Being an educator is one of the noblest professions you could pursue. You're willing to sacrifice free time, as well as bits of your sanity, to help the youth of our nation become a little bit better today than they were the day before.
However, ask anyone who's been through school and more than likely they'll have a horror story about more than one teacher who made their lives miserable, a wretched existence to live through for someone who you're forced to spend hours of your day with.
Reddit user, u/ghostRyku, wanted to hear about who made your life miserable in school when they asked:
What was your worst teacher like?
Overreacting To The Smallest Thing
Being a teacher means you need to adapt, adjust, monitoring behavior as the day goes on. However, some teachers' coping mechanisms aren't up to snuff and the smallest diversion from their plan can leave them in a bad mood, and the children are the one to suffer.
We Use Pens In This Class!
Got me kicked out of Honors classes, gave me an F on a test because I used a pen instead of a pencil, and wrote me up for doodling in class even though I was done with all my work, gave extra homework if we finished the first assignment early.
Never Able To Succeed
This was in the 70s (yes, I'm *that* old) and my 5th grade teacher hated me. And it wasn't a subtle hate but pretty much everyone saw it, including the staff. In the two months I was in her class she sent me to detention three times for things I didn't do, graded each of my tests with an F, claimed I never turned homework in when I did, etc.
She went that one step too far when someone wrote something nasty about me in the school cafeteria, and she called me up in front of the class and berated me for writing it (!) until I broke down in tears and she sent me to the Principal's office for causing a scene. Net result, I was transferred to another teacher's class and...I found this out much later...she was given a warning and told if she did anything like it again they'd fire her...I apparently wasn't the only student she'd done this to.
No idea of what happened to her, but I hope she lived a long miserable life where she didn't have kids to torment.
Not Believing In Your Students
My worst teacher was my freshman English teacher in high school. I had to write a report about James Thurber and the woman had the nerve to tell me I "not smart enough to write a paper this well done". She called my parents in for a conference. My mom argued that she saw me write the paper but I failed anyway.
Twenty-four years later I still hold a grudge about it. I wrote the paper...
Not Being On Top Of Things
A sign of having good classroom management is being able to catch students in the act, or being aware of what's happening at all points in your class so you're able to fairly and justly handle it. However, sometimes teachers care less about that and more about what's going on on their phones or in their inboxes.
What They Don't Know Might Come Back To Bite Them
At my first ever parent-teacher conference, she told my parents that 'children like your daughter [read: children on the autistic spectrum] don't tend to make many friends'. I was four years old at the time.
She didn't realise I could already read until three quarters of the way through the year, despite the fact that I would routinely go over to the bookshelf to read.
She was also a heavy smoker and would go out to her car every break time to smoke there. Because I was one of the youngest in my year, I had half-days until the term I turned five, so I'd be heading into the car park with my mum and I would pass by a car completely filled with smoke.
She retired a couple of years later, and the older children had to sing a song in assembly about what a great teacher she was. I remember sitting through that assembly thinking 'Are we thinking about the same person here?'.
Letting Her Favorites Get Away With Anything
My 6th grade teacher. Was a passive-aggressive woman, loved to gossip, was always on some sort of a power trip. She also played favorites a lot and would let her favorite students get away with saying things that are racist or wrong, but would punish kids who were victims of bullying (one of my classmates was picked up and had his head bumped against a wall. She called his parents just because he screamed, yet the kid who did it faced zero consequences)
When You Can't Pick One
I have a tie.
High school teacher who played blatant favorites and refused to sign me out of their class to take a different class on material I planned to study in college. When asked why I wanted to do that I said it would be a better use of my time. They disagreed. They were also unceremoniously dismissed a few years later.
Second one was calculus prof in uni who told us day 1 to break up with our significant others because the class was hard. Also took test questions direct from homework, no changes to them, tests were like 4 questions with weights so skewed if you got one wrong you failed the test. Would berate us for making simple mistakes that they would proceed to make on the whiteboard in front of class. Argued that their method of teaching didn't suck and wasn't rewarding memorization more than actual learning. Like for crying out loud the guy's class had a massive failure rate. I retook with a different instructor and got a B. If that doesnt tell you how bad they were I don't know what else would.
It Starts At The Top
It was my 5th-7th grade teacher, actauly she was the principle of the school too and taught math. She liked to scream at students for not getting the answer right if they asked for help so she got frustrated when students stopped asking for help because everyone was scared. She let bullying go on and it resulted in a lot of new kids leaving school because of a gang of bullies. She was a backstabber and tried to sue my mother for money.
You Just Shouldn't Be Around Children
Then there are those teachers who, when you really look at their track record, shouldn't have been around children from the start.
Tears Of Sadness
My 5th grade teacher. She was a truly miserable person and I have no idea why she was teaching. She singled out a couple of us for particularly nasty hatred, tried to embarrass us and shame us, and allegedly sent every kid in the class, male and female alike, except me, home crying at one point. I had utterly NO respect for her so nothing she said to me mattered. She was fired after that year.
Hands Off
Ex-Military with an anger issue. He got in trouble years ago for handing out recruitment papers in class. Very not legal where I'm from.
Couple years ago he got into an altercation with a student, grabbed him by the coat and threw him against a wall.
Not sure how but the prick is still teaching. I couldn't go a week without getting kicked out of his class because we butted heads so bad.
"It's Your Job. Not Mine."
My economics teacher was a complete ahole. No one really liked him but we all just kept our heads down and got through the year. One day, I fell very sick and had to miss school. Turns out we had a class test on the same day. I promptly emailed him explaining the situation and asked him when I could do the test. Waited a week for the reply and eventually ended up asking him in class.
He basically responded with "I don't have to reply to your emails. As a student, it's your responsibility to make sure you take the test." Then he continued to berate me for being irresponsible and how students like me make his life unbearably stressful. I just nodded and walked out- it's the closest I've ever come to losing it in class. Mr Bushong I hope you have a miserable life.
Changing Demeanor When The Parents Leave
I was in primary school and was struggling with my times tables. The teacher would frequently yell at me for struggling. So I told my mum and she came to nicely talk to the teacher about maybe going slower with me as I was struggling. Teacher took it very well and reassured my mum that she would take some extra time with me and help me catch up. Then my mum left the room and she completely changed. Honed in on me like a heat seeking [missile].
Proceded to...scream at me for a solid 20 minuets about how I was stupid. Then she tells me how horrible I am for questioning her teaching methods to my mum and making her look bad. She pulled me to the front of the class and made them all point and laugh at me. She told me not to dare bring my mum in again. I was to afraid to tell my mum so that never happened. I was so afraid of her I would get physically sick in the mornings and my mum had to keep me home. Ended up missing most of a year of school until we changed teachers. Found out a few years later she got fired for throwing a book at a little girl.
Holding On To The Smallest Shred Of Power
Made a kid pee his pants when she wouldn't let him go to the bathroom. Duct taped my mouth shut for talking too much and sent me in the hall, which of course got her caught. Constantly yelling at kids.
She wasn't allowed to teach without an aid after this. Grade 3.
Because They're Historical Artifacts?
All we did was watch movies. We saw Billy Madison, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and this was a high school history class.
Being an educator requires dedication, a passion for the job, and a willingness to let go of the little things. You're working with children, people who need help learning the most. Sometimes it's not always going to go your way and that's okay. What should never be okay is the behavior exhibited by some of these teachers.
Harris For President
@Indian_Bronson/X