Adults: back at school did you have a teacher who was so mean to you that you still have not gotten over it now that you are an adult?

Yes. The principal at my middle school was a complete ass. He was the kind of guy who strutted around and thought he could never be wrong. I was a very good kid in school, had excellent grades, and didn’t act up. One time, a teacher wrote a pass for me and a friend to finish a paper in the computer lab during study hall. After using the computers, we went back to study hall (monitored by a different teacher) who asked where we’d been. We gave her the pass from the other teacher and explained what we’d done.

Well, apparently is was a big no-no for students to be in the computer lab without a teacher. She gave us detention because the other teacher denied giving us permission to go to the computer lab. Since it wasn’t actually written on the pass, no one believed us. Even at the time I could see that the other teacher hadn’t known about the computer lab restrictions and was trying to cover her own ass. My parents were the kind of parents put up a huge fit and insisted the principal believe our side of the story since we were known to be good students and always followed the rules. He flat-out said that he would never believe a student over a teacher and refused to take away the detentions.

It wasn’t a big deal, but I lost all respect for both him and the teacher who said we’d lied about having her permission to go to the computer room. The injustice of not being listened to or believed just because we were kids was something I will never forget.

At the same school, I also had a gym teacher that I hated. He was particularly hard on the girls, but most of the time everyone could tolerate him. One day I came back to school after being out because of strep throat. In gym class that day, he made us do this running exercise that I think we called gut busters. I tried to do the running, but started to feel sick and lightheaded. I asked him if I could sit out (something I’d never done before) because I’d been sick for a couple of days and didn’t feel 100%. He yelled at me and made me keep running. After a while I got so dizzy and weak I fell down and had to be carried to the nurse’s office, where I puked my guts out. My mom had to pick me up from school. The whole thing was brushed aside as a misunderstanding on the gym teacher’s part, and the bastard never even apologized for accusing me of pretending to be sick.

The only teacher who gave me the creeps was my eighth grade science teacher. He wasn’t mean – he was all hands. One of these types that thinks it’s okay to touch female students in a way that isn’t quite suggestive but because of his tone of voice you knew he was creepy. He tried putting his arm around me one day while I was seated at my table (we had tables instead of desks in science) and I slid myself out from his arm, off my chair and under the table. He didn’t know what to do with that, but he left me alone the rest of the year. Only one girl really stood up to him by saying, “Get your hands off me.” I don’t know if anyone ever reported him, but to this day I regret not saying something.

Interesting… I just realized that he never did that with the pretty and/or more popular girls. Only with those of us who he thought would be more vulnerable because of looks, weight or status.

I once had an alcoholic gym class teacher who used to tell us to run round the track or he would poke us with a needle that he claimed was infected with aids, but nothing really traumatic, I tended to have my revenge withing a week or two.

I still remember most of them, I only really ever had one teacher who was any good, the rest where only interested in obedience. education in general on this island is terrible, if it where not for the internet i would be real stupid.

I do think education is important and does work, but after the education I had, I have come up with a little saying. “study hard and do your homework, otherwise you may end up with a bad job, such as a teacher or something”

A list of a few incidents:

- a teacher called my parents and told them she suspected I was going to kill my self because I had metallica, iron maident, ac/dc and suicidal tendencies written on my backpack.

- a teacher called my parents and told them I was suspended for throwing a kids backpack out of the window then running off, followed by my parents asking the teacher how I had done that when I was at home sick.

- a teacher used to constantly give me 5 out of 10 for answering all questions correctly on my english exams, on the basis that I had an advantage seeing as I was english to start with (i went to school in spain)

EDIT: oh yes… a teacher once banned me from her classes for a full year on the basis that I was too tall and that I scared her, she claimed that the only way I could be this tall was if I had been possesesd by satan. (no i am not shitting you)… she argued her case to the head master by producing a bunch of old articles relating being very tall to demon possession. im 6ft 6in, she was about 4ft 6in.

@tedibear I wonder if he ever went on to do more than “compassionate” touching later on in his career?

@ZEPHYRA – I never heard, but that’s exactly why I hate that I never said anything. Who knows what damage I might have stopped. I hope nothing ever happened to any of his students.

The other thing that makes me mad: eighth grade science was basic chemistry and physics. I wonder what I could have learned if I hadn’t been worried about this ass.

@poisonedantidote SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPORTED TO THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AND EXILED!!!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!!!!!!

Mrs. Facemyer, first grade. I fell asleep at my desk and she smacked my hand with a ruler. Very hard. I started crying and she put me in the coat room until I shut up my crying. If I saw her in the street, on fire, I would not spit on her to put it out.

@ZEPHYRA actually, the head master agreed and i sat in the hallway for a full year during that hour. my younger brother who also is 6ft+ had her 3 years later, and she tried the same thing with him, except in this case he was moved to a seperate class. Eva was her name, of I.E.S Son Servera.

Let me preface my post by saying I have no true horror stories. While I have more than my fair share of complaints about the school district I attended growing up, I believe it is safe to say that I turned out to be a relatively intelligent and respectable human being (though it is debatable how much of that can be attributed to the instructors and administrators.) I have heard true nightmarish stories. A teacher from my high school was arrested for possessing an unloaded gun in his classroom (we rejoiced because he hit on his female students for years.) I’ve had friends who attended schools with coaches who were arrested for alleged rape (the matter was settled in court and, yes, he was convicted of not only raping one girl, but molesting several others.) When I put my experience into this context, I feel as though I have little right to complain.

I’m still going to complain.

In seventh grade, my English teacher hated me. I’m not exaggerating nor do I know what caused her to develop these sentiments. Perhaps she caught on that I clearly disliked how she taught the course. It was terrible. I was, according to my other teachers, a model student. Good grades, well-behaved, a bit too reserved but always on top of my work. I never got in trouble. One day, I was talking with the people on my table (the one time I do this, mind you) and she told me to stay after class.

She took her glasses off, blinked slowly, and said, “Are you giving me an attitude?” WTF? “No, ma’am.” She puts her glasses back on, excruciatingly slowly. “You may leave.”

My eighth grade English teacher, who was genuinely kind, told me that becoming a novelist would be a waste of time and I should look into doing something else because “you’re just so intelligent.” Thanks for fostering my dreams.

I wrote about this elsewhere recently: my vile U.S. History teacher had us watch the documentary 9/11 and when it reached the scene where they mention the jumpers, he kept replaying the scene. Over and over and over and over again. It made me sick. I was beyond ecstatic when he transferred out of the school (for unrelated reasons.) He is, quite possibly, the worst teacher I ever had. He was also incredibly prejudiced against gays and lesbians. My friends assure me this wasn’t the case, but I disagree

During the same year, my chemistry teacher implied that I was a less intelligent individual because I wrote on my arm. I had written a memorial line for a friend who had passed away. I mentally checked out of his class for the remainder of the semester and nearly failed as a result.

The sheer number of teachers who watched me crying my eyes out without so much as quietly asking me what was on my mind disturbs me. And more than one told me that I needed to stop.

The majority of my primary school teachers did not understand what type of learner I was and, unknowingly, scarred me in a variety of ways. I do not think they were poor teachers because of this, but I wish they had been more sympathetic to who l was instead of trying to change me.

@chyna – That sounds like what my mom went through. She was in first grade in a Catholic school in 1924. They were doing handwriting practice and she got a nosebleed. Some of the blood splattered onto her paper. The nun came over and sarcastically said, “Oh, look at the pretty flowers Martha made,” and proceeded to hit her hand with a ruler until that almost bled to. My grandpa pulled all 4 of them out of that school and wouldn’t let any of the eventual 10 of them go back until they got to eighth grade. At that point they were expected to get a job and pay for their own tuition.

So basically what it all boils down to is that a huge percentage of these “educators” are sick, complex-ridden individuals who take out all their mental illness on unsuspecting children!????

Two teachers: Ms. M, my 1st grade teacher. A good teacher would wonder that if I was done with the 15-minute assignment in 3 minutes and therefore had gotten out of my seat and wandered over to the window or start talking to someone, then maybe it meant I needed advanced work. No, not Ms. M. She’d summon me to the middle of the room (the desks in the class were in a U-shape), take her taped-together yardsticks (there were 5), make me touch my toes, then whacked my bottom with the damn thing in front of my classmates. Sometimes, she’d send me to the principal’s office after she’d hit me.Then she’d call my guardian during lunch or some crap, and I’d get it again when I got home for “misbehaving”. Only by the end of the year after testing (!!!!) did the teacher and the principal get what the deal was. Idiots.

Ms. A, my 11th grade English teacher, who would ignore me and never call on me in class. When she saw me, she sneered. The class wasn’t called advanced, but it was, and I was the only person of colour in it. God forbid I come in with my hair blown out and long, she acted repulsed. She asked me one day what on earth did I think I was, and I told her I was mixed, and she flinched. I have no idea what brought on this anima from her. Must’ve gotten her no-chin-having ass dumped by some hot black dude in her youth. I mean, hell, she must have been at least 50 at the time – she’d never seen mixed people before? There were quite a few in Milwaukee then. I aced her exams and turned in projects on time and behaved in her class. She had to give me an A at the end of the term, especially after I had a talk with my TV production teacher, Mrs. C who adored me (and was her friend) about it. Hahahaha! Slag.

@ZEPHYRA The individuals discussed here, perhaps. But if you created a post about instructors who were inspirational, compassionate, and wise my post would be twice and long :) I have nothing but respect and love for some of the teachers I had.

My 10 grade Ap English teacher made me miserable. She got mad at me because many of the novels she assigned, I had already read. So she started failing me. Well it got to the point that my best friend and I took an assignment to the dean, who had looked over it and decided to move me to another class. The next semester, the teacher was fired.

@ZEPHYRA Most of the teachers I had were either unremarkable or very good.

@aprilsimnel My daughter had the same problem in early grade school, finishing her work very quickly and then getting into trouble for talking, wandering around, or trying to correct other students’ work. Some teachers handled it better than others, but it was always a fight to get them to offer her more challenging work. She didn’t have a teacher she really liked until last year when she started middle school. She’s much happier now.

i went to private school for 5th, 7th and 8th (i was doing so well that i skipped 6th grade). so on the first day of 7th grade, the teacher was teaching Pythagoras’ Theorem, and i held up my hand and said “I don’t understand.” the teacher, Miss Lull, who was about 60 at the time (and then, in the mid-70’s, some 60 year old women looked like 80 year olds today, ugly shoes, short gray curly hair), asked me “What part don’t you understand?” i said “I just don’t understand.” She then replied “If you can’t tell me what part you don’t understand, then that puts you on a first grade level.” the other kids in the class started laughing, i was humiliated, never asked another question in class again. the same teacher taught math in 8th grade, too, so i had the same not asking questions in 8th grade, as well. i never forgot that, and after that i did very poorly in math. i also hated her after that.