachers. For several years the principal was this mean old nun who never, and I mean NEVER, should have been allowed around children.

I had a friend whose family had very little money at home, so the school lunch was sometimes the only proper meal she'd get during the day. One day, she didn't do her homework, so as punishment, the principal came over, yelled at her in front of everyone, and threw her lunch in the trash. When I stood up to her, she gave me detention, and then called me into her office where she told me that I was never going to accomplish anything with my life anyway, and I should just stop trying now. I was 11.

Fortunately, the nun who ran the library was a truly wonderful person, and after that I ran, crying my eyes out, to her, and she went and chewed out the principal - the only time I ever saw her get angry. And of course she let me stay in the library 'til I felt better and let me check out 10 books, even though the limit was supposed to be three.

These days, I work in a library. Thank you, sister. XD

[Santa Finland]

I recently recalled an incident with my 5th grade PE teacher. He was supervising recess and I fell off the playground equipment and landed right on my butt. I was in so much pain I started crying. He went up to me and called me a "weak little crybaby." Considering the size of the bruise I got from that fall, I had good reason to be crying. Granted I didn't see it until I took a shower that night.

My senior English teacher was so fake. She would pretend to be all nice and understanding to my face but then talk crap about me behind my back. She actually called my mom saying she thought I was going to shoot up the school because I wore black eyeshadow. She just didn't want me in her class and eventually made me spend the entire period in the resource room for the rest of the year. Apparently, I was a "distraction" to the other kids because they just couldn't decide to not throw paper at me. She didn't teach at all either, she would just give assignments. She would never do a lecture or anything. She was fired at the end of the year but why must I been in the unlucky class stuck with her?

[Hantsuki]

I had one teacher who would record her voice and put up a powerpoint that would look exactly like the worksheet she handed out except ours had some blanks. She would play her tape with her recorded voice which featured her reading the whole worksheet to us, so we had to quickly fill in the blanks as she read it. It wouldn't have been so bad if she had spoken clearly and she wasn't sitting at her desk staring at us waiting to see if we would so something stupid.

That and teachers who do really detailed powerpoints and just read right off of them really bother me especially if they don't even give you a copy of the powerpoint. But seriously, do they think we can't read the powerpoint ourselves?

As far as having those cruel teachers that are mentioned above, naw, I'm lucky to say I didn't have any of those.

This post has been edited by Hantsuki: 09 August 2012 - 11:16 AM

[RiddlerFotografia]

I have had a few terrible teachers.

I signed up for an elementary shop class with my brother in high school. The first day, the teacher asked us all ridiculous questions, but focused on me and my brother alone. He got mad at us for "not knowing the material" and I was like "Dude, we didn't even get a book yet!" "Oh well, duuuuude, maybe you should've read something then before coming into a shop class!" He continued to yell for another 2 minutes about how unprepared we all are for the world, and blah blah blah. Me and my bro gathered our things, walked out of class, and signed up for an advanced computers course (We're really awesome with computers). I liked it, and the teacher wasn't as moody as she usually is during class time that year.


One teacher had argued with me during our second program class, about our first program class, in college. I had missed the last week of the first class. I see him the first day, and he asks me to step outside with class, and he argued with me for like 10 minutes about which I should choose: school or vacations. (I was with family visiting other family, mind you, and I let both him and the dean know way before hand as the vacation was planned for months) I said whatever and went back to class eventually, because I didn't want to deal with him. The next week I did most of the homework during his presentation. I finished up a little bit after he was done, and he was outside of the room by that time. I packed up and started walking out of class. He came back in asking where I was going. "Home. " "I'm not done yet." "Uh... what? You've been done for a while. You haven't said a word." "Nope. There's still more to it." "Sorry, my ride's here, I'm leaving. (My mom was texting me outside in her car for the past 20 minutes asking where I was)" I walked out of class with him looking frustrated. Next day I called my dean and switched to online. I even asked my dean, "My mom was waiting for me outside for like 20 minutes. I could've just left right?" "Yeah, this isn't high school. You waited for the presentation to be done. I'll have a talk with the professor later and find out what's going on. Thank you for letting me know what happened."

[IshokuOsero]

I've had my share of bad teachers, and I can certainly include one specific substitute into that also.

There was this set of three female teachers for gym in middle school, and they were all awful. But I had the worst of the three, unfortunately enough. I couldn't swim when I was younger due to a time when I came close to drowning, it scared me from being in the water anymore. There were a couple others that couldn't swim either. She forced us to get on the diving board of the deep pool, and when we downright refused and turned and got back off, she pushed all of us into the water. We had to be saved by our fellow students. Then she gave all of us a write-up for 'not following instructions', and the rest of the year was hell for all of us because she'd constantly fail us out of other parts of gym (like tennis, for example), and turn around and mention if we would've actually followed instruction she wouldn't have the need to fail us. She was the same teacher that forced another class to do a rollerblading session in one of the bigger gyms in the school, and said whoever came last fails. My best friend at the time broke her tailbone during that. I think she's been fired since that, but I know she was still teaching while I was in high school.


As far as substitutes go, there was one everyone ended up having at some point or another in high school. But my English teacher my sophomore year went on a pregnancy leave, and all her classes ended up with this idiot. She'd yell at us at the beginning of class that if there was any 'funny business', she'd send us down to the office, and then proceed to send just about anyone down to the office for whatever she could come up with. I copied down notes after a sick day, was sent down to the office. Someone else got up to sharpen a pencil, got sent to the office. Etc. Everyone complained to the principal about her, but she was never canned. Unfortunately.

[Dark Stranger]

You know who else is terriable at teaching? Teachers who walk out of thier job the DAY OF school started. Yeah, you're totally "all about the kids" arn't ya? ugh.

[rondo]

Dark Stranger, on 10 September 2012 - 11:35 PM, said:

You know who else is terriable at teaching? Teachers who walk out of thier job the DAY OF school started. Yeah, you're totally "all about the kids" arn't ya? ugh.

Ironic they would do that now...instead of, you know, before school started?

[Dark Stranger]

Why not? At least that why they could set up at least some sort of temp teaching staff. It wouldn't be great, but it would be better then thousands of kids just sitting around now because some teacher wants even more money or a bigger pension.

[YoungBirdcall]

For the record, the teachers union was at the bargaining table, trying to avoid a strike, until the last minute. Making the "Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!" argument is disingenuous. Teachers (and other laborers) deserve the right to strike so that they can fight for their collective well-being.

[rondo]

YoungBirdcall, on 11 September 2012 - 10:50 AM, said:

For the record, the teachers union was at the bargaining table, trying to avoid a strike, until the last minute. Making the "Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!" argument is disingenuous. Teachers (and other laborers) deserve the right to strike so that they can fight for their collective well-being.

Reading the information regarding this whole debacle, there seems to be issues on both sides of the table especially when it came down to that last minute. Regardless, the primary sticking issue here is because of employee evaluations, benefits, and apparently job security.

Once person brought up that teachers should be considered an essential service, which I can understand..but then again, there are other options...though limited to those who can afford them.

Sure, union laborers have a contractual right to strike..but what are you striving to get when your own city has trouble already paying the bills it already has and I'm not terribly fond of those using children as a means of leverage. Locally, it happens all the time.

This post has been edited by rondo: 11 September 2012 - 11:26 AM

[Dark Stranger]

YoungBirdcall, on 11 September 2012 - 10:50 AM, said:

For the record, the teachers union was at the bargaining table, trying to avoid a strike, until the last minute. Making the "Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!" argument is disingenuous. Teachers (and other laborers) deserve the right to strike so that they can fight for their collective well-being.

As someone who works in a union I've noticed it's less about legitamate well-being concerns and more about getting more and more from the busnisess (bigger pay rates, more paid vacations, tenure, etc etc) instead of working hard for those things they just "strike" for it. Once this contract is up in '14 I'm getting out of the union for many other reasons thanks to right to work. Whenever I see people striking i've noticed it's less about fairness and more about whining for money. When teachers do it it's even more annoying because these people always talk about how they love the kids and do everything for them yet who's taking care of them now. There should have been a plan in case this happend but nope now they just sit around.